GYOPO Diasporic Refractions: Installations, Symposium, and Performances
June 7, 2025
2–5 PM PST
Walt Disney Concert Hall, BP Hall
151 S. Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Diasporic identity is one that is inherently multiple; at its core is a recognition of difference. GYOPO resists essentialized notions of Korean identity and culture by refracting them through the lens of diaspora and intersectionality. On the occasion of Seoul Festival, GYOPO and LA Phil Insight present a week of video installations at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, a symposium, and an afternoon of performance.
Grounding GYOPO Diasporic Refractions are two works by Seoul-based artists: A Performing by Flash, Afterimage, Velocity, and Noise (2019), an audio-visual installation by siren eun young jung in BP Hall and 커터3 CutterIII (2023), a video installation by Heecheon Kim in the Grand Avenue Lobby. The weekend of programming begins with a symposium co-curated by musician and artist Sasami Ashworth on resistance and creative practice, featuring artist yuniya edi kwon, designer Mindy Seu, singer-songwriter NoSo, and performances by yuniya edi kwon and NoSo.
GYOPO Diasporic Refractions closes with an interactive pre-concert performance showcase, co-curated by artist and GYOPO volunteer Hannah Joo, which includes Ari Osterweis, Sharon Chohi Kim, Hwa Records, and Young Sun Han—all diasporic Korean artists who ignite resistance from the spaces between memory and manifestation, and navigate the nuanced terrains of cultural memory, generational healing, and community building. Audiences are invited to absorb a blend of vocalization, movement, ritual, and procession, culminating in an embodied coalescence of themes in the Walt Disney Concert Hall Blue Ribbon Garden.
Co-curated by musician and artist Sasami, GYOPO Diasporic Refractions: Symposium brings into conversation musicians, scholars, and performers who draw upon their chosen crafts and Korean heritage to examine, deconstruct, and alter systems of oppression. To reinvent, survive, and resist has been an intrinsic part of the Korean experience. Artist presentations and a round table discussion will engage different perspectives on being part of the Korean diaspora—of sitting on the fault-line of eastern and western history and consciousness while deeply entrenched in the rituals, principles, and histories of violence in both the eastern and western worlds. This symposium is part of GYOPO Diasporic Refractions, which explores Korean diasporic experience through various interdisciplinary arts.
HOW TO ATTEND: The symposium is free with RSVP. Sign up to attend here.
HOW TO GET TO WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL
Walt Disney Concert Hall is located at 111 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90012.
Parking is available directly beneath Walt Disney Concert Hall. Enter on Second Street or Lower Grand Avenue. Please visit the LA Phil Website for costs and hours of operations.
Walt Disney Concert Hall is also accessible by subway: Grand Avenue Arts/Bunker Hall station (Blue, Expo, and Silver Lines) or the Civic Center/Grand Park Metro station (Red and Purple Lines)
LA Phil Insight is generously supported by Linda and David Shaheen.
The Stories We Bring to Bear: Flipping the Scripts on Adoption
with Deann Borshay Liem & Meejin Seol, moderated by Anna Kook
🗓️ Thursday, February 6, 2025
🕖 5:00 – 6:30 PM PT | 8:00 – 9:30 PM ET | Feb. 7 10:00 – 11:30 AM KST
🌐 Virtual/Online with ASL Interpretation
What exists beyond, around, and throughout the lives of adopted people and their various families and communities? How can we uplift a multitude of narratives in addition to the oft-told “reunion” stories? Individuals adopted from Korea and their first families bring especially critical stories to bear on the topic of ending the Korean War and “tongil” (통일, “reunification of the Korean peninsula”). Join us to hear from award-winning filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem and aspiring director and community organizer Meejin Seol, in conversation moderated by journalist Anna Kook. Speakers will talk about their work, families, geopolitics of adoption, and why we cannot hope to understand the history of the Korean War, militarism, or division without understanding the history of transnational adoption. We will discuss legacies of the ongoing Korean war and the present-day political landscape in South Korea – including impeachment and ongoing resistance by Korean civil society.
Timeless Youth with Minkyung Choi, Weng San Sit, and Elise Hu
Saturday, December 14, 2024
GYOPO Space
801 S. Vermont Avenue #201
Los Angeles, CA 90005
1:00 PM – 4:00 PM PST
Join Korean artist Minkyung Choi and Singaporean artist Weng San Sit in discussion with Elise Hu, author of FLAWLESS, a journalistic exploration of the present and future of beauty through the lens of South Korea’s booming “K-beauty” industry and the culture it promotes, for a screening, presentations, and conversation at GYOPO’s headquarters.
