For my prototype, I wanted to incorporate my experience of homelessness into Korean side dishes. Whenever I knew my situation was getting worse, the side dishes would slowly decrease and sometimes be nonexistent and replaced with McDonald Dollar menu. I came across a Korean artist named Kimsooja who did a performance piece based on a beggar that she saw in Mexico City. I wanted to do a performance piece with me sitting down and having the audience stand up to amplify the dynamic between the “beggar” and the “people”. Additionally, I included hand gestures to symbolically represent the asking for help during my lowest moments in my life. I wanted to do a piece that the audience also participated in, not to entirely understand what it was like to be homeless, but to understand the perspective that they probably only experience- which is to witness homeless people from a downward point of view. This piece speaks vulnerability and pain that still effects me today. and hopefully allows me to heal through my art.
