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DEAR MOM
first performed on March 4, 2019
California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
performed twice in 2019
WOOHEE CHO
Los Angeles, CA / Seoul, Korea
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wooheecho.com
DEAR MOM
WOOHEE CHO
This work explores the border of love. I have had an ambivalent relationship with my mom since 2013, when she found out I am gay. She seemed supportive but sometimes denied my being. In April 2018, I recorded the audio of a fight I had with my mom about being openly gay in the United States. She ended up saying she wouldn’t have given birth to me if she knew my existence would be a sin to God. I never could listen to this, so I transformed and translated the sound recording into visual information.
Then, in February 2019, I had a FaceTime conversation. I asked my mom how I can improve singing with a falsetto voice and if she would be okay with me doing this for my artwork. I sang “La Scia Chi’o Pianga” while a recorded video of the above-mentioned conversation played adjacently.
Lastly, dates of when she said “I love you” to me and when I said “I love you” to my mom are on the corner of the wall behind me. As I developed this work, I realized that my mom loves me although her way of caring is different from what I expected.