Inspired by a flock of migrating birds, Jihee Min uses devices made to mimic wings in her exhibition A Few Flaps to Belong. The work draws a parallel between the longing for flight and the desire to cope with a foreign land. Min, a graduate of OCAD U, had “a magical encounter where a flock of birds flew above me, so low to the ground that I noticed their flapping sound,” she says in her artist statement.
The flight-related works in the exhibition evoke a romantic notion of flying in relation to Min’s yearning for home and desire to belong. A Korea-born Canadian, she explores art as way of formulating a voice for an identity. She uses cyanotype, (an outdated camera-less photographic technique that produces deep cyan-blue prints) to create nostalgia as part of her ongoing struggle for grounding the Korean Diaspora within a Canadian identity.
Jihee Min’s website, here.
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Interesting message, and the cyan blue is mesmerizing.
I’ve not seen much of the cyanotype technique, but I’ve read recently that it’s become very popular recently. Am on the lookout for it because I think it’s beautiful.