This artwork uses close cropping to create portraits of four overseas Koreans living in Jilin Province, China and in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan while they sing Minyo Korean folk songs. The women depicted on screen sing the familiar melodies of Minyo with slight variations, their awkward pronunciation and lyrics reflecting the lived realities of their respective regions. This work focuses on Minyo as the sounds of the people that originate from and become transmitted among the ethnic community, traversing territories along with human displacements. Moreover, it reveals the contemporary cultural identity that corresponds to the official history of the “Korean diaspora” and the voluntary or involuntary migrations that have taken place throughout Korea’s modern and contemporary history. The facial and vocal expressions of the people singing Minyo, as well as their clothing and hairstyles, offer perspectives into their individual characteristics and allow us to gauge the physical distance and cultural differences between these dispersed communities in their current lives.
