Yoonsik Chico Park
Performance
아 [Ah]
immortalized-ish
Intergenerational Conversations
Gulp
Drawings & Sculpture
Debris & Erasure Series
bio/contact
cv
2:57min single-channel video; 20 paper envelopes with text and stamp, each containing a sigh.
Sometimes, the news is so incredulous that you don’t even know how to react. As I attempt to figure out my response, I reflect on how many of my public statments I would feel comfortable putting my name on. In Korean, 아 [ah] is an onomatopoeia for a sigh, but when flipped to its side, the word resembles the letter ㅎ [h] which we use in texting to represent a smile or laugh, though its connotation can vary from positive to negative depending on context.
December 2024, Yoonsik Chico Park.
video: link
After a year of trying to preserve it, the bouquet and I go for a walk before we part ways. Flowers cannot be immortalized.
—ish, for I shall remember. I too shall be gone one day, but that’s okay, for that’s the way of life.
past year for the bouquet: link
Script:
- Fast for 72 hours. Just water, prepare yourself.
- Untie the strings from the bouquet, untangle the confused questions of yesterday.
- Tie the strings together and attach the bouquet to you, recount how your questions have led to who you are today.
- Take a walk around the offices, thanking those who have imparted their wisdom to you.
- Walk out to the field, let go of all that you have feared.
- Wrap the string back onto the bouquet, this is the summary of your past life.
- Place the bouquet into the pedestal, remember those who don’t have a resting place.
- Pour lighter fluid onto the bouquet, accept your fate for the life ahead in its entirety.
- Light the bouquet on fire, remember that this is ultimately your choice.
- Watch the fire burn, accept the cycle of life.
- Watch the fire burn, you can no longer question whether you should be.
- Watch the fire burn, you will now begin questioning what kind you will be.
As performed April 22, 2024, 8:30pm, on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Images by Ilya Akimov. Footage available upon request.
*Homage to Bahc’s Homage to Paik.
Lakwon Park (b. 1940) on the Korean war, Life’s Big Choices, Love, Religion, and Death (2023). Performance, 20:44min.
Lakwon Park is invited to give a talk about his life at a university, hosted by his grandson Yoonsik. The two engage in dialogue across two different dimensions, each reality intertwining with one another. Although Lakwon is present throughout, he refuses to present direct answers to the questions Yoonsik presents him with. This is a frustration Yoonsik has become long accustomed to. Some questions never get answered, and sometimes, all that can be done is to keep asking into the void.
Finalized through NYUAD Theater Program student led project grant, supported by NYUAD Art Gallery. // As performed on April 15 and 17, 2023, in Concrete Tent by DAAR (Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti), Abu Dhabi, UAE. // Performance images by Ilya Akimov, edited by artist. // Available as single-channel or two-channel video installation. // Performance footage by Matthew Tan, edited by artist. // Screened during presentations at College Art Association (CAA, 112th, Chicago, USA) and Performance Studies international (PSi #29 - Assemble, London, UK) annual conferences, 2024.
Performance footage: link
The story of a man who has trouble forgetting his trauma of drowning at sea. He gulps down copious amounts of alcohol in his efforts to forget the terrifying gulps of seawater of the past, but everyday life seems impossible since any sight or sound of drinking sends him down another round of reliving the trauma.
Produced in collaboration with Pu Jia & Lady Gabrielle Ashong.
Installed as double-channel video projection for ‘Shell’ (2023), The Cube, NYUAD Art Gallery.
film: link