What Is Your Name, in the United States. interview installation
당신의 “미국식”
이름은 무엇입니까. 인터뷰 설치
iPad, steel, video in loop. Dec 2022
The video installation, “What is your name, in the United States,” gathers the video documentation of an interview series that I have conducted with Simranpreet Anand, Sunhong Kim, and Do Young Kim, who currently live in the United States but have their cultural roots in India and Korea. They talk about their experiences introducing their names to others in the United States, coping with “wrong” pronunciations, or contradictions of their names. Their answers are varied. They smiled to comfort people or taught their “correct” names, not allowing others to approximate their identities at their convenience.
In the video, the visuals of these interviewees’ faces fluctuate depending on their confessions. When they talk about their experiences of their names being disrespected or approximated, their faces become more blurred and hardly recognizable. Their faces become less unfocused when they talk about the moment they gained some respect for their names through someone who identified their names correctly. Such visuals indicate their ontology of being the Other: opaque figures with the possibility to be visible once you understand them.
In the video, the visuals of these interviewees’ faces fluctuate depending on their confessions. When they talk about their experiences of their names being disrespected or approximated, their faces become more blurred and hardly recognizable. Their faces become less unfocused when they talk about the moment they gained some respect for their names through someone who identified their names correctly. Such visuals indicate their ontology of being the Other: opaque figures with the possibility to be visible once you understand them.
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미국에서 살아가는 아시아계 3인 (한국인, 펀자브계 캐나다인)에게 미국에서 사용하는 이름과, 그 이름을 사용하게 된 배경과 이유를 물어보았다. 이름이 다르게 불리우고, 변형되고, 뒤섞여진 그들의 정체성을 반영하여 인터뷰는 흐릿한 화면으로 사람 키에 맞추어 상영되었다. 그들이 자신의 이름으로 정체화되었던 순간을 언급할 때 화면은 서서히 선명해지지만, 실패의 경험으로 기억될 때, 화면 역시 흐릿해진다. 끝까지 관객은 인터뷰이들의 얼굴을 선명히 인식하지 못한다.
Photo by Ben Zink
Interviewee: Do Young, Sunhong, Simranpreet
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