Date of Graduation

5-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts in Art (MFA)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Art

Advisor/Mentor

Turner, Aaron R.

Committee Member

Yoon-Ramirez, Injeong

Second Committee Member

Valencia, Paulina C.

Third Committee Member

Cassiano Alvarez, Renata

Fourth Committee Member

Adams, Carris S.

Keywords

Asian American Studies; Diaspora; Ethnic Studies; Food; Korean diaspora; Performance

Abstract

Memories of Gimjang_김장: and Performance as the Practice of Freedom reflects my response to a feeling of isolation as a Korean American MFA graduate student living in Northwest Arkansas for the last three years. This experience led me to an endless search for identity and place, compelling me to reach into my past and cultural history in relation to the present. To satiate a sense of home in this world, I turned to an artistic intervention to translate the indecipherable, which brought to life my thesis performance, Gimjang_김장:. Gimjang_김장: allowed me to reveal multitudes of experiences and imagined a possibility where my shifting identities formed with time—simultaneously honoring the past, establishing a dialogue with the present, and holding space for the future. Gimjang_김장: and performance taught me how to practice freedom—that performance can be a site of liberation, and the impermanence of performance offers the potential to illuminate the indefinite negotiations of identity and place. This paper draws on queer scholar José Esteban Muñoz's concept of disidentification and Stuart Hall's work on cultural identity and diaspora. I situate performance as a form of storytelling through food. I learned how to make kimchi from my mother, and presenting that process as a performance became the key to nurturing feelings of home. I saw how the generous act of making and sharing food could build a sense of place—reframing the practice of making kimchi, or gimjang (김장), as a performance moved me toward the freedom to create the world I want to see.

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