STATEMENT OF WORK

My experience of speaking English as a second language has shaped my artistic work. In my work I often translate spoken text into written text and vice versa, and explore the resulting disjunctures that uncover basic imperfections of language. I consider the place where I belong is the two languages that I speak—Korean and English. I am also part of the in-between space of the two. In my work, I navigate the “language space,” which is elusive, complex, limited, expansive, and sometimes contradictory. I am drawn to the physical act of speaking. The elements that spoken words hold—accents, durations, emotions, hesitations, and mistakes interest me—as well as how those elements are presented and negotiated in different written forms. I often use dubbing and subtitles and juxtapose spoken and written texts to explore the relationship between sound and image, the ownership of language, and how language beautifully shapes and also continuously challenges who we are.