Radical Self Care for the Age of Ultra Anxiety_Part.1
About the Project
The Korean War never ended.
We grew up across the river from a military capable of destroying our country within hours and in the shadow of a proxy war that killed millions.
Eighty percent of our population is urban and most Koreans find nature remote and threatening rather than beautiful.
Ghost culture is very real in Korea and we believe the dead live among us, affecting all aspects of life.
We have the highest rate of cosmetic surgery and of suicide in the world, reflecting a rigorously enforced social mandate towards conformity.
It is not in Korean culture to seek help for mental health issues.
We are Koreans living in the US as outsider immigrants.
With global unrest and the pandemic, the rest of the world has finally caught up with Korean anxiety.
“Radical Self-Care for an Age of Ultra-Anxiety’, is a project by Jeju Island to design and produce survival gear for protection against germs, diseases, insects, wild animals, lightning strikes, earthquakes, allergic reactions, excessive sunlight or humidity, strange sounds - protective suits, gadgets and gizmos to address alien presence, mirrors to deter animal or insect attack, monitors for ghost detection, lightning rods and earthquake sensors, etc.
“Jeju island” is an artistic collaborative team composed of Kyung-Jin Kim, Eunsun Choi and Yeon Jin Kim, all immigrants from South Korea living and working in New York City. Through our practice, we exorcize universal fears and anxieties through humor, imagination and invention.
Our work takes many forms but focuses on the effort to negotiate everyday reality and to fit into our adopted American culture. These efforts range from hopeless but earnest, to innocent and humorous, sometimes arriving at the poignantly affecting.
Kyung-jin Kim utilizes interactive sound installations to explore the substance of liminality inherent to dislocation, translation and adjustment.
Throughout humorous inventions and contraptions, Eunsun Choi’s work takes many forms but invariably comprises efforts to negotiate reality and her adopted American culture. Various anxieties and traumas are confronted and dealt with inventively and humorously.
Yeon Jin Kim enlists and adapts folk and craft traditions historically demeaned by male-dominant art education in a totalitarian society, to reveal and overturn repressive systems as well as video narratives.
“Radical Self-Care for an Age of Ultra-Anxiety’ will continue with more iterations in the near future focusing on issues of ghost culture, racism and proxy politics in Asian countries.
Part 1 _ Natural Disaster
October 10
12 PM to 6 PM
Bliss on Biss Artist Project
4149 45th St.Ground Fl, Sunnyside, NY 11104
https://m.facebook.com/100001805629141/posts/6508797275857062/?extid=0&d=n
1. Video
2. Exhibition