From 1–1:50 PM, you are invited to an optional screening of A Manual for Timeless Youth (영원한 젊음을 위한 매뉴얼 , 2024 which has been exhibited extensively in Korea. This is a special opportunity to experience “Timeless Youth,” a collaborative project by Minkyung Choi and Weng San Sit that investigates our individual & collective aspirations for “youth” and newness. The project attempts to understand the ways in which the phenomena is echoed in all aspects of our lives; from identities to our bodies to urban spaces, and in social, cultural, scientific and virtual spheres. Focusing on the Korean and Singaporean societies, ”Timeless Youth” explores this pursuit for youth and modernity and its often contentious relationship with our history and memory.
At 2 PM, the artists with Elise Hu, host of TED Talks Daily, co-host of Forever 35, and host-at-large for NPR, will share about their work and engage in a conversation.
Contact us with any questions or accessibility requests. ASL interpretation will be provided upon request (please email info@gyopo.us).
Please be advised that this event will be photographed and filmed and that GYOPO may use such photos and videos in print and online, including in social media. By RSVPing and attending this program, it signifies your consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded.
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 Colloquium Room, 3rd Floor
Building #721, 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
Destigmatizing Psychedelics with Preeti Simran Sethi, Pat Song, Candex Louie, and Harpinder Kaur Mann; moderated by Lisa Kwon
Hosted by David Horvitz 7th Street Garden
Saturday, August 24, 2024
David Horvitz 7th Street Garden
1911 7th Ave.
Los Angeles CA 90018
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM PST
Psychedelics are ancient history. From the fantastical to the comical, there is rich Asian lore around the magic of mushrooms and plant medicine traditions, which have been part of our healing for time immemorial. However, in true Western fashion, hallucinogenic drugs that were once criminalized are being commodified by the trendiest, wealthiest pockets of the American economy, leaving behind crucial populations that deserve to be released from the fear and stigma around drugs. Unsurprisingly, there has been erasure of the foundations and history of psychedelics, stripping them of their cultural and spiritual meanings for purely utilitarian purposes.
This program will highlight how psychedelics can heal individuals, families, and communities in the Asian American and Asian diaspora, and explore the impacts of harm and the ways Asians have been overlooked, othered, and appropriated in the Westernization of psychedelics. Speakers will address how trappings of Asian spirituality and philosophy have been commoditized or decontextualized in psychedelic spaces, and share ways to practice plant traditions with more respect for the cultures from which these traditions come. Psychedelic healing is our birthright.
Join us for presentations from esteemed scholars, practitioners, activists, cultural workers and healers in the field: Preeti Simran Sethi, writer, mental health coach, psychedelic support, and the founder of Asian Psychedelic Collective ; Pat Song, a clinical psychologist trained in psychedelic assisted therapy; Candex Louie, a trans Hokkien-Hoisanese storyteller, somatics and bodywork practitioner; and Hapinder Kaur Mann, a yoga asana meditation teacher, mindfulness educator, and community builder who will lead us in pranayama. Presentations will be followed by a discussion moderated by writer and GYOPO program committee member Lisa Kwon.
ASL interpretation will be provided upon request (please email info@gyopo.us).
Please be advised that this event will be photographed and filmed and that GYOPO may use such photos and videos in print and online, including in social media. By RSVPing and attending this program, it signifies your consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded.
Image: The Legendary Emperor Shen-Nung, Illustration by Pen Tsao, 18th-19th Century (The first documented case of cannibis use dates back to 2800 BC, when it was listed in the Emperor Shen Nung’s, father of Chinese medicine, pharmacopoeia.)
