Recent Projects: 2015 - 2023
Militant Monarch
Cut Piece 2 Sew Piece / Anthropocene 2 Symbiocene
MORE-HOPE-LESS / Masking Hope
March of the Monarch (How To Fly A Tank)
El Tanketazo de Mariposa / Skywalk
TANKS
Liar, Liar, Tanks on Fire / Tanks, A LOT / Gwangju / Children
Wish Wisely / Meow Mix
Butterfly Letters (In Others' Words)
a body of work borrowing text from others
Black Letters (Above / Below The Law)
a body of work informed by legal concepts, culture, and materials
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For selected time-based works ► please go to Videos
Militant Monarch 2015 -
This body of work dovetails two seemingly disparate signifiers - that of the butterfly as a universal symbol of beauty with signifiers of war (military fatigue, bicycle-powered butterfly tank), intended to produce a humorous, yet dissonant reception by audiences.
March of the Monarch (How To Fly A Tank) Vancouver, 2018
Skywalk UBC Okanagan, Kelowna, 2016
Cut Piece 2 Sew Peace CSA, Vancouver 2020
Anthropocene 2 Symbiocene CSA, Vancouver 2020
Camouflage 2023 - (upcoming work)
Tailor: Blair Shapera
Photos: Pong Yananissorn
Skywalk 2016
performance still, Knox Mountain / UBC Okanagan, Kelowna
Photo: Ashok Mathur
El Tanketazo de Mariposa
FUSE, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver
November 6, 2015
El Tanketazto de Mariposa is the first public performance in the Militant Monarch Series, with the butterfly-covered, bicycle-powered tank. Poem of the artist's uncle, Moon Ik-hwan (문 익환), was recited in Korean, French, and Spanish in front of a largely Anglophone audience, intended to produce frustration and partial communication.
Project Assistance: Mariane Bourcheix-Laporte, Igor Santizo, Stefan Smulovitz
Curator: Glenn Alteen
Video: Elisha Burrows
Photo: Pong Yananissorn
March of the Monarch (How To Fly A Tank)
Participatory public performance from Science World to Granville Island, Vancouver, grunt gallery (off-site project)
August 30, 2018
Project assistance: Dan Pon, Igor Santizo, Robyn Volk
Music: Tazza Drum Troup
Curator: Glenn Alteen
Program: grunt off-site program and the Granville Island Activation Grant
Video & editing: Rosalina Libertad and Jaime Torres
Photo: John Culbert
Cut Piece 2 Sew Peace 2020
CSA Space, Vancouver October 30, 2020
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the audience was invited to cut out fabric from the butterfly tank, thereby destroying it. The fabric pieces were then sewn into protective masks. Funds raised from the masks were donated to British Columbia's First Nations legal defence funds.
Photo: Maksim Bentsianov
Masks: Beya Design, Masks 4 Hope
Covid Community 2020
photocollage, November - December 2020
Participants / donors were invited to take selfies with their new butterfly-patterned masks. The selfies were collaged together to document a sustained virtual community in spite of, and through the physical distancing of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Special thanks to:
Surrey Art Gallery, CSA Space, Beya Design, Masks 4 Hope
Anthropocene 2 Symbiocene 2020
CSA Space, Vancouver
October 30 - December 27, 2020
Photo: courtesy of the artist
Anthropocene 2 Symbiocene 2020
CSA Space, Vancouver
October 30 - December 27, 2020
Photo: courtesy of the artist
Anthropocene (Birds of Prey) 2020
printed fabric, paper cut-out
Photos: courtesy of the artist
Symbiocene 2020
printed fabric, paper cut-out
Photos: courtesy of the artist
Wish Wisely 2020
Wish Wisely is a group of miniature sculptural and photographic works that combine biomaterials collected from two species and juxtaposing them into whimsical vignettes.
Wish Wisely (chicken wishbone, human molar)
Photo: courtesy of the artist
Wish Wisely 2020
Hold Me Gently (butterfly cocoon, human molars)
The First Teeth (after Bill Reid) (clam shell, human molars)
Clammy Hand (clam shell, human molar)
Sweet Tooth (bumble bee, human molar)
Photo: courtesy of the artist
Meow Mix 2020
Meow Mix is a group of miniature sculptural and photographic works that combine biomaterials collected from cats and humans and juxtaposing them into whimsical vignettes.
