Cross the Flow of Violence
흐르는 폭력을 건너기
Interactive performance, 30’ 00”, Apr 2025
“Dare to cross the flow of violence — with a broker as your guide.”
This 30-minute interactive performance for 15 audience members is led by the artist in the role of a “broker” — a figure who helps the perilous escape from North Korea to China for a price. Brokers play a significant role in guiding North Korean refugees across the Tumen River, a heavily monitored border where armed guards patrol day and night.
Inspired by the story of Mrs. Kim, a North Korean refugee who survived underwater while crossing the river, the artist leads the audience through the exhibition space as if navigating the swirling flow of American imperialist violence in the trans-Pacific. The space becomes a fragmented landscape of memories, witnesses, and echoes — demanding that participants move through it with uncertainty, urgency, and resolve.
As Mrs. Kim once said, “You either die or survive underwater.”
Together, we submerge into this flow, fumbling through the death, pain, and grit of those who came before us. Will we be able to connect to the flow and emerge on the other side of the land?
Inspired by the story of Mrs. Kim, a North Korean refugee who survived underwater while crossing the river, the artist leads the audience through the exhibition space as if navigating the swirling flow of American imperialist violence in the trans-Pacific. The space becomes a fragmented landscape of memories, witnesses, and echoes — demanding that participants move through it with uncertainty, urgency, and resolve.
As Mrs. Kim once said, “You either die or survive underwater.”
Together, we submerge into this flow, fumbling through the death, pain, and grit of those who came before us. Will we be able to connect to the flow and emerge on the other side of the land?
Photo by Sin Yu
Video by Andy Kajie
Artist talk moderated by Srimoyee Mitra
My Grandma’s Suseoks Whisper…
속삭이는 수석들
Ceramics, motion-sensor speaker, MDF, mixed sand and soil, dimensions variable, Feb 2025
The three sculptures reference Suseok (viewing stones) collected by my grandmother from the seashore where her uncle was executed and disappeared, as well as dead bodies—a drowned body, dry skins, and a bleeding mouth—during the Jeju 4.3 Massacre in mid-20th-century South Korea. Reimagined as vessels of memory that embody the residues of executed people, the sculptures carry recollections of U.S. imperialist violence. As the audience approaches, the sculptures transmit my grandmother’s spoken testimony—faint, yet vivid with fury. The English translation of her testimony is provided on a metal plate reminiscent of a memorial sign.
작가 외할머니의 수석(水石) 수집 행위를 역사적 트라우마와 상실에 대처하고 회복하는 수행으로 바라보고, 수석들과, 학살 희생자들의 몸 (갈라진 피부, 물에 빠진 몸, 피 흘리는 입)을 시각적 레퍼런스 삼아 총 3개가 제작되었다. 관객이 다가가면, 제주 4.3을 증언하는 구술 오디오가 흘러나온다.
작가 외할머니의 수석(水石) 수집 행위를 역사적 트라우마와 상실에 대처하고 회복하는 수행으로 바라보고, 수석들과, 학살 희생자들의 몸 (갈라진 피부, 물에 빠진 몸, 피 흘리는 입)을 시각적 레퍼런스 삼아 총 3개가 제작되었다. 관객이 다가가면, 제주 4.3을 증언하는 구술 오디오가 흘러나온다.
My Grandma’s Suseoks Whisper… He Drifted Away (2025)
“They lined people up by the seashore. My uncle was also executed there. People drifted away, never to be found.”
My Grandma’s Suseoks Whisper… They Killed All (2025)
“No matter what, they shot and killed all. No reason, no guilt, just shot everyone. They killed all, calling us commie spies.”
My Grandma’s Suseoks Whisper... His Mouth Bled (2025)
“His body was thrown onto the field. Bleeding from his back and mouth. He could not move, but just bled.”Photo by Andy Kajie
Qual Qual
콸콸
Lava stone, urethane foam, Styrofoam, spray paint, replica bullet, water pump, water infused with smoke and blood scent, and sand, Mar 2025
The fountain visually references the Hallasan volcano, which formed Jeju Island, and Jeju massacre survivors' fortresses. Pumping water, scented with blood and gunfire, hints at the persistence of violence, surging into our spaces.
