Where are you from?, 2024

(Wearable sculpture) Recycled fabrics, metal, and yarns, 64”h x 20”w x 8”d

Reflecting on the Park’s personal experience, Where Are You From? portrays her cultural assimilation process as she adjusts and adapts to American culture through symbolic gestures and performance. The main garment consists of two parts, a top piece, and a bottom skirt, both inspired by Korean traditional clothing, Hanbok. The top piece attachments are a bundle of colorful ‘Jegi,’ a Korean traditional toy chosen by the artist as an autobiographical reference to her heritage. ‘Jegi’ is a contextually significant object that connects the artist to her origins while interacting with her current surroundings as a means of expressing her identity as Korean.

Reflecting on own Korean heritage, personal history, and origin, a variety of ‘Jegi’ fringes form flower-like shapes, paired with the bottom skirt in which painted roots branch out downward. In the performance, jingle bells attached to each handpiece create a serene or ritual-evoking sound to symbolize existence or life as a being. An upgraded version of Where Are You From? will be pushed further to be reconfigured with more sophistication in terms of camouflage by incorporating a headpiece that will serve as a stable figurative element.