Paris+English=Parish

Video
6min
2005

This is a monochrome video with no images. The central narrative is a letter written by a woman with found images and observations while wandering around a city. The letter is read by three male voices that overlap, interweave and disrupt each other so the text becomes incomprehensible, until the end when the “readings” become synchronized again.


Dear Friend,
Every boat returns.
I too have returned to the original peninsula where the
everyday is loaded with too much reality. What one has
left once is forever beyond grasp, but I am nervous and
hover between returning to ancestral landscapes and
knowing that such a return, unromanticized is impossible.
Although I’m here now, I’m everywhere all the time.
Just like you.

So I have yet to find a face. A face that’s not dead. It is
Now up to Mr. Painter of human faces to give me a face.
With that goal in mind, I guess it’s not necessary to rebuke
The painters in the academy for painting faces.
I shall speak to the painter about my search for a nationality,
Blood relation, race generation, house clan tribe and tribe
Stock. I shall speak about how I was taught by nuns to
Communicate in blues and blacks.
Perhaps this information can prevent a painting of another
Death mask like other painters have done so before.
I shall tell my painter that I wanted to be fluent in a language
Of friendship because I’m not a stranger to myself.
I mean, I am not a man.
With this information, maybe my eyes, nose and mouth can
Escape from looking like pits of death.
Sometimes they captured the upturned nostrils, containing
Empty screams and silent pits of immobility. And maybe
That was the problem.
There is a painter still, who can resist the death record of
Human faces and empty wastelands of the mind.
Insane enough to embark upon the mad and foolish journey –
Called painting a confession of the human face.

With much love,
I write to you from Parish


(excerpt from video Paris+English=Parish)

Weeast Aswest Sonorth Nosouth

Three-channel video installation
Duration variable
2004

The sculptural component consists of 12 MDA wood panels. Each panel measures 1.22m width x 2.44m length and are connected to each other to form a screen that bisects the gallery space. The panels have been painted and then carved with texts and scratchings. In the room are three monitors that show video documentation of performances that took place during the making of the screen.

Made in Koryo

Video
4min
2004

This is a video performance that was shot with a camera placed on a rotating stand that pans the room. Object associated with products made in cheap labour countries fill the space. The slick camera movement is interrupted by a person’s clumsy fall. The video contains no sound and is shown as a loop. Koryo is one of the three ancient kingdoms that ruled the Korean peninsula. The modern Anglicized name “Korea” comes from a mispronunciation and misunderstanding by the first European travelers, who came to the region and designated the area as “Korea” on their maps.

Know-it-on-Anon

Duration variable
2003

This is a performative installation. Each session lasts approximately 3 hours, miming a conventional concert duration. The two Wurlitzer organs are installed in the center of a room with dirt floor. The keys are held down by carved wooden beams that are wedged between the ceiling and the organs. The constant cord in the room is a Bb minor. The sound of the base from the organ combined with the sound of the film projector creates a rhythm that is loud and fast. The film is a three hour static image, projecting two carved texts which states “know it on” on one and “Anon” on the other.

Cut Master Gum

Sculpture
Metal, plaster, paint and found objects
Each cart is 55cm width x 70cm length x 1m height
2003


This is a painted plaster sculpture. Each plaster component is made by casting in plaster, an object found in garbage cans nearby a crime that took place in Bridgepoint, infamous for being a white racist neighborhood in the south side of Chicago. The found objects are a leather bag, a pair of brown jeans ripped on the knees, a small green suitcase, a typewriter ribbon, bundles of cut black hair, and a black rubber tubes. The crime took place at 11pm on Friday September 7th, 2001. The reported crime was an assault on a young woman of Asian origin in mid twenties, by three white men between the ages of 18-25.