Disobedience II (2025)

Title: Disobedience II (2025)

Medium: Performance Art with Ceramics, Photography

Description: “Disobedience II (2025)” is a performance-based photography project that explores “Han”—a deep-seated resentment within Korean cultural identity—through the performance of unfired ceramic pots and digital photographic representation. ”Han (한)“ embodies suppressed anger, particularly among women, as a result of inescapable circumstances such as the Korean War. Inspired by the Korean proverb, “A woman carrying resentment can have frost even in midsummer,” my body expresses the duality of an outwardly calm and composed appearance while harboring deep-seated anger and resentment.

Artist Statement: Nayeon (Michelle) Hong

My artwork explores anxiety within the inner mind and expresses disobedience as a healing method tied to cultural identity. Over the past five years, my work has focused on revealing self-identity and delving into the history of Korea, reflecting a deep exploration into breaking out of the comfort zone in our contemporary lives. As a Korean artist today, I observed that I was often shy of new challenges in the past, instead choosing to follow the so-called ‘safe’ paths that others take. This tendency to avoid change, especially in cultural aspects, stems from Korea’s history of survival through events like the Korean War and foreign invasions, culminating in establishment of the 38th parallel. Amid these turbulent circumstances, Koreans carry a suppressed resentment known as ‘Han (한),’ a feeling rooted in unavoidable hardships and deeply embedded in their traditions.

My artwork ranges from ceramics and photography, to performance art, with the diverse investigation of what I become more confident in representing, body tracing, abstract gesture idea. When I say “abstract” gestural marks, it is profoundly rooted in abstract expressionism within surrealism. “’Unbound’ energy within the unconscious” (Mundy 27) during the creation process of the piece in my art practices explores impulsivity. My artwork practice profoundly resonates with my body’s senses. I focus on what I feel and what I touch. I feel texture, softness, roughness, and temperature, and I try to accept them as material in my body. I collect invisible feelings and transfer them into art as body tracing mark-making. In my varied and diverse approaches to making art, the context of the art has an impact on the viewer to sympathize with what I feel.

My art is a collaboration with the preservation of the Korean traditional identity, body choreography through impulsive actions like smudging, throwing and with body leaving a symbol of subconsciousness within tracing. Provoking emotions of stress, carefreeness, and release leads to unexpected results in the exploration of art as a journey.

Works Cited

Gunnars, Kristjana. “The Discourse of Korean Han: Background and Historical Landscape.” 

Korean Studies, vol. 48, Jan. 2024, pp. 449–76. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1353/ks.2024.a931009.

Lee, Yeseung. “The White-Clad People: The White Hanbok and Korean Nationalism.” 

Cultural Dynamics, vol. 34, no. 4, Nov. 2022, pp. 271–96. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1177/09213740221117811.

Mundy, Jennifer, et al. “Surrealism : Desire Unbound” / Edited by Jennifer Mundy ; Special 

Advisor, Vincent Gille ; Consultant Editor, Dawn Ades. Princeton University Press, 2001. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=f29bc37c-0507-399b-9407-704597623a22.