May 10, 2025
what is something you always wished I had asked and knew about you?
Goethe Institut x Thomas Mann House LA
USC Libraries, the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research
Washington, D.C.
I was invited by the Goethe Institut to present my floral sculpture series for an event called “An Appeal to Reason” inspired by the life and influence of Thomas Mann as a lens that rooted conversations around the current state of democracy, importance of freedom of expression, and the role of artistic intervention.
what is something you always wished I had asked and knew about you? is a floral sculpture series that confronts how we hold and carry memory in the diaspora through cocoji — a fading practice of floral arranging in Korea lost during a time of occupation and war.
The figures in the series includes the last remaining photographic archives of my family originally from the Gwangju region of Korea. A region known for the student-led demonstrations in their fight for democracy against the coup of Chun Doo-hwan in 1980.
The gidung table crafted by artist Jeffrey Yoo Warren is built around a hanok joint using the same woodworking technique that holds old Korean homes together.
The florals are arranged in hangari earthenware vessels traditionally used to ferment and preserve foods.
Photos provided by Thomas Mann House LA
Goethe Institut x Thomas Mann House LA
USC Libraries, the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research
Washington, D.C.
I was invited by the Goethe Institut to present my floral sculpture series for an event called “An Appeal to Reason” inspired by the life and influence of Thomas Mann as a lens that rooted conversations around the current state of democracy, importance of freedom of expression, and the role of artistic intervention.
what is something you always wished I had asked and knew about you? is a floral sculpture series that confronts how we hold and carry memory in the diaspora through cocoji — a fading practice of floral arranging in Korea lost during a time of occupation and war.
The figures in the series includes the last remaining photographic archives of my family originally from the Gwangju region of Korea. A region known for the student-led demonstrations in their fight for democracy against the coup of Chun Doo-hwan in 1980.
The gidung table crafted by artist Jeffrey Yoo Warren is built around a hanok joint using the same woodworking technique that holds old Korean homes together.
The florals are arranged in hangari earthenware vessels traditionally used to ferment and preserve foods.
Photos provided by Thomas Mann House LA