The Pepper: Migration and Metaphor with Kristyn Leach and Victor M. Valle moderated by Saehee Cho
Co-presented by SSI YA GI, Second Generation Seeds, and GYOPO
Hosted by Nonhuman Teachers
Saturday, August 10, 2024
The Cactus Store Studio & Greenhouse
3209 Fletcher Dr.
Los Angeles, 90065
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM PST
There is no Mexican cuisine without the piquant acidity of chopped jalapeños in a homemade salsa, nor Korean food (since the 1500s) without its gurgling stews, red from sweet and savory gochugaru. Each person who uses a chile makes it their own, drawing out the smoky or spicy or acidic features important to their particular dish–even if they must substitute a poblano for an asagi gochu, or vice versa. Native to Central and South America, the chile pepper has traveled far and wide to become an integral ingredient in disparate cuisines. Under colonial rule, Indigenous Mexicans brought chile seeds and farming techniques northward, transforming and expanding their genetic diversity to adapt to new environments and taste buds. The chile pepper arrived in East Asia from Central America and developed unique genetic signatures which have shaped the Korean cuisine we know today.
Join us as farmer and seed steward Kristyn Leach and writer Victor M. Valle present the complex histories, epigenetics, mythologies of the chile, and efforts to protect heirloom varietals of chiles which are close to being wiped out by corporations seeking more uniform and controllable qualities. Their presentations will be followed by a conversation moderated by Saehee Cho, during which they will discuss how the migration and adaptability of the chile pepper may offer us tools of resistance, illuminating stories of colonization, Indigenous poetics, histories of agriculture, borderlands ecology, and genetics.
The evening will also include a special poetry reading by poet Mary Lau Valle on her Chinese-Mexican ancestry and a sneak peak of moderator Saehee Cho’s documentary that explores the Korean diaspora in Mexico. A conversation about peppers transcends notions of nationalism and cultural identity politics, and invites us to contemplate the magic of plants that retain so much genetic diversity that wherever planted by whichever people, beget new worlds of of taste and can only ever be “owned through repeated acts of love and care.”
ASL interpretation will be provided upon request (please email info@gyopo.us).
Please be advised that this event will be photographed and filmed and that GYOPO may use such photos and videos in print and online, including in social media. By RSVPing and attending this program, it signifies your consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded.
Ssi Ya Gi is dedicated to sharing senior immigrant stories about foods, because the process of listening and transmitting our elders’ food stories creates opportunities for intergenerational and cross-cultural discoveries.
Second Generation Seeds tends to the kinship between the Asian and South West Asian/North African (SWANA) diasporas and the plants who have evolved alongside us. By preserving, adapting, and breeding beloved crops, we affirm that culture is rooted in our imaginations, not just our memories.
Pacific Imaginaries with Professor Crystal Mun-hye Baik, artist and architect Bz Zhang, artist and researcher Tony Cho
Saturday, June 15, 2024
GYOPO
801 S. Vermont Avenue. #210
Los Angeles, CA 90005
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM PST
How do we visualize the Pacific Ocean – through images, symbols, materials, memories, and beyond? Last August, the world’s largest maritime military exercise, the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) announced it was holding a competition to consider submissions for a new logo for its “2024 edition.” The submission solicitation stated, “This is an opportunity for any artist, designer or creative person who would like to see their work featured as the exercise’s official branding for stationary, press releases, websites, social media, coins, shirts, hats, and more. The winner will also be officially recognized by the Commander of the U.S. Third Fleet.”
RIMPAC occurs biennially and will take place again this summer, with the U.S. Pacific Fleet launching from San Diego to join other forces to hold so-called “war games” off the coasts of Hawaiʻi throughout the Pacific Ocean. RIMPAC involves an estimated 25,000 military personnel, alongside 38 warships, and over 170 aircrafts from 28 countries all over the world, including the Republic of Korea and the United States. RIMPAC purports “to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific.” However, military exercises in the Pacific continue to destroy environments and untold scores of marine life that dwell in the ocean, including at least one instance of an Australian destroyer killing a mother fin whale and her calf in San Diego.
RIMPAC is one example of the long history of the U.S.-led militarism, colonialism, and extraction across the Pacific Ocean. U.S. heads of state have also militarized the oceanscape in declaring “America’s Pacific Century” and the “Pivot to Asia.” In asking what it may mean to visualize the Pacific, we question for whom the Indo-Pacific remains “free and open.” We contend with the legacies of militarization in Hawaiʻi, the Marshall Islands, Bikini Atoll, and Guåhan – lands which have often served as what geographer Sasha Davis calls “sacrifice zones,” laboratories, and testbeds for militarized technologies. We also contend with the militarized dispossession and pollution of landscapes of the Pacific rim due to U.S. base sites in the Philippines, Okinawa, and South Korea, including the largest overseas U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea.
