Cold War Baby: Historical Context meets Aesthetics with Simon Leung, Sunny Xiang, and Steven Lee moderated by Amy Kahng

Cold War Baby: Historical Context meets Aesthetics with Simon Leung, Sunny Xiang, and Steven Lee moderated by Amy Kahng
Co-presented with UC Irvine
November 6, 2024
Contemporary Arts Center Gallery, UC Irvine

Yong Soon Min was born in 1953– the year the Korean War ended in an armistice and the year of Joseph Stalin’s death during the Cold War. Min, a lovingly self proclaimed “Cold War Baby,” spent her artistic career unraveling the aftereffects and enduring consequences of these wars on nation-state history, diasporic (forced and chosen) migration, and on the bodies of generations of peoples. Join us for a panel discussion which includes Simon Leung, project-based artist and professor of art, UC Irvine; Sunny Xiang, assistant professor of English and affiliate professor of Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, Yale University; and Steven Lee, associate professor of English, UC Berkeley; who will contextualize the geopolitics of the Koreas in relation to the major players of the Cold War and share how the echoes of these pasts still are in play in contemporary politics and art practice today, especially in relation to Min’s final commissioned artwork, KISSSSS. After presentations by each participant, independent curator Amy Kahng, PHD Candidate Stony Brook University Department of Art, will moderate a dynamic conversation.

KISSSSS by Yong Soon Min
Curated by Bridget R. Cooks, Ph.D.
In collaboration with Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art (Langson IMCA)

Image: Yong Soon Min, Photo from KISSSSS (2024), Photographer C. Ryu