50/ Through the Crack

2015
By Bonam Kim
Duration: 4:58 min.
Recommended by YiWen Wang

How does this work investigate “hope?”
”Bonam Kim’s performance Through the Crack was made in response to her experience of moving from South Korea to the United States. Enclosing herself in a moving box made out of four doors which cannot be opened from the outside, Kim thematizes her sense of interpersonal and cultural borders, taking control of a circumstance that is mutually shocking and alienating. Navigating the urban environment by way of a crack between doors and visible only as an architecture on wheels, the artist draws poignant analogies to the narrow-mindedness and objectification which immigrants and foreigners often encounter. Nonetheless, the video work pleasantly surprises the viewer as the city and its inhabitants express their curiosity about the artist and her moveable armature with humor and sincerity.” —YiWen Wang

About the work:
“This performance expresses a collision between a sense of displacement and feelings of fear that I feel as a cultural outsider. I made 4 doors scaled to my body size. They are hinged together to create a prop for my performance. After adding wheels to the bottom, I enclosed myself in the doors and journeyed out into the city, I was only able to find my way by peering through a crack between the doors.” —Bonam Kim