IN SE ARCH OF T HE C OS MOS

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "IN SE ARCH OF T HE C OS MOS"

Suzanna Wiggins
5 years ago
Views:

1 BLEED MARKS FOLD MARKS 1 CROP MARKS IN SE ARCH OF T HE C OS MOS Cosmos bipinnatus Annual Type Asteraceae Family Declared invasive by the United States Southeast Exotic Pest Plant Council

2 2

3 BLEED MARKS FOLD MARKS 3 CROP MARKS E M A N C I P A T I O N IN SEARCH OF THE COSMOS Taken May 3rd, 2014 at the Armstrong Garden Center on Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. A bed of Marigolds lay adjacent to another bed of Cosmos.

4 4 Taken May 4th 2014 at Barclay Apartments in Koreatown, Los Angeles, CA. A series of shots taken of two potted Cosmos.

5 BLEED MARKS FOLD MARKS 5 CROP MARKS THREE ENCOUNTERS There have been so far three major events in my twenty years of existence that have each involved an encounter with purple Cosmos. Visiting my grandmother s womb shaped grave in South Korea at age 7. I can see patches of cosmos airily dancing around the grassy mound on its top left corner as I walk around and around. My mother wipes a picture frame before setting it back down onto the shelf. I look to see a portrait of my grandmother with dried, pressed Cosmos placed at the bottom left corner of the frame. I am 9. At age 20 I embark on a project, seeking to celebrate the independent, yet loyal women of Korean descent and to examine their emancipation from certain social and cultural ideals. So began my search and what other way to guide and direct my research than looking back at the women of my own bloodline? A divide between my family stories and independently extracted information, Emancipation is about women and the evolution of the shifts they make in presumed societal roles from generation to generation. My studies unfolded in the most organic way, leading me from the library reserves to the heart of Koreatown. Along the way I come to certain realizations about the identity I carry. caroline parc

6 6 Adopting Cosmos as the motif imagery of my exploration has provided a balanced pool of information pertaining to the subject of this book. Strong-stemmed and highly adaptable to its growing environments, the Cosmos has come to symbolize to me the strong women of my family. I find it appropriate to interweave Cosmos into the book as it has already done so within my life span.

7 BLEED MARKS FOLD MARKS 7 CROP MARKS DAY 1 DAY 2 DAY 3 DAY 4 DAY 5 DAY 6 DAY 7 DAY 8 DAY 9 Preservation of a Cosmos Flower caroline parc

8 8

9 BLEED MARKS FOLD MARKS 9 CROP MARKS

10 10

11 BLEED MARKS FOLD MARKS 11 CROP MARKS

12 12

BLEED MARKS FOLD MARKS 13 CROP MARKS East to America Elaine H. Kim and Eui-Young Yu Stella Soon-Hi Koh Imjung Kwuon Maeun Koch u Kyong-Ae Price Kathy Kim Brenda Paik Sunoo Kyung-Ja Lee Hyun Yi Kang Y.

13 BLEED MARKS FOLD MARKS 13 CROP MARKS East to America Elaine H. Kim and Eui-Young Yu Stella Soon-Hi Koh Imjung Kwuon Maeun Koch u Kyong-Ae Price Kathy Kim Brenda Paik Sunoo Kyung-Ja Lee Hyun Yi Kang Y. Chang Serena Choi Sandy Lee Young Soon Han Yanny Rhee Nataly Kim Young Kim Sookhee Choe Kim Bong Hwan Kim Selected contributers from East to America, a collection of candid oral histories from a wide cross section of Korean Americans

14 14 EAST TO AMERICA: KOREAN AMERICAN LIFE STORIES Segments from Y. Chang s House of Haesun Warm and vulnerable-looking, Y. Chang [pseudonym] has wide-set eyes and an almost luscious smile. She wears her feelings on her face as she speaks, almost without pausing, about her life. She has a remarkable memory for exact dates and figures as well as for the taste of certain foods under certain circumstances. Born in P yongyang in northern Korea in 1941, Chang has lived in Los Angeles since Her phenomenal success in small business has been considerably slowed be a combination of factors, including economic recession and the 1992 riots in Los Angeles. I never saw my mother have a happy moment with my father. I told myself that if I ever married, I would devote my life to my husband and to make the marriage happy. That s how I treated mr. Song. I lived my life for him, but he treated me as if I were nothing. For some reason, I still keep the crystal wedding ring he gave me. But he had taken out our chonse [rent deposit lump-sum money]. I was six and a half months pregnant, and he told me to sell our Remington typewriter at the market and abort my baby. I did as he told me to; I got $120 for the typewriter, and then I went to a clinc to abort the baby. Two days later, he left. I remember the date it was June 9, 1966, one year and two days after our wedding. I couldn t even go to the airport because I was still weak from the abortion. Ten months later, on March 15, 1967, I joined him with our two-year-old son. He was studying at Claremonth College. I started at a sewing factory in downtown Los Angeles, and in the afternoons I was a maid, cooking and cleaning the rooms at the Oriental Students Center. I earned $100 a week from the sewing factory and $40 a week from the Students Center, plus two meals a day. At that time, there was only one Korean restaurant in Los Angeles, Korea House on Jefferson Boulevard near Western. There was one grocery store, on 35th and Normandie, called Oriental Food. There were several Korean churches. Jenny was born in January 1968 at the L.A. County General Hospital. Mr. Song was taking his final examinations. I checked myself in at around 7:00 A.M., and my daughter was born at 11:00 A.M. Suddenly, I remembered little Dennis. I had to leave him in the car in the parking lot while I went in to give birth. I didn t have the money to pay $115 a night for the hospital stay, so they said I could leave, but they were required to keep the newborn baby at least twenty-four hours. So I walked out of the hospital myself and went to the car. Dennis was drenched with sweat, as if he had just taken a shower. When I arrived home that evening, the seven other Korean students at the Claremont Graduate School were gathered at our place to congratulate my husband about our new baby. He didn t want them to know that we couldn t afford the money for me to stay in the hospital, so he made me hide in the filthy garage until they left. It was winter, and I was shivering with cold. Finally, I fainted.

