Any resemblance to my parents arouses provokes elusive fear in me. Growing up, I often thought, "I am not going to be like my parents". But ironically I noticed myself one day in likeness of my parents not only in the physical appearance but also in character traits. It makes me feel as if I belong to my parents eternally and I am doomed to have a life that is similar to that of my parents. The likeness of my genetic features leads me to several questions about myself: "Who am I so resembling my parents?", "Could I tell my personal identity apart from my parents?", "How does identity of my parents influence the way I shape my cultural identity?" and "Do their ethic values and the social environment in which they had lived, have an effect on my daily life here and now?" In my pursuit of these questions, the project Family is my conscious effort to identify my cultural identity as a Korean woman though mirroring myself onto my parents.

  Family project consists of three narratives including Kim-Chi*, Little Princess, and Ultra Super Powerful Father. The series is based on my personal story. Kim-Chi portrays a relationship among a devotional mother who makes food for her family, her daughter, and her husband. Little Princess illustrates a conflict between a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law. The pose and action of each character symbolically convey their stereotypical role, their emotion, and their psychology in the traditional family system: A gracious grandmother sitting like a statue, a mother making food, a father standing with a solemn face, and a daughter eating food and jumping on a doll.

  In the project, Ultra Super Powerful Father, I search for a father who has become absent in our family in the midst of modernization. I used to think of my father as a typical hero in fiction who overcomes a difficulty with an indomitable spirit. However, from my own research I learned that the father's generation was utilized for the national goal of economic growth in 1970s of Korea. They are the patriots who have achieved a myth of Korean economic growth. At same time they are the victim who had to give up their individual and freedom for the country's well-being. I used visual references and images from comic books as a source of the photo collage animation, Ultra Super Powerful Father where my father figure is portrayed as a Superman in American comic book.

  In the photographs, I see my parents and myself who role-play as my father, mother, grandmother, and myself, dressed up like each character. These images illustrate gender-based roles within the hierarchical system of my family. The photographs are a reflection of the past in which my parents exist and of social circumstance around them as well as an introspection of myself looking at them in the present.

*Kim-Chi is a Korean dish made from cabbages, raw garlic, scallions, ginger, and hot pepper.