During the Winter holidays of 2020, I began a meditative night practice at a closed parking lot. The vacant darkness of the lot is visible from the small balcony in front of my room. I began to engage with the darkness by throwing the string lights from my room to the lot, over the fence. The process was intuitive and simple. I unravel the bundle of lights while slowly walking to create a drawing, often tracing English and Korean words. Sometimes the drawing was just one word or from the middle of a sentence or an incomplete word. All of the letterforms come from my diary and a list of words I’ve heard from roommates, close friends, and in virtual meetings that I’ve been interacting with. This ongoing performance culminated in a video titled, “A Nonchalant Vacation.” Through making and sharing this work, I’m seeking reconnection in everyday places where retraining could be a means of care for the body.

This concept of reconnection has become important to me after living in five different places since coming to Los Angeles to study art in the Summer of 2019. I finally settled in my most recent apartment during the pandemic in August. Through all of my moves and weaving between different spaces and times, I’ve gradually become aware of my trained negligence to the laborious actions with which I engage my body. I have been encountering habituated guilt from the thought that my endeavors are not enough to prove my value in society. These realizations and isolation due to Covid-19 pushed me into a corner, but through this performance I was able to reflect solely on myself.