BLEED MARKS FOLD MARKS 15 CROP MARKS EAST TO AMERICA: KOREAN AMERICAN LIFE STORIES Altogether, before I started working steadily at the machine shop, I had about thirty different jobs: I milked cows

15 BLEED MARKS FOLD MARKS 15 CROP MARKS EAST TO AMERICA: KOREAN AMERICAN LIFE STORIES Altogether, before I started working steadily at the machine shop, I had about thirty different jobs: I milked cows on a farm, packed eggs at a chicken ranch, ironed in a laundry, fed horses, sewed hangbags, all sorts of things. All the checks went directly to Mr. Song. He handled the money. He gave me an allowance for housekeeping expenses. Every morning, I made his lunch, dropped off his children at a baby-sitter s in Chino, and went to work. Then I came home and cooked dinner for the family. I cried so much because of him. He never gave me a dollar. I would not have dared to divorce him if I hadn t been on the Garment Association board. Working on the board, I discovered my ability. I realized that no one could match my ideas. At home I was nothing, but on the board, I accomplished important things and gained confidence. I realized that I could stand by myself. After 1976, I never responded to his rages. I just ignored him. I didn t deal with him for six years. It was difficult, but I waited until Bernard started high school. Then one morning, I just disappeared. I went to see a lawyer for an annulment and had the papers mailed to him. I didn t take anything. He gave away everything that had belonged to me; I don t even have my high school diploma. He didn t even give me my own photographs. I remarried in I am learning so much. I don t care about material possessions. The only thing I want to do is get to know some good people. caroline parc

16 16 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque hendrerit sagittis justo, a mollis eros gravida et. Fusce mattis tortor tellus, quis ornare velit ornare ut. Cras consectetur bibendum nulla sed tristique. Aenean semper nisl id luctus elementum. Donec semper est at odio lacinia, at aliquam velit blandit. Donec sit amet mi ultricies, tempus magna sed, lobortis velit. Ut varius aliquam commodo. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. EMANCIPATED WOMEN Vivamus vitae mauris vitae turpis volutpat faucibus ac vitae libero. Ut convallis lectus ac magna volutpat consequat. Nunc nulla nulla, mollis vitae quam sit amet, blandit faucibus sem. Praesent convallis eros lorem, sit amet facilisis magna accumsan nec. Vivamus nec tincidunt eros. Nunc tincidunt dictum euismod. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Fusce pellentesque, arcu sed placerat tincidunt, purus ligula fringilla urna, at tristique justo eros at dui. Donec egestas posuere arcu, vitae gravida leo tristique non. Sed eget ligula dictum, tristique tellus imperdiet, tempor tortor. Nam egestas viverra quam a congue. Mauris ut augue lacus. Duis eu massa nulla. Duis rutrum ante ipsum. Nulla tincidunt sodales nibh, ut rhoncus tortor tincidunt quis. Etiam sagittis pellentesque est ac tempor. Pellentesque sit amet lobortis mi, in rhoncus elit. Curabitur sagittis, risus in fermentum feugiat, magna ante condimentum felis, a aliquet mi justo porta tortor. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. suscipit diam quis gravida pulvinar. Nullam rhoncus neque eu magna gravida pulvinar. Nunc cursus, leo ut egestas tincidunt, est lectus dictum libero, sit amet mollis ipsum mi adipiscing erat. Curabitur sodales pulvinar pulvinar. Pellentesque eleifend nibh ut scelerisque posuere. Fusce consectetur dui in est auctor euismod. Proin molestie consectetur tellus, non gravida ligula pellentesque at. Praesent ornare nisi et magna pretium, sed rhoncus elit ornare. Vestibulum sed scelerisque enim. Vestibulum hendrerit hendrerit ipsum, vitae consequat est volutpat at. Sed suscipit laoreet elementum. Nunc malesuada nibh porttitor, sagittis eros at, interdum mauris. Nam convallis suscipit sollicitudin. Cras fermentum ut justo nec ornare. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.

17 BLEED MARKS FOLD MARKS 17 CROP MARKS Grandmother Graphite and Prismacolor on paper, digital Caroline Saerom Park 2014 caroline parc

18 18 Mother Graphite and Prismacolor on paper, digital Caroline Saerom Park 2014

19 BLEED MARKS FOLD MARKS 19 CROP MARKS Daughter Graphite and Prismacolor on paper, digital Caroline Saerom Park 2014

20 20

POOL IS RELEASING ITS FIRST BOOK

POOL IS RELEASING ITS FIRST BOOK a compilation of the first 12 issues of Pool Magazine and a lot more on Indian Design I never learnt to swim in the Ganga because I was afraid of drowning. Now I am learning