Yong Soon Min: Art Connecting With Cultural Experiences

Yong Soon Min is a Korean born artist that emigrated from South Korea to the United States as a seven year-old child. Having been born at the end of the Korean War and growing up in the Cold War Era, she felt a strong connection to her cultural ties and grew up with some discomfort in having to adjust to life as a an immigrant.
She derives inspiration for her artwork through her own personal experiences as both Asian and American while embodying the motto “Personal is political” (Oxford University Press 317). A great deal of her work is done in a mixed media format or as a performance piece and often calls for audience participation (Oxford University Press 317).
DMZ-XING
Yong Soon Min, DMZ-XING, 1994, (Mixed-Media Installation)
One such piece by Min is called DMZ-XING (1994), a mixed-media piece taking its name from the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Yong Soon Min created an installation in 19pictures, and a series of narrative texts strewn about (Min 134). Here, she was capturing and retelling her own story as well as the stories of several families from Asia—Cambodia, Korea, Viet Nam, and others—that escaped from their homelands due to the onslaught of wars, and the experiences that they encountered while acclimating to the new experiences they would find for themselves in America (Min 134). Particularly in focus within the art piece is the story of a Laotian man, Mr. Saengaly, who fled with his wife to America after he had been a prisoner of war at a Viet Cong re-education camp during the Viet Nam War (Min 136). Pictures and the accompanying story tell of how he went from a farmer that was able to exist and live peacefully in his native home to how he came to America and found a life and work that was more modest—but at the same time he missed his old life, where he could work for himself.
Uprooting from home in order to flee a war or start a new life immersed in a new culture is an unfortunate yet common reality that connects the cultural experiences of many families that came from countries in Asia—an experience that the artist also shared with the families in the piece.
American Friend
Yong Soon Min, American Friend, 1984 (Drawing)
Min’s piece, American Friend (1984), is a mixed media drawing inspired by a photograph of her father with a group of people—a few Korean men (in military uniforms) and women (in civilian clothing) with one American man as the central figure.
In Min’s drawn rendition of the photograph, the Korean figures are in plain black and white while the American man’s army clothing stands out as it is green. This seems to evoke the idea that the white man is viewed with greater importance than the rest of the group. Also note that the drawing’s title, American Friend, has army camouflage colors and two of the Korean figures at the front part of the drawing closest to the text written in Hangul (the Korean language in written form) are stepping on the “friend” part of the title of the drawing. This seems to indicate that friend is being interpreted quite loosely.
Upon first glance it would appear that the piece is an expression of gratitude toward the man at the center, but text written vertically on a wall in the background at one point sarcastically thanks the “dear friend” (especially noted due to the repeated use of the phrase “dear friend”) for giving the Korean people the “gift” of militaristic dictators and nuclear missiles. The US intervention in the Korean War both protected the nation of South Korea, but the deployment of nuclear missiles as a means of protection within the country’s borders also fanned the flames of tension during the Cold War (Choi 102-103).
Back of the Bus 1953
Yong Soon Min, Back Of The Bus, 1985 (Drawing) Another drawing done by Min is titled Back of the Bus 1953 (1985). This black and white drawing is a recreation of the artist’s mother riding in the back of a bus in Seoul with other women while American GIs are closer to the front (Choi 104). Unlike the American Friend drawing, most of the people in the drawing actually show cheerful expressions (Choi 104). At the same time, the American GIs appear turned around, looking at the women at the back of the bus. The title and the women in the back of the bus parallels the racial segregation in America up to the push for civil rights for African Americans—one can certainly imagine that Min was equating the experience of the Korean women being oogled at on the back of the bus to that of Rosa Parks and other African Americans at that time (Choi 105).
Will **** for Peace
Yong Soon Min and Allan deSouza, Will **** for Peace, 2002-2003 (Mixed Media Performance Piece) One of Min’s more recent works was an installation and performance piece that was a collaboration with another artist, Allan deSouza. This piece was called Will **** for Peace (2002-2003), and it was created as a re-imagining of sorts of the protest-performance that John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, did in 1969 as their form of protesting the Viet Nam war (Oboro Museum). The piece was performed twice, for three days both times. The re-imagining was done as a response to the US involvement in both Iraq and Afghanistan. It consisted not only of the two collaborators sitting in bed performing as John Lennon and Yoko Ono, but also it included an audio of the song “Give Peace a Chance” playing in reverse. The piece was also interactive—those observing the performance piece were actually able to go up to the artists and speak with them (Oboro Museum). Also important to note is that the **** part of the performance piece’s title was not necessarily censorship of an expletive. The asterisks in the title were actually meant in the piece as encouragement for the audience to write in any words to substitute for the asterisks—so some might have put up negative words, some might have put a more positive message (Oboro Museum). Conjuring a parallel to the bed-in protest of the Viet Nam War seems like a perfect way to remind the public that art can be interpreted in many ways—almost any way that the viewer wishes—thanks to the interactivity of the piece. The piece seems like it was a way to encourage the activist movement of the Viet Nam War era, and the artists encourage their audience to join them in peace.

Works Cited
-Choi, Yookyoung, PhD. Globalization and Ethnic Identity in the Art of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Yong Soon Min, and Nikki S. Lee. Dissertation. University of Maryland. College Park: University of Maryland, 2012.

-Min, Yong Soon. "DMZ XING." Frontiers: A Journal Of Women Studies 18.1 (1997): 134-139.

-Oboro Museam. "Will **** For Peace." Will **** For Peace. Montreal: Oboro Museum, 14 June 2003.

-Oxford University Press. "Min, Yong Soon." The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art. Vol. 5. Ed. Joan M. Marter. Oxford University Press, 20 January 2011. 317-319.