Yet the Pacific is also a site of active resistance. Generations of peoples have led movements for sovereignty, demilitarization, and rematraition of lands and oceans. What does this enduring legacy mean for gyopo and the peoples and environments of the Pacific and Oceania? How can we visualize, sense, and symbolize the majestic Pacific Ocean in the face of such militarism? How can artists, designers, and creative peoples draw from existing forms of resistance while creating new understandings of our connectivity and resilience?
Join us as we hear from Professor Crystal Mun-hye Baik, artist and architect Bz Zhang, and artist and researcher Tony Cho. Participants will share some of their work during which time they will imagine all attendees to consider anticolonial and liberatory symbolism, imagery, and other modes of visual communication.
Attendees are encouraged to bring their own sketching and drawing supplies. Speakers will encourage folks to engage with their works through their own sketching, drawing, and collage-making processes to imagine for themselves how to visualize the Pacific. GYOPO will provide a limited amount of supplies on site.
ASL interpretation will be provided.
Please be advised that this event will be photographed and filmed and that GYOPO may use such photos and videos in print and online, including in social media. By RSVPing and attending this program, it signifies your consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded.
An Encounter with the Korean Avant-Garde
Co-Presented with the Hammer Museum
Friday, April 12, 2024
Hammer Museum / Bay-Nimoy Studio
10899 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90024
2:00 PM – 6:00 PM PST
In-person with ASL Interpretation
Presented in collaboration with GYOPO, an L.A.-based collective of Korean cultural producers and art professionals, this program features dialogues with artists and thinkers on the historical, political, and cultural contexts of Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s, with focus on the lasting impacts of this decisive moment within Korea’s local and diasporic creative histories, as well as the larger influence that these art histories have had within the global art world. The afternoon will culminate with a performance by Only the Young artist Sung Neung Kyung.
SCHEDULE
2:00pm Opening Remarks by Yoon Ju Ellie Lee and Pablo Jose Ramirez
2:10pm Keynote
Art historian Joan Kee delivers the keynote address on the Experimental Art movement.
3:15pm Panel Presentations and Discussion
Presentations by sociologist Jennifer Jihye Chun, artist Young Joon Kwak, and art historian Mina Kim will contextualize the experimental art movement and trace its legacies. Following the presentations, curator Harry C. H. Choi will moderate a conversation between the presenters and a Q + A with the audience.
4:45pm Break
5:00pm Performance by Sung Neung Kyung
RSVP NOT REQUIRED
Special thank you to Baik Art and Le Mieux Cosmetics for their generous support and the Hammer Museum for their collaboration on the symposium.
If you were unable to join us for the program, you can find the recording below!
Transnational Queering
Saturday, November 18, 2023
3 PM – 4:30 PM PST / 7:00 – 8:30 AM KST
🌐 Virtual/Online with ASL Interpretation
Have you ever wondered if queerness can be used to describe the experience of being “othered,” even in one’s very own “motherland?” Join GYOPO’s next program, as we go through the lens of contemporary practices and the lived experiences of artists bending barriers of gender. Transnational Queering considers the nuances of queering, and poses the question of how, or if, queering can be used in non-gendered terms to define the experiences of individuals who embody the varying intersections between the LGBTQ+ communities, those heralding from the “global majority,” and peoples with varying immigration statuses. Artists 𝐊𝐢𝐚𝐦 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐨 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐨, 𝐋𝐚𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐨, 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐚 𝐋𝐢𝐧, and 𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐞𝐮𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐣𝐮𝐧𝐠 focusing on how each explores ideas of queering, followed by a discussion centered around the queering of home and belonging, moderated by 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐌. 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐚 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢.
What’s Your Role in Social Change?
Monday, October 16th, 2023
7 PM – 8:30 PM PDT
GYOPO Space
801 S. Vermont Ave. #201
Los Angeles, CA 90005
Join GYOPO for a conversation on how to strengthen our social change roles, practices, and ecosystems. Deepa Iyer, author of Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection (2022), will be in dialogue with Cathi Choi (Women Cross DMZ, Korea Peace Now!) and Alex Paik (Tiger Strikes Asteroid). The conversation will be followed by an exercise facilitated by Iyer during which you will have the opportunity to map your very own social change roles and bolster your solidarity practices. Copies of Social Change Now, published by Thick Press, will be available for purchase.
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