energetic constellations (2022)
energetic constellations was featured in the group exhibition "Space-States and Other Realms" at the Charles Addams Fine Arts Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
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In this video series, I offer my investigation of reality through my personal framework of healing from societally induced, generationally inherited trauma as a queer Asian woman in conjunction with my spiritual and life journey. I aspire to explore themes such as inward connection, nondualism, and union with the divine.
Through video work, I chose to document my observations, learnings, and reflections, which were all collected and synthesized through the lens of my experiences navigating societal systems of oppression as an intersectionally marginalized individual.
I wish that the natural byproducts of this exploration will include supportive energy for viewers who recognize my vocabulary, as well as exposure of the inequitable systems that thrive on our disconnection from our communities, our ecosystems, ourselves.
My primary audience is other queer Asian women, but I hope that my creations will be appreciated by others who don’t fit neatly in the box and are in touch with their inner divinity.
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Yes! Reverence to the Divine, who constantly performs the five Acts
(of creation, preservation, reabsorption, concealment, and revelation)—
and who, by so doing, reveals the ultimate reality of one’s own Self,
which is nothing but the Joy of Awareness.—The Recognition Sūtras: A translation and explanation
of 'The Heart of the Teachings on the Recognition of
Oneself as God' (Pratyabhijñā-hṛdayam) by hareesh
energetic constellations (2022) is the final iteration of this series.
It is a looping two-channel video work exploring themes of nondualism,
contemplation, cycles, and conscious alignment with nature.
For the visual elements, I incorporated my previously digitally drawn animations,
found footage, high resolution fractal renders from my collaborator Austin,
scenes from nature, imagery from the Korean Tibetan Buddhist tradition,
other Korean cultural motifs, cellular videos of the wound healing processes,
immunocytochemically stained inflammatory macrophages,
and scanning electron microscopy images.
Not only is this visual narrative unique to my aesthetic
as a queer spiritual Korean artist-scientist,
but it also aligns with learnings from my spiritual practice,
such as the duality of light and shadow,
the sacred interconnectedness of life,
and the cyclical nature of the universe.
Through the lens of my own eccentric constellations
of personally relevant imagery,
I hope to remind the viewer of the fundamentally shared experience
of remembering who we truly are.
music is courtesy of Austin Jackson.
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Iteration 1 (2022) explores themes of duality, contemplation, cycles, and
conscious alignment with nature. With this looping video work,
I intended to evoke a meditative state in the viewer.
I have overlaid a video of myself flowing with my fiber optic whip
to Nora En Pure’s 2021 track Luscious Rain.
Although I incorporated some tropes associated with psychedelic imagery,
such as the spinning sunflower and a shifting kaleidoscope overlay,
I aimed to combine these elements in an unexpected way.
I drew from Pipilotti Rist’s Sip My Ocean for the mirrored elements
to not only implicate the reflective nature of the transcendental experience,
but also to reference the duality of nature.
These mirrored movements repeat themselves
in order to demonstrate alignment with the cyclical nature of the universe.
In line with other aspects of my practice,
I used Buddhist motifs as a reference to the contemplative philosophies
that underlie the conceptual basis of this video.
I would like to invite the audience to look inwards
and connect with their own inner spaciousness
while viewing, by contemplating the question:
what is present for me at this moment?
spectrum of my busy mind (2022) is a portrayal of my mind in a meditative state.
This work explores themes of duality, contemplation, cycles,
and conscious alignment with nature.
With this looping video work, I intended
to evoke a contemplative state in the viewer
by sharing an interpretive rendition of
my own internal mental sequence in meditation.
I drew from the work Right Here, Out there (Nowhere)
by Nadia Hironaka & Matthew Suib
for the directional tracking movement of the video.
However, I chose to align my footage in a vertical orientation.
This is because I visualize my breath, sensations, emotions, and thoughts
passing through me through the plumb line of my spine,
or danda in the yogic tradition,
during meditation practice.
The fluidly shifting, mirrored mandala that oscillates between
small and large, opaque and transparent,
represents the breath.
Breath is an ever-present aspect of our conscious awareness,
particularly in mindfulness meditation.
As such, the mandala maintains a continuous presence throughout the work.