Merging Layers of Life: Eunkang Koh’s The Great Merger
Essay by Kyung-Min Im
It is impossible to know how a new environment will change, harmonize or conflict with our inherent elements, whether we choose to live in a place or a place is given to us in various circumstance of our life. We may experience both unexpected similarities and contradictions while living in another country and embracing a different culture. Perhaps, it is a remarkable phenomenon that Eunkang Koh encounters Canadian geese every day in her environment in Reno, Nevada, USA.
Canadian geese are known to be migratory birds, traveling thousands of kilometers seasonally. However, an interesting change has been observed in recent decades. Some Canadian geese have begun to change their traditional migration routes or abandon migration altogether and settle in urban environments. Significant differentiation has been observed between migratory and non-migrating populations, suggesting that when placed in new environments, Canadian geese adapt not only by changing their behavior but also by changing at the genetic level.
Koh’s work evokes the complex psychology of immigrants how people settled in a new place and adopting a new environment yet never fully assimilating. Canadian geese flock together but never approach humans; they maintain a certain distance from us. Koh’s exhibition, The Great Merger, explores the artist’s experience of identity transformation and merging in the Korean diaspora through these hybrid beings, situated somewhere between bird and human.
Time passes as we live and identity changes
Eunkang Koh moved to the United States in her twenties, has spent more than 25 years there. As the time lived in Korea equal to time lived in the United States, she confronts a much more complex identity issue than she previously imagined. “ I thought I was a Korean, and still am. But I am a bit different from Koreans living in Korea today.” The artist says it was only after leaving Korea, she began to read and think more about Korea and Korean things. This paradox encapsulates the structure of identity experienced by the diaspora.
The “Merger” in the exhibition title, “The Great Merger,” begins at this point. Existing identities are never fully replaced. Rather, identity is a process of interpenetrating and intersecting, forming new layers. The Canadian geese depicted in Koh’s work possess wings and feathers, yet their arms, hands, and eyes are human-like. Their gestures such as linking arms or raising hands in conversation while standing on rocks by the water, suggest possible unity of communication between beings living in different cultures and social systems.
The visual language of Min-Hwa, Korean folk painting, from the Joseon Dynesty, is a crucial axis in Koh’s work. The Min-Hwa tradition employes animals comment on to human society, convey satire and lessons, and to project the joys and sorrows of human history. The artist states,” The honesty, simplicity, humor, and humanism inherent in Min-Hwa, even within the satire, has a warm and human perspective, distinct from the cold and sharp satire of the West. “The andromorphic form of the goose creates harmony and warmth through overlapping and layering. Yet these geese seem also bewildered as they embrace life’s challenging yearning to pour out their hearts. The goose’s human-like eyes are accented, visually embodying the ambivalent emotions inherent in its hybrid existence and its fused characteristics. This ambivalence is a powerful device that reflects the merging of two different cultures and identities.
Experimenting with materials and mark making
In this exhibition, Koh experimentally combines multiple materials and techniques, including moshi ( traditional Korean fabrics), hanji (traditional Korean paper), linocut, monotypes, screen printing, watercolors, and stitching. These materials are not casual choices. Moshi captures a Korean sensibility while lending the visual impact of its translucent texture. Koh prints the moshi with a background composed of processed images collected from the contemporary environment. Shapes of clouds and mountains are printed on thin hanji and attached to the back, highlighting the flying geese. This composition is both Korean and a reflection of the artist’s mindset shaped by the layers of her life as an immigrant. Avoiding a purely graphic linoleum prints, Koh combined linocut with the monotype, drawing directly on acrylic plates and then stamping them. Koh created additional subtle variation of dimensions in each individual piece by stuffing cotton into the geese and embroidering the edges. This practice of small changes and experiments rather than repeating the same image aligns with the concept of “ mark-making”, as one curator described Koh’s work. The stitches stacked like drawings of clouds and mountains are reminiscent of ink wash painting. Each line whether carved, painted or sewn, reflect the process of accumulating traces.
Layers of traces, merging layers- Life again
The works presented in The Great Merger can be considered modern Min-Hwa reimagined from the perspective of life in the Korean diaspora. The postures, expressions, and small gestures of the geese-human depicted in Koh’s work simultaneously embody longing for home, fear of a new environment, attachment to family and community, and a subtle hope for the future. Moving between water and air, sky and land affect the established Canadian geese. While Canadian geese would never have hands on the tips of their wings, nor would they one day stand on a small mound, these geese adopt attributes of folk paintings and to embody Koh’s own merging of identities in the mind of the artist.
We may not know which is “positive” and which is “negative”, but when two different things come into contact and influence each other, some kind of “synthesis” will occur. And that may be the operating principle that returns us to life.
Everything about us becomes a trace, and layers shift with each node. While the present always seems “ merged”, it is in fact a process, not a result. The Great Merger describes the merger of Korean-immigrant-American Reno-Canadia-geese and it will continue to exist as art, encountering nature and humanity, hometown immigration, tradition and modernity, established art and aesthetics of the people, questioning the landscape of our society and the individual faces of those who live within it. In this way, Koh’s work evokes the merging of layers that permeate our lives, the process of that great merger.
