Inspiration
For this ghosted project, I was inspired by my family’s story of moving to different places during my life. My mother and father have always had an adventurous mindset and wanted to try out more things. They also did not like to settle in things that made them comfortable and constantly wanted to seek new challenges. I was born in South Korea in 2001, then moved to Shanghai at the age of 4 when my father found a new job opportunity in China. Because I was so young at the moment I was unaware of the big change. However, when I was 8, my father’s job became a bigger role and expanded into working in the States, so in 2008, my family and I moved to Los Angeles. This was by far the biggest change for me from transitioning to different cultures and learning a new language. After I thought we were done moving, over the 10 years of living in California, my family moved 4 times which meant I also moved to 4 different schools. This was a hard transition for me that I constantly faced as a foreign student who struggled to find his identity in a western system while learning to let go of the past and focusing on the present. I decided to use the roller coaster story of my family’s journey and translate it into a wearable garment.
To create this piece, I gathered old black denim jeans and cut them into thin strips varying in size and length. Then I created a collar line to create the form using short strips. This represented the small events that happened in my life that never came to a conclusion such as never finishing elementary school in the same school. These events surrounded the inner side of the garn=ment but in the shoulder and the body line, I created a loop and attached it to the end of the short strips. This created a rough abstract figure of the body. The long strip represented what I was thankful for despite the hardships my family faced growing up. It was a struggle trying to find hope and happiness in the midst of chaotic transitions but always being thankful and appreciative of what we have accomplished has humbled us. This was by far the biggest thing I learned as my family moved around in different places. It is hard to get used to a new environment, and people are naturally opposed to leaving what we find comfortable. However, once we overcome that small barrier, we become so much more appreciative of the world and see life in a bigger perspective.
This project made me reflect on my life, and recap how much work and effort my parents went through in the back in order to give their kids a better life and education. It’s an endless feeling of gratitidue I will have towards my parents and will forever be thankful no matter the circumstance I am in. Making this piece also made me realize what I valued in my family and the small events that made our family so strong right now.
