“I reimagine precolonial Korean folk and spiritual practices to reflect contemporary diasporic perspectives…. My work aims to transgress older traditions, regenerating them within new contexts.”
The evolution of artist A young Yu's practice—from painting as a BFA student at Rhode Island School of Design, to performance and installation while pursuing her MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University—has allowed her to have an expansive approach in her artmaking, addressing collective experiences through interactive and communal processes.
Yu collaborates not only with other artists, including her longtime partner Nicholas Oh, but also incorporates family members and Asian American immigrant communities into her work. For example, Yu and Oh based a recent project on a Korean tradition of buying and selling dreams, which has historical roots dating back to the twelfth century. They collected dreams from Asian American immigrants, loved ones, and others in exchange for hand-thrown porcelain vessels rather than money. During the isolation of the COVID-19 lockdown and amidst a surge in anti-Asian hate crimes, Yu and Oh built an archive of these purchased dreams, inspiring their work Offering of Dreams (2023), an environment created for staging and exchanging dreams.
Within a period of three years, Yu also produced a series of performance-based films. In each case, she and her collaborators developed the works by figuring out which elements to discard or change while still honoring sacred ancestral connections. Blood Memory (2021–22) is a filmic performance series that reimagines Korean ancestral rituals centered on blood memory, a practice that allows participants to recall and embody memories of their ancestors. Rites (2022) is a similar series that reimagine the ancestral ritual jesa, a memorial service featuring offerings of food, wine, and vocal recitations. In addition, The Passage (2022) is a theatrical dance performance set within an immersive installation that reimagines prehistoric caves and grottos, incorporating five hundred hand-carved ceramic tiles, ash, wood, and earth constructed by the artist. This performance also centers on the Korean ancestral ritual of ssitkimgut, during which the spirits of the deceased are cleansed and guided into the afterlife to join with their ancestors.
Mourning Rituals (2020–22), one of Yu’s first filmic reinventions of rituals, also features performances derived from ssitkimgut. Recorded over two years starting in January 2020, the video spans diverse locations including: Kauai, Hawaii; the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea; Hudson Valley, New York; and installations created in her own studio. It comprises a montage of immersive, elaborately staged scenes set to a haunting soundtrack inspired by traditional Korean shaman chants. The artist explained, “We referenced all four seasons and incorporated elements to represent cycles throughout the year,” combining day and night scenes and indoor and outdoor settings.
Over nearly twenty-two minutes, we see Yu deeply engaged in various rituals, interacting with soil, swamps, and bodies of water. She sucks on flower petals, covers her body with organic materials, and prepares kimchi alongside her mother, preserving the food in an elaborate ceramic container. While Yu is the primary figure conducting an array of rituals, she also takes on the role of observer and student of these traditions. In one scene, she peers over her mother’s shoulder as they prepare kimchi and observes the performance of dancer and choreographer Sohye Kim within a ring of fire.
These moments highlight the multigenerational legacy of these practices and how they are passed down through observation and collaboration among women. Although the rituals are intended to mourn the passing of individuals, Yu’s video emphasizes that they also provide comfort and solace for the living in sustaining tradition. Despite the context of death and loss, Mourning Rituals suggests that their continuation can ensure the longevity of culture and community. —Kanitra Fletcher