Merging Layers of Life: Eunkang Koh’s The Great Merger
Essay by Kyung-Min Im
It is impossible to know how a new environment will change, harmonize or conflict with our inherent elements, whether we choose to live in a place or a place is given to us in various circumstance of our life. We may experience both unexpected similarities and contradictions while living in another country and embracing a different culture. Perhaps, it is a remarkable phenomenon that Eunkang Koh encounters Canadian geese every day in her environment in Reno, Nevada, USA.
Canadian geese are known to be migratory birds, traveling thousands of kilometers seasonally. However, an interesting change has been observed in recent decades. Some Canadian geese have begun to change their traditional migration routes or abandon migration altogether and settle in urban environments. Significant differentiation has been observed between migratory and non-migrating populations, suggesting that when placed in new environments, Canadian geese adapt not only by changing their behavior but also by changing at the genetic level.
Koh’s work evokes the complex psychology of immigrants how people settled in a new place and adopting a new environment yet never fully assimilating. Canadian geese flock together but never approach humans; they maintain a certain distance from us. Koh’s exhibition, The Great Merger, explores the artist’s experience of identity transformation and merging in the Korean diaspora through these hybrid beings, situated somewhere between bird and human.
Time passes as we live and identity changes
Eunkang Koh moved to the United States in her twenties, has spent more than 25 years there. As the time lived in Korea equal to time lived in the United States, she confronts a much more complex identity issue than she previously imagined. “ I thought I was a Korean, and still am. But I am a bit different from Koreans living in Korea today.” The artist says it was only after leaving Korea, she began to read and think more about Korea and Korean things. This paradox encapsulates the structure of identity experienced by the diaspora.
The “Merger” in the exhibition title, “The Great Merger,” begins at this point. Existing identities are never fully replaced. Rather, identity is a process of interpenetrating and intersecting, forming new layers. The Canadian geese depicted in Koh’s work possess wings and feathers, yet their arms, hands, and eyes are human-like. Their gestures such as linking arms or raising hands in conversation while standing on rocks by the water, suggest possible unity of communication between beings living in different cultures and social systems.
The visual language of Min-Hwa, Korean folk painting, from the Joseon Dynesty, is a crucial axis in Koh’s work. The Min-Hwa tradition employes animals comment on to human society, convey satire and lessons, and to project the joys and sorrows of human history. The artist states,” The honesty, simplicity, humor, and humanism inherent in Min-Hwa, even within the satire, has a warm and human perspective, distinct from the cold and sharp satire of the West. “The andromorphic form of the goose creates harmony and warmth through overlapping and layering. Yet these geese seem also bewildered as they embrace life’s challenging yearning to pour out their hearts. The goose’s human-like eyes are accented, visually embodying the ambivalent emotions inherent in its hybrid existence and its fused characteristics. This ambivalence is a powerful device that reflects the merging of two different cultures and identities.
Experimenting with materials and mark making
In this exhibition, Koh experimentally combines multiple materials and techniques, including moshi ( traditional Korean fabrics), hanji (traditional Korean paper), linocut, monotypes, screen printing, watercolors, and stitching. These materials are not casual choices. Moshi captures a Korean sensibility while lending the visual impact of its translucent texture. Koh prints the moshi with a background composed of processed images collected from the contemporary environment. Shapes of clouds and mountains are printed on thin hanji and attached to the back, highlighting the flying geese. This composition is both Korean and a reflection of the artist’s mindset shaped by the layers of her life as an immigrant. Avoiding a purely graphic linoleum prints, Koh combined linocut with the monotype, drawing directly on acrylic plates and then stamping them. Koh created additional subtle variation of dimensions in each individual piece by stuffing cotton into the geese and embroidering the edges. This practice of small changes and experiments rather than repeating the same image aligns with the concept of “ mark-making”, as one curator described Koh’s work. The stitches stacked like drawings of clouds and mountains are reminiscent of ink wash painting. Each line whether carved, painted or sewn, reflect the process of accumulating traces.
Layers of traces, merging layers- Life again
The works presented in The Great Merger can be considered modern Min-Hwa reimagined from the perspective of life in the Korean diaspora. The postures, expressions, and small gestures of the geese-human depicted in Koh’s work simultaneously embody longing for home, fear of a new environment, attachment to family and community, and a subtle hope for the future. Moving between water and air, sky and land affect the established Canadian geese. While Canadian geese would never have hands on the tips of their wings, nor would they one day stand on a small mound, these geese adopt attributes of folk paintings and to embody Koh’s own merging of identities in the mind of the artist.
We may not know which is “positive” and which is “negative”, but when two different things come into contact and influence each other, some kind of “synthesis” will occur. And that may be the operating principle that returns us to life.
Everything about us becomes a trace, and layers shift with each node. While the present always seems “ merged”, it is in fact a process, not a result. The Great Merger describes the merger of Korean-immigrant-American Reno-Canadia-geese and it will continue to exist as art, encountering nature and humanity, hometown immigration, tradition and modernity, established art and aesthetics of the people, questioning the landscape of our society and the individual faces of those who live within it. In this way, Koh’s work evokes the merging of layers that permeate our lives, the process of that great merger.