Do Not Draw a Red Star (2022) is painted paper cutouts that reflect a formative memory from my childhood in South Korea and adulthood of being an immigrant in the US. My childhood in the ’80s was under a military dictatorship in which a lethal spy war with North Korea had actively engaged. Looking back, I remembered that drawing a red star was implicitly prohibited in art class due to anti-communist education. A few chances I could draw intense red stars was in the propaganda poster contest: I was good at it and made me dream of becoming an artist, which was the wrong idea of what an artist does. For the series, I integrated various shapes and texts from the two cultures to map traversing times and places that are not neighbors. The cutouts include folklore imagery from Korean ancestry, family stories tied to the division of the homeland, and protests denouncing racism in the migrated land.
You are our neighbor v2, painted paper cutouts, 40”x40″, 2023Welcome home, painted paper cutouts, 40”x40″, 2023Hate free zone, painted paper cutouts, 40”x40″, 2023You are our neighbor v1, painted paper cutouts, 30”x30″, 2023
Taekwon V, painted paper cutouts, 30”x30″, 2023
More love less hate v2, painted paper cutouts, 40”x40″, 2023More love less hate v1, painted paper cutouts, 40”x40″, 2023
Our neighbor, painted paper cutouts, 40”x40″, 2022Happy new year, painted paper cutouts, 40”x40″, 2022
Rain, painted paper cutouts, 25”x25″, 2023Boom, painted paper cutouts, 25”x25″, 2023
