ARTIST STATEMENT
There exists a perpetuated narrative that the US freed the Korean peninsula from Japan at the end of WWII. The real story begins 40 years prior, with William Howard Taft condoning the Japanese subjugation of Korea in a classified letter. The US “rescue” of Korea from a fate they directly influenced did little to blunt the resulting shockwaves of an impoverished nation, families separated during the Korean War, and mass adoptions that lasted even into 1974 when my mother was adopted by an American GI. The hegemonic history omits inconvenient truths and renders the origins of these stories invisible. The powerful dictate what is recorded and in doing so disempower and strip the other of their voice
Distortions is a series of photographed projections in my personal living space. These images also live in Paper Ghosts. Both works are an experimentation with archival photographs found in the US National Archives of the Korean War and its aftermath. Distortions is my attempt to show this history isn’t relegated to the past, but bleeds into our present. Paper Ghosts comes from a place of healing. When creating a gum bi-chromate print, the initial coating is washed off several times; an erasure that reveals a ghostly image when using hanji paper. I use the suture stitch to connect the prints as if stitching skin back together to heal a wound. In person, the hanji gum-bichromate prints have a particularly dried skin-like quality. The resulting tapestry with this texture is simultaneously comforting and haunting.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Doria Choi is an interdisciplinary artist and a second generation Chinese-Korean immigrant who was born and raised in New York City. She grew up training in ballet, but had to reevaluate her trajectory moving forward after an injury. Doria started at New York University drifting aimlessly and eventually transferred to/graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a BFA. She focused in photography and had a formative professor that instilled an appreciation for research informed practice. Following graduation, she immediately jumped into a UI/UX design job. Feeling unfulfilled and frankly mentally/creatively drained, Doria left after two years to pursue art full time. During this time she also moved with her loving and supportive partner to Seattle, WA where they now live. Doria’s family history deeply informs her work and interests. She strives to use physical materials that support the research. Other than work on familial ties, she enjoys searching for the play of light/shadow and shooting architecture as well.
© Doria Choi