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Caroline Garcia - Jia Sung - AYDO (Nicholas Oh & A young Yu)
Goddess Tales is an exhibition that reinterprets the function of ritual, taking inspiration from philosopher Byung-Chul Han's definition of ritual "as symbolic techniques of making oneself at home in the world."1 In this way, ritual can be a tool for the diaspora to feel at home via shared, implicit cultural understandings.
The exhibition highlights the need to reimagine these practices to serve us today. Since ancient narratives tend to represent outdated ideologies, the artists are interested in subverting patriarchal values and gender binaries to create their own future folklores centering on the goddess archetype. The exhibition also brings to attention native practices that were historically banned, such as Korean Shamanism and Filipino Martial Arts, which were seen as threats to colonial power and civilizing rationales.
Through various media, the artists enact rituals using objects that are not just consumed but also used. In doing so, they root themselves in their identity and strengthen intergenerational connections, even if those connections are not directly known. Caroline Garcia's whips, inspired by the Filipino buntot pagi weapon, are shown alongside a video work of the artist learning the Latigo y Daga martial art, Jia Sung replaces Western narratives with Tang Dynasty aesthetics and Chinese mythology, and AYDO's performance-based film features the artist duo enacting ancient Korean folk rituals. Together, the exhibition demonstrates how artists use ritual for various needs, including self-preservation, veneration, and processing grief, and propose alternative practices for spiritual guidance and survival when existing establishments fail us.
1Byung-Chul Han, The Disappearance of Rituals: A Topology of the Present (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2020).
The exhibition highlights the need to reimagine these practices to serve us today. Since ancient narratives tend to represent outdated ideologies, the artists are interested in subverting patriarchal values and gender binaries to create their own future folklores centering on the goddess archetype. The exhibition also brings to attention native practices that were historically banned, such as Korean Shamanism and Filipino Martial Arts, which were seen as threats to colonial power and civilizing rationales.
Through various media, the artists enact rituals using objects that are not just consumed but also used. In doing so, they root themselves in their identity and strengthen intergenerational connections, even if those connections are not directly known. Caroline Garcia's whips, inspired by the Filipino buntot pagi weapon, are shown alongside a video work of the artist learning the Latigo y Daga martial art, Jia Sung replaces Western narratives with Tang Dynasty aesthetics and Chinese mythology, and AYDO's performance-based film features the artist duo enacting ancient Korean folk rituals. Together, the exhibition demonstrates how artists use ritual for various needs, including self-preservation, veneration, and processing grief, and propose alternative practices for spiritual guidance and survival when existing establishments fail us.
1Byung-Chul Han, The Disappearance of Rituals: A Topology of the Present (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2020).
Katie Yook is a curator interested in supporting multimedia, research-driven practices. She has held curatorial roles at Tate Modern, Archaeology of the Final Decade, and Art in General and has given talks at Cornell University, Agora Digital Art, and Central Saint Martins. Recent exhibitions include "Sensoria" at AHL Foundation in 2022, "Diaspora Disco" at The Yard Theatre in 2019, "Phantom Limb" at Cody Dock in 2018, "syntax error" at Lewisham Arthouse in 2018, "568 rows, 18 columns" at Cubitt Gallery, and "Electronic Civil Disobedience: Screenings of Video Art 1993-2017" at Res. in 2017. She holds an MFA in Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London and BA in Contemporary Art from New York University.
