Artist Statement
My paintings address both individual and collective forms of memorialization and how the act of representation (painting) is intricately tied to memory making. How does one navigate non-visual memories? How do we know the difference between our memories and fantasies? How do we come to learn about ourselves through the stories of others? When something goes missing, what takes its place? My work is influenced by the confusion between memory and imagination, as it pertains to issues of loss, displacement, and ancestry.
I typically begin by pulling information from the objects that populate my life; from the places I visit daily and those I encounter while traveling. Through instinctual decision-making, the work develops as I look to various external sources such as memorial artifacts and structures, traditional Korean adornment, dollhouses, and museum displays to name a few. Pictorially, the paintings appear flattened yet physically retain a tactile and layered surface. This interaction between image and object reflects a kind of transference between concrete and ethereal worlds, functioning as a metaphor for the porous boundary between memory, imagination, and lived experience. My paintings address memory as a kind of surrogacy where ideology, personal mythology, and collectively built archetypes are folded together to stand in for various absences.
