My art has always focused on the duality fundamental to human existence: of different realities or worlds both in space and time and the tension between them; and of the co-existence of antithetical ideas, how death implies life, how the material realm implies the unsubstantial or nonphysical, and how absence implies presence. To explore this, I create both physical and metaphorical spaces ranging from large installations to small intimate books. I see the audience as key to my work, as completing it. When the work is an installation, not only can an audience immerse itself in the experience of the space, but also can become a part of what others experience, thus contributing to the work’s interactive aspect.
I was born and raised in Korea, but my career as an artist has been established in the USA. As an immigrant artist, who bridges two cultures, I have felt I belonged to neither, but, rather, am marginal, residing on the edge of each. My art visualizes the space in between, the boundary that, while separating the two, connects them in that one implies the other. For me, trying to bridge two identities, that boundary has a personal, emotional resonance.
