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I am writing this letter to ask your support on my project on Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. Many of you already know about my passion for Cha and I am now embarking on a research and development process to create the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Project. To begin this new project, I am taking my trip to Berkeley, CA for twelve days in October 2009 to research at the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Archive located within the University of California Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA). This research is critical in creating a media installation, which I plan to present in various cities that were meaningful to Cha. The cities include Berkeley (California), New York City, Pusan and Seoul, among others.
Presented in a non-linear documentary style, the installation will consist of multiple video projections of text and image, audio and performance. The audio will include multiple female narrators’ voices, telling stories and memories about Cha, in Korean and English. I feel compelled to do Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Project because I identify with Cha very strongly as an East Asian female who resides in the United States, creating works in English. Studying some of Cha’s work allowed me to ask questions, “Who is entitled to speak/write with authority in English, or in any language?” and “What happens when the speaking body (or the voice) is female?” Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Project will engage these questions in the matter of Korean female agency and visibility in the performance of language in history, both in Korea and United States.
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951-1982) was born in Pusan, Korea and moved to the United States when she was eleven years old. Cha created a rich body of work, which deals with the issues of language in speaking and writing histories. Her most famous work, Dictée, is known for its idiosyncratic structure, combining biography, autobiography, poetry, and visual images to tell several different women’s stories. Just a few days after the original publication of Dictée, Cha was murdered by a stranger.
Endowed by the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Memorial Foundation, the archive I will visit exclusively holds more than 500 files of the artist’s work including handmade artist books, films, videos, performance documentations, film scripts, sound recordings, personal photographs, correspondence and other significant items. UC Berkeley is also where Cha studied for ten years and created most of her work, which now belongs to the archive. I will be studying Cha’s work in great details, attend a screening of Cha’s film/video work "Exilée" and meet with curators and scholars at BAM/PFA to discuss Cha’s work.
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Project is a large scale project; your help will support the most critical part of my research and development. Until such time when I have secured fiscal sponsorship for tax deductible gifts, I have created limited edition prints and handmade cards to sell in support of the project. Please visit http://flatfish.etsy.com for more information.
My goal is to raise $4,000 for this trip and for obtaining reproduction rights to Cha’s artwork. A purchase of any of these works or a donation (non tax-deductible) of any amount makes a huge difference:
- $25 pays for two hours at the Film Library at BAM/PFA
-$120 pays for BART tickets for 12 days
-$250 pays for a round trip ticket from NYC to San Francisco (nearest airport to Berkeley, CA)
If you would still like to make a non tax-deductible donation for my project, you can contact me at:
sujinleeweb (at) yahoo.com
Please follow the progress of this exciting project on my website. Thank you very much for your time and support.
Sincerely,
Sujin Lee
©2002-2009 Sujin Lee