“The digital undertakers bathed and shrouded my memories. A destitute smell, sing a cryptic song together. The song was meant to be forgotten. We are pieces of companions of the distressed. The bear woman told me, "It was two cabbages having a terrible fight. They were tearing each other’s leaves off with such ferocity that soon there was nothing but torn leaves everywhere and no cabbages.” -Leonora Carrington
Then we started smelling.
Cryptic Nostalgia and the Digital Undertakers references the Korean origin fable of Ungnyeo to comment on the recent egregious violence and racism perpetrated against Asian women in the United States. As the tale goes, a tiger and a bear pray to divine king Hwanung to transform them into humans. Moved by their devotion, the divine king instructs them to go into a cave and stay out of sunlight for 100 days. While the tiger grows impatient and leaves prematurely, the bear (Ungnyeo) remains determined. After 100 days of seclusion in the cave, the bear transforms into a woman. All alone as a human and driven to a mad depression without a husband, the bear-woman prays beneath a sacred tree to be blessed with a child. Once again hearing her prayers, Hwanung takes Ungnyeo as his wife and, shortly thereafter bears a son who goes on to become the founder of the Korean nation. This folklore, mediated by Kim’s signature hyper-surrealist style, takes on new and sinister overtones through her dark reading of the Asian female in America.
About The Purchase
The metadata file for this NFT points to a display copy of the artwork. The full collector package, is exclusively available through a private link that can only be transferred via the previous collector, TRANSFER, or left.gallery.
Medium: Single channel, Looped, Born-digital video with audio
Dimensions: 4000 x 5500 px, 29.970 fps, 00:00:03
Edition For Sale: 01/01
Preventative Conservation
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Display
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