Beyond Bloodlines

The stories we carry influence our identities, grounding our cultural awareness by creating a framework to make sense of the world. The drawings in Beyond Bloodlines intertwine Korean folklore with elements derived from Eurocentric mythologies, exposing the entangled narratives I navigate as an immigrant and multi-ethnic woman.

Stories are a way to encode social expectations and pass them on to future generations. There are lessons embedded within them that circumscribe our behavior and often justify the subordination and vilification of women. In these stories, women who deviate from narrow definitions of socially acceptable behavior are transformed into monsters, made invisible, and treated as outcasts. However, these cautionary tales that diminish and devalue women may also provide the most fertile pathways to more authentic expressions of feminine strength and sexuality. The monsters that inhabit the borders of behavior have become trailblazers, guides to ecstatic release from oppressive ideologies.