MAGO
MAGO is a piece on erasure and unraveling shame in matriarchal diaspora lineage created primarily by Caroline Yoo and supported by myself. Caroline and I connected through our shared experiences of the Korean diaspora to create a ritual performance around memory, erasure, and a recognition of violence on Asian bodies.
I paint one invisible Korean phrase written by my mother to myself in a letter, wiping, re-writing, dripping, cleaning. Caroline performs an original flute composition overlaid with tapes of Korean traditional song storytelling 'pansori' from her grandmother's collection. An infrared camera watches us, picking up on the heat of our bodies and the ice cold paint-water. A poem spoken by Caroline tells the story of MAGO, a Korean goddess whose narrative disappeared from Korean mythology.
This piece was performed as part of Fail-Safe Festival at Kelly Strayhorn Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA. Organized by Scott Andrew, Angela Washko, and Jesse Stiles.
