American Dream, 2021, ink on US currency

How I Memorized My Grandmother's Name, 2019, ink on paper

“How I Memorized My Grandmother’s Name” is a performative drawing in which I repeatedly wrote her name, Shin Tong Sup, in Korean in order to memorize it. In Korean culture, first names are seldom used. Instead, relatives and friends are referred to by titles – grandmother, little sister, big sister, etc. Because I do not speak, read, or write Korean, each written word became a meditation reflecting on my grandmother’s migrant global identity, as well as inherited generational trauma.

 "An Offering of Contemplation", 2021

Handmade ceramic bowls by my mother hold my laboriously hand-picked pine needles, which oddly resemble rice. This work in progress is a reflection of my mother fleeing North Korea, often having only tree bark to eat during the three month wilderness journey south.