Emilie Kim

Being bicultural means to navigate multicultural experiences, walking on the line of societal conformity and individuality. My conflicting experiences prompt me to question my Korean-American heritage, exploring its bittersweetness.

Drawing from the landscape of my body and the reservoirs of my memory, I sculpt layers of my identity, utilizing contrasting forms, colors, and materials. The layers construct the intertwining narratives of my existence, represented through physical and imagined environments. I explore the passages within my mind, gathering fragments of the past, finding comfort in familiar views and allowing vulnerability in openings.

As I build vast and miniature worlds primarily with clay, I unravel the sometimes appreciative, at other times critical, intricacies of identity and the challenges of authenticity as a Korean-American by translating the intangible through the tangible. Fragile and durable, malleable and stubborn, clay speaks of my identity, forever changed and forever changing.