Stories shape who we are, yet the ways we preserve them are often forgotten. As time passes, traditions evolve, languages fade, and histories are rewritten, leaving many stories untold. As a Korean American artist, I navigate multiple identities—sometimes belonging everywhere, sometimes nowhere. My work challenges cultural erasure by using traditional craft techniques to reconnect with the past while imagining new futures. Through my art, I reclaim fading practices, reinterpret inherited narratives, and reveal the deep connection between craft and identity.

 

Growing up in a Korean household in the United States, I was surrounded by traditions that felt both familiar and distant. Art became a bridge—to transform memories, histories, and emotions into tangible forms that connect us. Through papermaking, fiber arts, and woodworking, I materialize the intangible—unspoken truths, unvoiced regrets, hidden fears, and longing—into physical form, giving shape to what often remains unseen.

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I explore identity, labor, and the weight of cultural expectations, particularly as they relate to women’s roles in Korean culture. Existing between two worlds requires adaptation, but adaptation often comes at the cost of loss. Making is both meditation and resistance, challenging the notion that tradition is fixed. I use Korean techniques like jiseung (paper cording) and joomchi (paper felting) to create sculptural works that transform everyday domestic crafts into contemporary expressions of survival.

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My work exists in the in-between—where softness meets structure, history meets reinterpretation, and craft is a living, evolving act of resistance. Drawing from Korean craft, contemporary sculpture, and domestic rituals, I explore how objects hold memory, how labor is embedded in material, and how identity is continuously reshaped through making.