JENNY LEE

 

JENNY LEE

“Conversation(s)”

2014

4:33

This work was an exploration into the everyday and how race and ethnicity play into my own everyday. I incorporated a two recordings of conversations with my mother. They overlap over one another and cause the viewer to feel as though they are within a busy area, they are hearing the same conversation I’ve had with my mother various times. The culture clash here is apparent in the way my mother only speaks in Korean while I speak in Mostly Korean, substituting English words only when I do not know the Korean for them. This is a great parallel for our relationship, I am always tailoring the things I say to her to suit her feelings and need. The image used was one I took after one of our most difficult conversations yet. The poem overlaid on top of it is one that discusses the constant stress and pull of having family members with whom one can never truly relate. In my mind my mother is a black hole, she absorbs and never lets go of what she wants and what she wants for me despite my own wishes. I am merely debris, fighting against her gravity and these are the conversations or the same conversation we have over and over.