"A Feminist History of Kimchi"
Margaret Rhee
Exhibition at "Eating Cultures" SOMArts, San Francisco, 2014
Asian American Women Artists Association :: http://aawaa.net/
Curated by Michelle Lee
Images courtesy of Chris Matos
Graphic Design by The Mystery Parade
In 2000, artist Ray Beldner received a fellowship to Korea. He decided to make a dynamic bust of Douglas MacArthur made all out of Kimchi. The artist stated: “I united our two countries by combining two of our traditional ‘products’ into a silly temporary monument to the general.” Yet, for the Korean American feminist, the MacArthur kimchi bust provokes questions on the politics of empire, food, and feminism. Historian Ji-Yeon Yuh’s “Cooking American, Eating Korean” demonstrates, kimchi is not simply a “product,” but served as emotional sustenance for Korean military brides in the 1950’s. Spurned by Yuh’s Korean diasporic feminist history and the Beldner's bust, I wrote a poem the poem "A Feminist History of Kimchi," which was published in the anthology Conversations at the Wartime Cafe (edited by Sean Y Manzano) in 2011. I was invited to read at Revolution Books in Honolulu, Hawai'i in 2012, and when I read the poem, I prompted the audience members to write "kimchi poetry" with me. The publication and reading of
"A Feminist History of Kimchi" prompted an ongoing feminist exploration—methods, poetics, and histories—of kimchi.
My participatory poetry project "Kimchi Poetry Project," includes the series “A Feminist History of Kimchi,” where over 350 people have contributed poetry lines for collaborative and collaged poems. Additionally, excerpts from my poem "A Feminist History of Kimchi" has been fermented in small bottles and entitled accordingly for the installation. "A Feminist History of Kimchi" is a visual, literary, and participatory examination of the role of food, women, and poetry within mainstream, Asian American, and particularly Korean American culture. My project asks: What feminist methods, histories, and stories can we unearth and create through the poetics of kimchi?
Thank you:
Michelle Lee, The Mystery Parade, Max Medina, Cynthia Tom, Shari DeBoer, Asian American Women Artists Association, Ji Yeon Yuh, Debbie Yee, Billy Gong, Rachel Ebora, Takeo Rivera, Diane Rivera, Rona Luo, Dan Lau, Paul Ocampo, Juana Maria Rodriguez, Keely Hysop, and Sean Y Manzano
Margaret Rhee
Exhibition at "Eating Cultures" SOMArts, San Francisco, 2014
Asian American Women Artists Association :: http://aawaa.net/
Curated by Michelle Lee
Images courtesy of Chris Matos
Graphic Design by The Mystery Parade
In 2000, artist Ray Beldner received a fellowship to Korea. He decided to make a dynamic bust of Douglas MacArthur made all out of Kimchi. The artist stated: “I united our two countries by combining two of our traditional ‘products’ into a silly temporary monument to the general.” Yet, for the Korean American feminist, the MacArthur kimchi bust provokes questions on the politics of empire, food, and feminism. Historian Ji-Yeon Yuh’s “Cooking American, Eating Korean” demonstrates, kimchi is not simply a “product,” but served as emotional sustenance for Korean military brides in the 1950’s. Spurned by Yuh’s Korean diasporic feminist history and the Beldner's bust, I wrote a poem the poem "A Feminist History of Kimchi," which was published in the anthology Conversations at the Wartime Cafe (edited by Sean Y Manzano) in 2011. I was invited to read at Revolution Books in Honolulu, Hawai'i in 2012, and when I read the poem, I prompted the audience members to write "kimchi poetry" with me. The publication and reading of
"A Feminist History of Kimchi" prompted an ongoing feminist exploration—methods, poetics, and histories—of kimchi.
My participatory poetry project "Kimchi Poetry Project," includes the series “A Feminist History of Kimchi,” where over 350 people have contributed poetry lines for collaborative and collaged poems. Additionally, excerpts from my poem "A Feminist History of Kimchi" has been fermented in small bottles and entitled accordingly for the installation. "A Feminist History of Kimchi" is a visual, literary, and participatory examination of the role of food, women, and poetry within mainstream, Asian American, and particularly Korean American culture. My project asks: What feminist methods, histories, and stories can we unearth and create through the poetics of kimchi?
Thank you:
Michelle Lee, The Mystery Parade, Max Medina, Cynthia Tom, Shari DeBoer, Asian American Women Artists Association, Ji Yeon Yuh, Debbie Yee, Billy Gong, Rachel Ebora, Takeo Rivera, Diane Rivera, Rona Luo, Dan Lau, Paul Ocampo, Juana Maria Rodriguez, Keely Hysop, and Sean Y Manzano