Jamie Jiwon Park: 밥 먹었어? HAVE YOU EATEN
Location T293, Rome
DateJune 1 - July 9, 2022
T293 is pleased is present 밥 먹었어? HAVE YOU EATEN, the first solo exhibition by New-York based artist Jamie Jiwon Park. On display a series of large-scale mixed-media paintings.
Jamie Jiwon Park (b. 1998, New York) creatively honors the invisible labor of domestic spaces by contextualizing powerful caretakers in a radically imagined, tech-infused, alternate future. Raised in Los Angeles by Korean immigrants, Park’s diasporic history informs much of their work. Through imagery that blends tech iconography with Korean and western references, Park visualizes a rapidly diversifying future. Looking forward, she/they embrace the complexity of identity and question how cultural preservation, the blurring of gender roles, nostalgia, and technology will shape future domestic labor. Imagining strong, financially-independent caretakers supporting themselves at home, Park pulls from personal and collective minor feelings about food preparation, eating, and domestic manners to visualize convincing, alternate futures for their lineage.
As the viewer walks through Park’s exhibition, they follow the cycles of preparing, cooking, serving, and enjoying home-cooked food. The bright neon and pastel palette embellish this daily process with a synthetic edge, but the references in each piece go beyond the visual. Park incorporates traditional Korean spices, grains, and mulberry paper into their paintings, as well as US-sourced dry ingredients. Her/Their style nods to Korean artists such as Kang Un, Kim Jong-sook and Cho Mi-young, who use non-traditional painting materials and high volume, repetitive motifs to create alternate worlds. In the piece 간식드세요 PLEASE HAVE A SNACK Park hand cuts and paints over 800 individual pieces of cut fruit to celebrate and provide a meal-finishing dessert for those that have sacrificed time cutting, peeling and serving fruit.
밥 먹었어? HAVE YOU EATEN remembers the comfort of a loving caretaker, but one who checks in with themself as they would a loved one. The implicit, “How are you?” in 밥 먹었어? (Have you eaten?) cradles the receiver with care. This body of work ultimately serves as an offering for Park, to honor the selfless caretakers that fed, supported and loved her/them.
Jamie Jiwon Park (b. 1998, New York) creatively honors the invisible labor of domestic spaces by contextualizing powerful caretakers in a radically imagined, tech-infused, alternate future. Raised in Los Angeles by Korean immigrants, Park’s diasporic history informs much of their work. Through imagery that blends tech iconography with Korean and western references, Park visualizes a rapidly diversifying future. Looking forward, she/they embrace the complexity of identity and question how cultural preservation, the blurring of gender roles, nostalgia, and technology will shape future domestic labor. Imagining strong, financially-independent caretakers supporting themselves at home, Park pulls from personal and collective minor feelings about food preparation, eating, and domestic manners to visualize convincing, alternate futures for their lineage.
As the viewer walks through Park’s exhibition, they follow the cycles of preparing, cooking, serving, and enjoying home-cooked food. The bright neon and pastel palette embellish this daily process with a synthetic edge, but the references in each piece go beyond the visual. Park incorporates traditional Korean spices, grains, and mulberry paper into their paintings, as well as US-sourced dry ingredients. Her/Their style nods to Korean artists such as Kang Un, Kim Jong-sook and Cho Mi-young, who use non-traditional painting materials and high volume, repetitive motifs to create alternate worlds. In the piece 간식드세요 PLEASE HAVE A SNACK Park hand cuts and paints over 800 individual pieces of cut fruit to celebrate and provide a meal-finishing dessert for those that have sacrificed time cutting, peeling and serving fruit.
밥 먹었어? HAVE YOU EATEN remembers the comfort of a loving caretaker, but one who checks in with themself as they would a loved one. The implicit, “How are you?” in 밥 먹었어? (Have you eaten?) cradles the receiver with care. This body of work ultimately serves as an offering for Park, to honor the selfless caretakers that fed, supported and loved her/them.
Jamie Jiwon Park – 밥 먹었어? HAVE YOU EATEN
