Proposal: Live Performance Art “Disobedience (2024)”
Copyright 2024. Nayeon Hong All rights reserved. ⓒ 2024. Nayeon Hong All rights reserved. (c) 2024. Nayeon Hong All rights reserved.
“Disobedience (2024)” is a performance-based photography project in my ambitious investigation to connect yellow with Korean identity. I was born and raised in South Korea until I was 16. My family abruptly immigrated to Canada without the ability to speak English fluently. The unexpected immigration caused me tremendous trauma, and I was unwilling to talk and live in a new environment. At that time, I was unable to avoid my surroundings because of my patriarchal family. Within this distressing trauma like the language barrier and bullied from others, I feel discouraged thinking of a weak existence. From harassing thoughts, I wanted to reveal my toughness through my body gestures as an artwork. I explored my hostility in my inner mind in the term “disobedience”. Disobedience has significant meanings in white Hanbok, the colour yellow and body gesture performance.
I recognize the Korean traditional white clothing “Hanbok(한복)” as a symbol of resistance (Lee 1). Not only does the Hanbok represent my identity of cultural conditioning, but it also symbolizes Korean ethnonationalism. White Hanbok represents purity with the aesthetic value itself. The shape of the Hanbok contains beautiful lines but implies a compliant figure of a woman. Because of the sensorial properties of the Hanbok, the Japanese attempted to eliminate white Hanbok during Japanese colonization in 1910 (Lee 7). From that, I observe defiant strength from colonized society. I chose Hanbok to represent tenacity from toughness and encounter the history of Koreans trying to preserve their clothing.
“Disobedience (2024)” investigates the yellow colour in my experimentations. I face stereotypes in my contemporary life. Go to a university, have a job, and make tremendous money to be successful. I observe these trite thoughts as yellow because they recognize a warning colour that coexists with a passive, static gesture (Cardullo 191). Yellow was also associated with jealousy, envy and hatred, related to a medieval theory of humor (Costantini 584). Yellow easily smudges into my life without notice, even if I do not have an opinion. I try to investigate the track of losing voice by brushing yellow to the background towards the subject. I explore the yellow building on my body movements and gestures. With my hand and foot, I confront the raw face of social pain. By painting yellow directly with my hands and feet and brushing on a white background, I convey the dynamicity of my feelings towards subservient conditions.
Performance “Disobedience (2024)” plan for body gesture signifies hostility towards resistless society. The representation of a thin Mulberry paper Hanbok wearing with female makeup expresses an innocent image of my identity that complies with society. Then, I play with the action marks that I impulsively make. The impulsive marks signify my resistance to external sermons from elderly people. At the end of the performance, I deliver a reversal effect to the audience by breaking Hanbok apart, representing my persistence.
By determining to express my inner problem dealing with trauma, the performance “Disobedience (2024)” interacts with my body with the artistic approach as a healing method. I expect to experiment with uncontrolled beautiful marks and how they will collaborate with my body in Hanbok.
Bibliography
“Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 1999.” Edited by Couture Daily, YouTube, YouTube,
www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ErE7O5NceGQ. Accessed 13 Nov. 2024.
Cardullo, R.J. “Wassily Kandinsky’s The Yellow Sound as a Total Work of Art: Reception and
Interpretation.” Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 41 no. 4, 2018, p. 1-17. Project MUSE, https://dx.doi.org/10.2979/jmodelite.41.4.01.
Costantini, Giovanna L. “Yellow: The History of a Color.” Leonardo, vol. 53, no. 5, Oct.
2020, pp. 584–85. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_r_01948.
Lee, Yeseung. “The White-Clad People: The White Hanbok and Korean Nationalism.”
Cultural Dynamics, vol. 34, no. 4, Nov. 2022, pp. 271–96. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1177/09213740221117811.
“Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s.” Hammer Museum,
hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2024/only-young-experimental-art-korea-1960s-1970s. Accessed 13 Nov. 2024.
Artist Statement: Michelle Hong