제주 한라산의 ‘폭발’하는 백록담과 제주 4.3 사건 이후 생존자들이 마을을 둘러 쌓았다는 돌담의 이미지를 시각적 레퍼런스로 삼아 제작한 분수 조각이다. 관객으로 하여금 전시 공간으로 끊임없이 솟아나 흐르는 폭력의 잔해를 상상케 한다.
Photo by Andy Kajie
where violence flows
zine, Mar 2025
zine, Mar 2025
Created with poet Kyunghee Kim and Matt Dhillon, the zine reflects on familial memories and U.S. imperialist violence in South Korea. Printed in 300 copies, echoing No Gun Ri’s deaths, the narratives are distributed to the audience.
한국계 미국인 시인 김경희와의 협업으로 제작된 8쪽 리플렛으로, 나레이션와 시가 드로잉과 함께 흐르듯 엮어 작성되어 있다. 한국 전쟁 당시, 노근리 지역에서의 학살 추정치인 300명에 맞추어 한정된 부수로 인쇄된 리플렛은 관객에게 전시에 대한 간략한 배경과 폭력의 일부를 전달한다.
Read the zine (ENG) ︎︎︎
리플렛 읽기 (KOR) ︎︎︎
Flowing Violence: meet me at the water, immersive video installation
흐르는 폭력: 물에서 만나요, 몰입형 비디오 설치
3-channel video (4K color, stereo), 9’ 09”, Dec 2024
<흐르는 폭력 Flowing Violence>은 한국계 미국인 시인 김경희와의 협업으로 제작된 멀티센서리(multi-sensory) 설치 작업이다. 시간과 국경을 초월하는 전지구적 물의 흐름과 연결되어 함께 흐르는 폭력을 다룬다. 한국전쟁 학살 희생자들을 태운 재, 한강에 갓난 아기와 투신하려던 할머니의 피눈물, 그리고 현재 이루어지는 폭력의 현장에서 흐르는 모든 잔여물들이 흘러 ‘우리’의 몸에 닿는 순간을 상상하도록 이끈다.
Flowing Violence (2024) is a multimedia installation made in collaboration with Korean American poet Kyunghee Kim. It invites the audience to imagine how silenced violence may flow with water, reaching the land and the bodies we live in, transcending borders and time.
The average speed of water molecules is around hundred meters per second in an open space. We are 70 percent water and about 98 percent of all the atoms in our body are replaced every year. We are in constant flow. The flow of water, the flow of life, the flow of history, and maybe, the flow of violence.
the blood and ashes of a few hundred civilian refugees, who were massacred by American
armies under the No Gun Ri Bridge during the Korean War,
and ‘the tears of blood’ (피눈물) that my grandmother shed, while dragging her two babies to Han River to commit family suicide after the war,
and more
and ‘the tears of blood’ (피눈물) that my grandmother shed, while dragging her two babies to Han River to commit family suicide after the war,
and more
might have been dissolved into the water,
flowing from there to here, from then to now,
taken into our bodies, haunting us,
saying,
meet me at the water
I am here,
all along
with us, before us,
in us*
I am here,
all along
with us, before us,
in us*
A video component of the installation is a 3-channel video, meet me at the water (2024), of which title is borrowed from the title of Kim’s poem written for the video. The video consists of distinct perspectives: high-angle shots and underwater shots of the Huron River near the artist’s residence. These represent two views: one of humans living their everyday lives, and the other of violence, which may flow beneath the surface—quietly but constantly. The seemingly peaceful river carries faint, almost invisible traces of blood and ashes. As the voice in the video whispers and recites a poem revealing American imperialist violence in Asia, the camera begins to travel underwater, where the blood and ashes visibly mingle and dissolve into the river’s flow. The video invites the audience to feel submerged, flowing alongside these particles, and to connect with a silenced tragedy carried by the water.
*an excerpt of the poem, meet me at the water (2024)
Full Work Statement (ENG) ︎︎︎
Read the poem (ENG, KOR) ︎︎︎
Directed
by Okyoung Noh
Poem by Kyunghee Kim
Filmed by Okyoung Noh, Ben Zink
Edited by Okyoung Noh
Music by Chien-An Yuan
Voice by Kyunghee Kim, Leah Crosby, Okyoung Noh
Poem by Kyunghee Kim
Filmed by Okyoung Noh, Ben Zink
Edited by Okyoung Noh
Music by Chien-An Yuan
Voice by Kyunghee Kim, Leah Crosby, Okyoung Noh
