EO – Your childhood was spent in Korea, but you spent much of your adult life in the US. For myself, being a child of immigrants, I feel that I’m constantly navigating a sort of dual identity. I very much feel American, or even Western, but there’s a part of me that can tell that I’m connected to cultures, histories, and ancestors that exist outside of that limited worldview. I believe you referred to the same type of understanding as, “being in two places at once.” Can you speak to this duality of your identity, and how it plays into your work?
MK – You could say creating this world around me through work is always an attempt to ground myself, and that comes from that sense of duality — or that sense of being an alien everywhere. When I came to the US, I realized that I'm a foreigner here. At that moment, I didn't realize that that relationship is also reversed when you go back home. So, you're kind of stuck. You don't really get that strong sense of identity through your citizenship or what country you belong to anymore. However, I’m finding community through making my work. The past decade, I've been studying painting, architecture, and design, and that gives me my strongest sense of belonging. Especially since I'm able to be in the US through that. I have an artist’s visa, so there's this funny sense of work almost coming first, because now it is not my passport or citizenship that is allowing me to be here. Technically it is, but it comes through what I create. Everyone that I meet, whether it’s in Korea or in the US, is inevitably part of my world. So being more specific with my work, and getting in touch with people who understand that and appreciate it, becomes my place of comfort. It makes me feel grounded.