Tongue-Tongs

Soyoun Kim, Tongue-Tongs Exhibition at Manningham Art Gallery 2023. Image courtesy of the artist.

I meant to say, tongue, tong, tongues, tongs.

They looked at me, making sure I didn’t say it right and demanded repetition.

My tongue twists to form various shapes in an attempt to produce so-called correct pronunciation.

The tongue becomes heavy and broken.

I try to mend the broken tongue.

It only leaves the visible mark of the scar.

The pain of speaking a foreign language, not being able to speak my mother tongue, festers inside my mouth.

The pain of not being able to speak out the truth festers inside.

The tongue becomes mouldy, not being able to function.

Tongue-Tongs, 2022, Exhibition at Manningham Art Gallery 2023, porcelain, terracotta, ceramic stain, bronze, decal tissue, mini bamboo tongs, red cotton thread, red pigment, glue, scented candles, dimensions variable.
Soyoun Kim, Tongue-Tongs, 2022, Exhibition at Manningham Art Gallery 2023, porcelain, terracotta, ceramic stain, bronze, decal tissue, mini bamboo tongs, red cotton thread, red pigment, glue, scented candles, dimensions variable. Image courtesy of Arts Manningham. Photo by Charlie Kinross.
Tongue-Tongs, 2022, porcelain, terracotta, ceramic stain, bronze, decal tissue, mini bamboo tongs, Korean Kimchi scent, Japanese honeysuckle scent, wax, red cotton thread, red pigment, glue, dimensions variable.
Soyoun Kim, Tongue-Tongs, 2022, porcelain, terracotta, ceramic stain, bronze, decal tissue, mini bamboo tongs, Korean Kimchi scent, Japanese honeysuckle scent, wax, red cotton thread, red pigment, glue, dimensions variable. Image courtesy of the artist.

My face of Asian recites bilingually over the white plaster face:

Close your eyes Listen to me You will understand.

I see. I understand. Do you have to see it to understand?

I mimic a white language, but my tongue cannot be white tongue like a porcelain. I cannot be the same as the white, aligning each other perfectly. The difference in language and culture cannot be erased to match harmoniously, but rather it is visible and should be.

Soyoun Kim, Close your eyes
Soyoun Kim, Close your eyes, 2021-2, video with sound, plaster cast face, 1.36 min. Image courtesy of the artist.

Tongues that Smell, Taste, and Eat.

The difference in culture presents with the trace of scents from candles.

The aroma of essential Korean food, Kimchi, is overwhelmed by the Japanese honeysuckle scent. Japanese colonisation forced the mother tongue of Koreans to fade into silence.

Hold your tongue.

The authoritative voice demands silence.

When the Korean language was not allowed, it became bilingual in Korean and Japanese.

Mother tongue does not disappear but multiplies, marked by the visible scar of emotional pain and trauma in the process.

My tongue becomes bilingual in Korean and English in Australia.

I have both with differences. The scar remains.

Soyoun Kim, Hold your tongue.
Soyoun Kim, Hold your tongue, 2022, Korean Kimchi scent, Japanese honeysuckle scent, wax, plaster hand cast, gold pigment, dimensions variable.Image courtesy of the artist.

White Porcelain requests the purity of women.

The only given role as a wife and a mother is serving a husband and a son, Quietly.

How dare, hold your tongue, men said.

The only given role as a colonised woman is a sex slave.

How shameful, hold your tongue, men said.

The youth is crushed like pressed flowers.

Red of oozing pain as a living human.

Try to mend with stitches, but the scar remains visible.

Marking the thick outer lines adapted from Minhwa (Korean folk drawing) drawn by anonymous female commoners during the hierarchal Confucian society of Korea,

I dedicate this work to Silenced Women.

Soyoun Kim, Tongue-Tongs
Soyoun Kim, Tongue-Tongs, 2022, Exhibition view at Manningham Art Gallery 2023, screen printing on Hanji (Korean mulberry bark paper), Meok (Korean black ink), red and yellow stitches,140 x 76 cm each. Image courtesy of Arts Manningham. Photo by Charlie Kinross.

Exhibition: 29 March to 6 May 2023, Manningham Art Gallery, the land of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin nation.

Mask: Mapping Melbourne 2020-21

Mask 2020, video 4.02 min. still cut / Taking an ID photo  2020, video 37 sec. still cut
Mask 2020, video 4.02 min. still cut / Taking an ID photo 2020, video 37 sec. still cut

The project, Mask, explores the notion of a mask through self-performed images to refute fixed identity and cultural perceptions based on a person’s ethnic background. It is a great opportunity to realise this project as the part of Mapping Melbourne 2020/2021 program, which shares the same value of advocating the equity of the human being with the perspective of an Asian-Australian.

Mask-toilet paper / Mask-grocery mesh bags (from the photographic series Mask)
Mask-toilet paper / Mask-grocery mesh bags (from the photographic series, Mask 2020) : Nikon D700

The current Covid-19 pandemic offers the chance to reflect on how we live together and reminds us of the deeply rooted racial discrimination. The absurd syllogistic reasoning prejudges people based on their appearance. The project, Mask, refutes fixed identity based on ethnicity through multiple interpretations of a mask and performing body from a perspective of an Asian-Australian.

A mask protects from the spreading of the virus.

A mask protects from the physical and verbal violence on people with Asian ethnicity with the blame for spreading the virus.

A mask embraces the vulnerability of people who are exposed to discrimination and people with a weakened immune system.

A mask is a disguise of the selfish act with an excuse for survival and uncertainty of the future.

A mask is a beautification of whiter and fairer skin to resemble white Westerners within the Eurocentric concept of beauty and superiority.

A mask is a superficial representation of a person regardless of inner character.

The unidentifiable blurring face and damaged Instant ID photographs imply the ambiguity of identity with the debate on the veracity of truth in the visual representation of appearances. Mask advocates the equity of the human being, colliding hierarchisation and binary structure of white and non-white people under the notion of humanism.

Instant ID photo poster 3 / Instant ID photo poster 5 (from the series, Instant ID photo poster 2020):  Mamiya RB67 camera with 4x5" Polaroid films
Instant ID photo poster 3 / Instant ID photo poster 5 (from the series, Instant ID photo poster 2020): Mamiya RB67 camera with 4×5″ Polaroid films

Online Launching Event: 10 December 2020, MAV (Multicultural Arts Victoria)

All works of Mask can be viewed at: https://www.mav.org.au/event/mask-by-soyoun-kim/