Inspired by a flock of migrating birds, A Few Flaps to Belong makes a parallel between human’s obsessive longing for flight and one’s desire to cope with a foreign land. The works in the exhibition employ devices that are made to mimic wings, and evoke a romantic notion of flying in relation to the artist’s yearning for home and desire to belong. With the use of cyanotype, which is an outdated camera-less photographic technic that produces deep cyan-blue print, Min brings nostalgia to talk about her ongoing struggle for grounding Korean Diaspora within Canadian identity.
“I had a magical encounter where a flock of birds flew above me, so low to the ground that I noticed their flapping sound. It was massive yet clear enough to distinguish individual movements, vigorous yet soft. Looking to recreate this surreal experience, I have looked into various ways of mimicking the flapping, with objects that show traces of my body parts. A Few Flaps to Belong cumulates two years of research, yet is also a beginning to an ongoing quest.” –JM
Jihee Min holds MFA (Studio Arts) from Concordia University and BFA with Honours (Sculpture & Installation) from Ontario College of Art & Design. Korea-born Canadian, Min explores art as means to engage issues of displaced culture and multiculturalism, focusing on stereotypical issues on race, language and memory. Min attempts to communicate with her surroundings through interdisciplinary and self-referential works, often blending boundaries between audience and artist. Her work takes various forms through a wide range of media, such as sculpture, installation, performance, video, photography and drawing.
Produced with the support of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.