Yiwon Park

‘My interdisciplinary art practice about water and light forms my own ritualised creative response to place and its impact on my sense of identity. The Pacific Ocean, the physical boundary between Korea and Australia, defines my geographical and cultural identity, identifiable as a specific geographic entity, yet being comprised of water, simultaneously formless and in a perpetual state of flux. Also, in Korean belief systems, water represents the boundary between the mortal world and the afterlife. Water and ritual have become significant aspects of my practice since my parents passed away. Making work is the way I understand the boundary in the world I live in. It is to understand the relationship between the world and myself. For me, the feeling of insecurity arises from the uncertainties that come with inhabiting not just the boundary between cultures but also between past and present, physical and psychological, life and the afterlife. My art practice has become a way for me to make sense of the untimely loss of my parents and to come to terms with my sense of never fully belonging.’