A New Family: Curating Korean Diaspora
On view May 24th - July 14th, 2023
Gallery Korea at the Korean Cultural Center New York
How has Korean diaspora emerged and developed? How has it engaged with its native country, Korea?
It has been over 140 years since the Korean Peninsula, whose world had long revolved around China, appeared in the Western international community with the signing of the Treaty of Peace, Amity, Commerce and Navigation between Joseon and the United States in 1882. A migrant procession which left the Korean Peninsula and moved to China and Russia at the end of the Joseon Dynasty, evolved to immigration to Hawaii with the help of missionaries who came to Joseon after the Treaty.
The Korean Empire, went out of existence, annexed by Japan. Without a homeland to rely upon, Korean immigrants worked hard on education and missionary work to become enlightened, competent people in preparation for the future, and campaigned for the independence of Korea. Hawaii and the Americas were spaces of freedom and vision where they prepared for a “modern” Korea.
After liberation, Koreans again scattered around the world in the dynamic, often painful, process of the founding of the two Koreas and the Korean War which resulted in displaced families and orphans, but also in the process of modernization and industrialization that followed.
With more than 7.3 million Korean diaspora living overseas, we ask the question: Is Korean identity something that is fixed, tied closely to the physical location of the Korean peninsula, bloodline, and the nation?
A New Family aims to reflect upon the history of Korea and Koreans and how it has been reflected in art, and to reinterpret the Korean diaspora from a new perspective that embraces the existence and history of all Korean diaspora, whether caused by the division of Korea, thrown into a foreign world inside Korea, or dispersed around the world from Korea.
This exhibition, with Choi Jae-won as special guest curator, challenges us to see, encounter, and interact with the Korean diaspora inside and outside of the country, who we might have abandoned and turned away from, but could be new Koreans and a source of influence that we should recognize more rightly and network with in earnest.
In an era of hybrid identities crossing geographies and nations, the exhibition suggests that we do not call them 'Korean diaspora' in the conventional sense, but we meet and engage with them as “A New Family,” new Koreans, transcending geography, blood and nationalism.
<Featured Artists>
Choi Sang-ah, Choi Young-rim, Davy Chou, Hong Jong-myoung, Hwang Yoo-yup, Ju Jeong-i, Jung Bo-young, Kim Ku-lim, Kim Won, Kim Young-joo, Kwon Ok-yon, Lee Hyun-seung, Lee Man-ik, Lee Sang-guk, Lee Seo-hyun, Lim Choong-sup, Paik Nam-June, Park Hang-sup, Park Keun-ho Peter, Park Ko-suk, Park Seoung-seo, Park Yoo-ah, Sen Chung, Sohn Hae-won, Yang Dal-suk, You Hyeon-kyeong
<About the Curator>
Guest Curator Choi Jae-won specialized in Audiovisual Media at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KMH: Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln) in Germany and worked in various capacities, including as Chief Curator at Art Center Nabi, Visiting Researcher at <MATTEREALITY>, a transdisciplinary research program at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS), Lecturer teaching “Community Planning and Design” at the Graduate School of Environmental Studies at Seoul National University, and Head Researcher of the follow-up study of Curating International Diaspora at the Asia Culture Center in Korea. He is interested in multidisciplinary research and curating that encompass art, science, technology, and Korean traditional culture. He currently lives and works in Washington, D.C. as an independent curator.
This exhibition is presented by the Korean Cultural Center New York to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the ROK-U.S. Alliance.
