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The Land of the Unanchored 불화하는 땅


multimedia installation; sand and clay mixed with the soil from Mrs. Song’s grave, 4-channel audio with 5.1 speakers, 2-channel video with projection, 2024



A multimedia installation, The Land of the Unanchored, explores the lands that Mrs. Song, my deceased North Korean grandmother, lost and desired. By interacting with six interviews from those who remember Mrs. Song in different ways, I attempt to revisit and sculpt her "land of milk and honey"--which she has never attained--through clay mixed with soil from her grave. The audience is led to move around small sand hills in the space, which resemble mountainous landscapes of Korea. Four speakers bured in sand whisper the memories about Mrs. Song: still illegible and unanchored.


<불화하는 땅>은 작가의 돌아가신 이북민 할머니, “송씨＂가 잃고 갈망했던 다양한 땅들에 대한 이야기를 송씨의 가족 및 동료 6인과의 인터뷰를 통해서 풀어놓는 멀티미디어 설치이다. 작가는 인터뷰의 내용에 대응하며 송씨의 땅과 몸을 상징하는 점토를 손으로 힘껏 조형한다. 관객은 모래 밑에서 흘러 나오는 오디오에 귀를 기울이며 송씨의 땅을 시각화한 모래 섬들 사이를 떠돌아 다닌다.




photo by Ben Zink







Cowboy Dreams 카우보이 드림즈


short documentary film, 10’ 57”, 2024


The documentary film shares the story of Kim DeBord, a Korean American adoptee artist, who reclaims the landscape of the American West as her own despite facing discrimination and violence. By connecting herself to history and community, Kim stitches together a new landscape for herself and others.

위 단편 다큐멘터리 영화는 어린 시절 미국으로 입양된 한국계 여성이 자신을 거부한다고 느꼈던 미국 서부의 풍광을 어떻게 자신의 장소로 만드는지를 다룬다. 역사와 커뮤니티와 연결되어 새로운 정체성을 획득한 주인공은 자신과 모두를 담아낼 새로운 땅을 손바느질로 엮는다.





Exhibitions and Screenings:
Sometimes Space. United States (2024)




(work in progress)
















Directed and Produced by Okyoung Noh

Executive Producer: John J. Valadez
Director of Photography: Ben Zink
Additional Camera: Okyoung Noh
Lead Cast: Kim DeBord
Addtional Casts: Sylvia DeBord, Linette Lao, Kyunghee Kim, Jean S. Lee, Leo Chen, Okyoung Noh
Editor: Okyoung Noh
Music: OBT Music
Sponsored by Michigan Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission





Cared-Labored Bodies 보살펴지는-노동받는 몸들


oven-baked clay, instructional text (“feel free to touch, but with care”), 2024



This series consists of five oven-baked baked sculptures. Each piece symbolizes a part of the body where the services were performed. The organic materials are baked in a flesh-toned color, with a rough texture representing bodily interactions. The audience is welcome to touch and feel the surface to connect their bodies to and engage themselves with the process of care and labor.





Cared-Labored Bodies: Hands








Cared-Labored Bodies: Back







Cared-Labored Bodies: Head





Photo by Elliot Myers
Production help by Stéphanie Morissette



Caring-Laboring Bodies 보살피는-노동하는 몸들


rolling stool, letter press on veg-tan leather,  13” x 13” x 19.69-25.39” each, 2024


Caring-Laboring Bodies (2024) consists of five round stools commonly found in beauty salons and massage parlors. These height-adjustable, mobile chairs symbolize the mechanized, optimized, and migratory bodies of Asian service workers. Quotes from the interviews are lightly pressed onto the flesh-toned upholstery of the chairs. Audiences can read the letters only when they bow down and stroke or contemplate the surface.

- MY HANDS ARE DEFORMED 
- I JUST MAKE A LIVING HERE 
- I DO NOT CARE ABOUT NAILS* 
- THROW MY SCISSORS AT CUSTOMERS 
- THIS IS MY HOME





* Collected by Sara M. Vance Waddell







Photo by Elliot Myers




I Take Care of You, and (We) Survive 나는 너를 보살피고 살아남지


video and participatory installation, Mar 2024



A performance video, I Take Care of You, and (We) Survive, is installed in the center of the gallery space. The video shows the artist massaging a performer covered by a cloth lying on a massage table. Starting from a Pietà-like pose, the artist rubs and presses the body under her hands. The body, seemingly lifeless at the beginning, starts to come alive and interacts with these touches. Their intertwined movements on the table appear loving, fighting, and caring. These moving images are woven with videos of other workers’ hands whom the artist has interviewed. The interviewed voices, witnessing their migration and labor experiences, overlap with the footage. Audiences are asked to lie on the same table and watch the video through a face port.





Exhibitions and Screenings:
Present Futures. Transnational Feminist Networks Symposium. United States (2024)
I Take Care of You and Survive. Wave Pool Gallery. United States (2024)














Directed and Edited by Okyoung Noh
Videographers: Okyoung Noh, Ben Zink, Luis Reyes, Craig Fishbein
Performers: Ana Hart, Okyoung Noh
Project Assistant: Yuchen Wu, Do Young Kim

Featured Collaborators:
- GG Massage, Lisa G Wang (Cincinnati, OH)
- Spanky's Barber Shop, Ricky Han (Covington, KY)
- Acupressure Massage and Reflexology (Canton, MI)
- Jolis Cheveux by Nick Koo (Ann Arbor, MI)
- Horang Nails (Novi, MI)
- and 3 more anonymous shops

Generously Supported by Wave Pool Gallery ASYS Residency




©2024 Okyoung Noh   All rights reserved