USPS
Mohamed, José, Yangbin, and Dino
May 30th - June 27th, 2014
Brandywine Workshop Gallery
The USPS series is a visual and conceptual exploration of transition and migration, themes deeply rooted in my personal narrative of moving to the United States from Korea as an international student. As an artist and a newcomer in pursuit of opportunities, my life was marked by a series of relocations, each move etching its complexities into my understanding of belonging and place.
This body of work showcases enlarged, self-addressed shipping labels affixed to the very cardboard boxes that accompanied me across the United States. These boxes, and the labels that adorned them, bear the scars of their journeys—torn edges and smudged ink silently narrate the arduousness of being uprooted and transported time and again. They are artifacts of my history, each crease and blemish a testament to the tribulations of moving not only objects but the entirety of one's life.
The labels serve as stark symbols of the logistics of moving—transporting belongings that, in many cases, constitute one's whole world. They also stand as involuntary tokens of the risks inherent in such transitions: the potential of loss, the fear of misplacement, the possibility that something may not arrive at all. These risks manifest physically in the empty spaces of my installation, metaphorical voids that resonate with the sense of loss and the emotional vacuum left by the act of departure.
Deeply embedded in the USPS series is a reflection on the inherent uncertainties of life. It speaks to the nomadic existence that many of us lead, a continuous odyssey without a fixed destination, an existence where 'home' is both everywhere and nowhere.
In an age characterized by unparalleled mobility, the concept of displacement has come to the forefront of our collective consciousness, prompting us to re-examine the essence of home. My work resides within these shifting margins—the fading certainty of 'here' against the growing enigma of 'home.' Through this series, I navigate the interstices of identity and place, capturing the fragile balance between 'here' and 'there.'