Photo: courtesy of the artist
Meow Mix 2020
Extensions (cat claws, human molar)
Shooting Star (cat whiskers, seal skin)
Cloud Puff (cat fur, human molar, mirror)
My Furry Valentine (photo collage)
Photo: courtesy of the artist
Masking Hope 2021
(Ré)agir / (Re)act AXENÉO7, Gatineau
September 22 to October 23, 2021
Masking Hope is a 5-channel video installation and performance. They were produced in response to the Covid pandemic and ongoing debates over how masking impacted collective rights/responsibilities, and fears/hopes.
video installations and performance:
MORE-HOPE-LESS video projection (top left)
MASKS video installation (top right)
BREATHE video projection (bottom right)
MASK (BREATHE) video installation (bottom middle)
OPEN-CLOSE performance (bottom left)
Curators: Anna Khimasia, Thomas Grondin
Photo & video: courtesy of the artist
Mask(Breathe) 2021
video installation, AXENÉO7, Gatineau QB
Video monitor installed at the back of the darkened, unfinished closet space within the gallery.
Photo & video: courtesy of the artist
Liar Liar Your Tanks are on Fire 2022
(photocollage of the Ukrainian War)
Photo: courtesy of the artist (using stock photos)
Butterfly Tanks/Children/Sky 2022
(photocollages of the Ukrainian War)
Liar Liar YourTanks are on Fire 2022 (top row)
Ukrainian Children 2022 (middle row)
Butterfly Skies 2022 (bottom row)
Photo: courtesy of the artist (using stock photos)
Tanks, A Lot 2022
(photocollage of stock photos)
Prague Spring 1968
Photo: courtesy of the artist (using stock photos)
Tanks, A Lot 2022
(photocollage of stock photos)
Korean War 1950 -1953 (top middle, top right)
Prague Spring 1968 (top left, middle row left)
Tiananmen 1989 (middle)
Afghanistan 2001-2021 (bottom row)
Photo: courtesy of the artist (using stock photos)
Gwangju (5.18) 2022
Photocollage of the Gwangju Uprising.
On May 18, 1980, in response to a military coup and imposition of martial law, the citizens of Gwangju, Korea began a massive demonstration. The military reacted by indiscriminately killing an estimated 1000 to 2000 people. In 1996, General Chun Doo-hwan was prosecuted for his role in the massacre. He was sentenced to death, but pardoned the following year.
Photo: courtesy of the artist (using stock photos)
Gwangju (5.18) 2022
Photocollages of the Gwangju Uprising.
Photo: courtesy of the artist (using stock photos)
In Others' Words 2021
Words that we have spoken (after Nietzsche)
printed fabric, paper cut-out, 12 x 18
Text-based works borrowing words from various authors / artists
Photos: courtesy of the artist
In Others' Words 2021
printed fabric, paper cut-out, various dimensions
con toda palabra (after Lhasa de Sela)
TOO MUCH HAPPINESS (after Alice Munro)
JOSHUA JUDGES RUTH (after Lyle Lovett)
tender (after Laiwan)
THE FIRE NEXT/THIS TIME (after James Baldwin)
Words waited inside her pen like teeth inside her gums
(after Arundhati Roy)
Words that we have spoken (after Nietzsche)
Photos: courtesy of the artist
Guilty, Not Guilty 2021
performative works informed by legal concepts, culture, and materials
Photo: courtesy of the artist
The Triumph 2021
found book, bookshelf designed for a single book
12" x 6" x 1"
Photo: courtesy of the artist
ABOVE / UNDER / BELOW 2023
printed fabric, paper cut-out
48" x 36"
Photo: courtesy of the artist
"1764" 2023
printed fabric, paper cut-out (12 x 16);
part of the tryptich, 1764, 1774, 1867
The Seven Years War officially ended with the Treaty of Paris (1763), with the British securing colonial control over much of Turtle Island. One year after the Royal Proclamation (1763), Treaty of Niagara (1764) was signed by 24 First Nations - in "peace, friendship and respect". It laid the foundation for a constitutional recognition and protection of First Nations rights in Canada. By 1867, the words "friendship" and "respect" were scrubbed from the final draft of the British North America Act, the precursor to the Constitution Act, 1982.
Today, over two and a half centuries later, what would Indigenous relations look like, if the founding words of Canada's Constitution were peaceful "friendship" and "respect"?
Photo: courtesy of the artist