Unredeemed Objects of Her Daughter

Author

Alice SehYun Lee, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

5-1-2014

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

Department

Mass Communication and Media Arts

First Advisor

Spahr, Robert

Abstract

Unredeemed Objects of Her Daughter is a mixed media exhibition consisting of seven projects that act as responses to the detachment I felt with the Korean-Buddhist tradition of mourning after my mother's death. “Mixed media” refers to how I synthesize, deconstruct, and manipulate different forms of media technology and objects to create gestures of loss and a unique audiovisual language in which to grieve. I express the way in which the loss of my mother heightened my sense of cultural indeterminacy as a Korean American through audio and video installations, net.art, and performance, which illustrate fragments of myself that inhabit a space between the languages and cultures I embody. Conceptually, my work is depicted as fragments because it is not always clear where my grief is culturally and linguistically rooted in each project, and I encourage audiences to inscribe my experiences into their life stories. This paper will highlight common themes that run through my body of work – the ephemeral, the liminal, absence, and the imagined space – and refer to previous works, relevant theory, and artist influences.