The Aberrant - 2019
Installation - 88H x 100W x 48D
The Aberrant is a three dimensional paper installation that attemps to address the experience of a gyopo — a term for Korean expatriates who have been citizens in their new countries for longer than a decade. The term itself carries negative connotations as referring to people who, as a result of living outside the motherland, have been severed from their Korean roots.
Expatriation itself was a rising trend in South Korea in the late 90s and early 2000s, as more and more families chose to leave in order to pursue opportunities for wealth and education outside the country. In the late 1990s, South Korea became the fifth-largest source of immigrants to Canada. North America was hugely idealized and was seen as the new horizon in the journey toward open doors and opportunities.
The Aberrant questions the effect of expatriation in Korean-Canadian gyopos, and the deafening loneliness produced by the conflict between the culture one is born into versus the newly adopted. Having to lead a life of duality of two names, two cultures, and two homes, the piece hopes to express the balancing act that gyopos must struggle to reconcile with.
Photo Credit: Polina Teif
The Aberrant was featured as a part of Design TO Festival 2018.