Fall Piece

2024

Projector, hair, performance, acrylic, acrylic sheet, paper

54 x 54 x 90 in, 00:48:56

Fall Piece is inspired by the class debate I had in American high school on the Bombing of Hiroshima. Each component is a reenactment of two events that frames the beginning and the ending of Japanese Colonial Period in Korea (1910-1945). The hair-cutting performance represents the Haircut Decree in 1895, carried by pro-Japanese Korean government that forced Koreans to cut their hair. The hair laid on paper represents the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 which brought Korea the independence. With the clump of my own hair, I pay tribute to the Korean and Japanese victims from the time. As Korean-American immigrant, I layer these historical events out of need to understand the intricacy of human violence.

Videographer: Caitlyn Stamey

This piece was re-performed live at 9th Ave Gallery (Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle University) during the opening of Throughline: The Thread that Binds Us