Art & Seoul
An International Art Exhibition on Korean Adoption
Our Goals:
Acknowledgement
Acknowledge the Past of the Korean Adoption Industry and those it affects.
Awareness
Bring Awareness to the lived experiences and feelings of the International Korean Adoptee Community
Action
Inspire empathy, action, and mindset changes in target demographics.
Why a Tablescape?
Doljabi is a traditional Korean ceremony performed at a baby’s Doljanchi (first 100 day celebration). During the ceremony the child is allowed to choose from a table of prophetic items such as rope, coins, stethoscopes, gavels, pencils, or fortune pouches. It is believed that the objects chosen during a baby’s Doljabi predict the child’s future path or destiny.
Art & Seoul represents a return to this traditional ritual, but unlike the ceremony held during infancy, this choice is conscious, deliberate, and carefully contemplated.
The format is meant to give voice to a historically silenced and exploited. Art & Seoul gives space for Korean adoptees to express their emotions freely using one question:
"If one object could represent your relationship with South Korea, what would it be?"
A Deep Dive Into The Exhibition
In order to reach a wide spectrum of viewers, Art and Seoul is designed in a way that is engaging and easy to digest. While Art and Seoul covers the stories of international adoptees, it is my hope that the interactivity and physicality of the exhibition will communicate the emotions and ideas of Art and Seoul to everyone who encounters it, regardless of their background. That is to say, I hope to challenge all viewers to reconsider their sense of identity and belonging, those two most human of needs. Installation art emerged from the desire to involve the viewer directly, allowing them to interpret pieces through unfettered interaction. The goal of installation art, and by extension, Art and Seoul, is not to present the viewer with a neatly wrapped message, but rather to challenge them to bring all of their preconceptions, values, and ideas about the work to confront them in a chosen setting. During the exhibition, viewers are invited to take in the collection of lives, stories, and art pieces to better formulate their ideas on international adoption and those it affects.
Adoptees from all walks of life have been invited to answer the central question of this exhibition. It is their unique answers that become the body of this exhibition. Their emotions, experiences, and ideas are translated into art pieces, sculpted from their adoption records and files. In the end, over twenty five objects will adorn a table, creating a beautiful, cohesive expression of emotion and human connection to the country of South Korea through the imagery of the Doljabi ceremony.
Although art is my primary academic discipline, Art and Seoul approaches the topics of international adoption, out of wedlock births, and the single parenthood in South Korea by utilizing the disciplines of sociology, history, law, anthropology, and economics in addition to art to provide a multifaceted and interdisciplinary experience for participants. This comes after recent investigations into the corruption of the South Korean Adoption industry. .
