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Clip from <A Portal>




All things come to the end,
but what comes at the end?
if someone dies,
is all our memories and feelings have to be end?

all is frozen
with the death
doesn’t go anywhere
no moves, no changes
being still

what comes then?

when we don’t take time to move
— what’s left will still be here,
will remain
get dried and will last,
last longer than expected

without the understanding of transformation
the time of the grief will continue to cling and linger

how can we defrost and bring the spring
to the relationship between the dead and the living?

finding the way to take the time
to move the time,
trace the linear of invisible, entangled meanings and relationship
and bring to the present





︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎


<Coffins of Buds and a Portal> is a performative practice by personal understanding of how we relate to endings and keep connection between the living and the dead. Drawing on elements of Korean mourning rituals, I reinterpreted the traditional practice of serving a meal for the loved ones. This ritual typically involves a communal dinner shared by the living after the farewell. In my version, the ritual becomes more personal and solitary: the mourner invites their departed loved one to share a meal, symbolizing an ongoing, albeit transformed, relationship.

The act centers around the tinted stainless steel table, which serves as a portal to the realm of death. In this mirrored space, the viewer can perceive subtle movements of hands sharing food, evoking the intimacy of the once-shared connection.

Through this work, I questioned the finality of death. The notion that memories and emotions must end with the physical departure of a loved one, or when it ends it ends, might not be the truth. Instead, without the possibility of transformation〞of ※defrosting§ the stagnant state of grief〞mourning will continue to cling and linger. By engaging in the ritual of sharing a meal, the work invites practitioner to consider how we might reinvigorate the relationship between the dead and the living, keeping the essence of connection alive even after loss.




<A Portal>
Stainless Steel, Inscense stick
Performative Act 


photo by Yesum Yoon

<Coffins of Buds>
Ceramic, Fruit Leather, Aquafava
Various Size


photo by Yesum Yoon