@article{ART003146541},
author={Young Ji Lee},
title={Sartorial Mediums : Cultural Translation and 20th‑Century Korean American Artists},
journal={Journal of History of Modern Art},
issn={1598-7728},
year={2024},
number={56},
pages={29-59}
TY - JOUR
AU - Young Ji Lee
TI - Sartorial Mediums : Cultural Translation and 20th‑Century Korean American Artists
JO - Journal of History of Modern Art
PY - 2024
VL - null
IS - 56
PB - 현대미술사학회
SP - 29
EP - 59
SN - 1598-7728
AB - This article delves into the use of clothing and textiles in the works of Korean American artists Lanhei Kim Park, Nam June Paik, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, and Yong Soon Min, who settled in the United States after the Japanese colonial period, from the vantage point of cultural translation. Unlike the cultural translation practiced by foreign visitors to Joseon since the late 19th century, these Korean artists, who immigrated to the United States, encountered modernization, colonialism, imperialism, racism, and postcolonialism, which they interpreted through intercultural differences and compatibility. Through their art, they act as cultural translators, embedding their voices into their creative work. Lanhei Kim Park, for instance, experienced racialized femininity directed toward Asian women by Americans, and responded to the xenoracial gaze of the other by adjusting the translatability of cheongsam, photography, and books as combined media. Nam June Paik, as a Korean American, conveys his multilayered identity using digital montages of ethnographic data and traditional Korean garments. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, as an “exile,” explores the untranslatability of her status and experience of displacement through semiotic and linguistic experimentation, expressed in her performance and design works. Yong Soon Min maximizes the communicative potential of T‑shirts to raise awareness of the “comfort women” issue globally and connects global diaspora networks through activist art. Through these means, Korean American artists experiment with the translatability or untranslatability of clothing and textiles and explore historical issues of modernization, colonialism, imperialism, and feminism within multilateral relationships among Korea, the United States, and Japan.
KW - cultural translation;Lanhei Kim Park;Nam June Paik;Theresa Hak Kyung Cha;Yong Soon Min;Korean Americans;diaspora;medium;trans‐genre art;multi‐media
DO -
UR -
ER -
Young Ji Lee. (2024). Sartorial Mediums : Cultural Translation and 20th‑Century Korean American Artists. Journal of History of Modern Art, 56, 29-59.
Young Ji Lee. 2024, "Sartorial Mediums : Cultural Translation and 20th‑Century Korean American Artists", Journal of History of Modern Art, no.56, pp.29-59.
Young Ji Lee "Sartorial Mediums : Cultural Translation and 20th‑Century Korean American Artists" Journal of History of Modern Art 56 pp.29-59 (2024) : 29.
Young Ji Lee. Sartorial Mediums : Cultural Translation and 20th‑Century Korean American Artists. 2024; 56 : 29-59.
Young Ji Lee. "Sartorial Mediums : Cultural Translation and 20th‑Century Korean American Artists" Journal of History of Modern Art no.56(2024) : 29-59.
Young Ji Lee. Sartorial Mediums : Cultural Translation and 20th‑Century Korean American Artists. Journal of History of Modern Art, 56, 29-59.
Young Ji Lee. Sartorial Mediums : Cultural Translation and 20th‑Century Korean American Artists. Journal of History of Modern Art. 2024; 56 29-59.
Young Ji Lee. Sartorial Mediums : Cultural Translation and 20th‑Century Korean American Artists. 2024; 56 : 29-59.
Young Ji Lee. "Sartorial Mediums : Cultural Translation and 20th‑Century Korean American Artists" Journal of History of Modern Art no.56(2024) : 29-59.
