Post on 26-Aug-2020
transcript
Roots, Wings, and Wall Art in Korea
by Suh Yungmi Henry de Frahan
PERSONAL HISTORY
My name is Suh Yungmi Henry de Frahan.
I was adopted by a Belgian family when I
was 22 months old. My adoptive parents
already had 3 biological children. They
adopted me, and then my little sister
(Korean as well) a bit later.
I grew up in the countryside, south of
Brussels.
I always thought I lived my adoption
pretty well until I became a mother.
Pregnancy and motherhood sent me back to the deep void inside me, all the emptiness of
my Korean identity.
I suffered from depression for a year, and so I started to get acquainted with the world of
the Korean adoptees... It’s been quite a ride, and 11 years later, I decided to make the trip
back to Korea.
The trip to Korea in September 2014 has allowed me to reconnect deeply with my roots,
and bring some peace to some issues of identity that I’ve carried for a long time, silent
inside but that needed some addressing to, and healing...
This is how the “Wall Art in Korea” project was born.
WALL ART IN KOREA
My name is Suh Yungmi Henry de Frahan, I’ve been adopted in Belgium 40 years ago.
Presently, I live in Brussels, I’m 42 years old, I’m a mother of 2 and an artist.
I’ve worked as a calligrapher for over 10 years (latin
calligraphy), and I’m today a mural artist, and a
pattern designer.
MOTIVATIONS
In September 2014, I came back to Korea for the
very first time since my adoption 40 years ago...
When I returned to Belgium after my trip, I felt the
urge to testify of my identity quest, as I finally
acknowledged the ESSENTIAL importance of it.
Through my art, I’ve decided to build a bridge
between my two identities, the Korean one by
nature, and the Belgian one by adoption.
Art is THE universal language, so I’ve chosen to use it in a peaceful and healing way
through this project.
WALL ART PROJECT
This project is foremost HUMANITARIAN
and interactive, its ultimate meaning is to
build a bridge between the Belgian and
the Korean side through art and a
collective creation workshop by sharing
of Korean creativity (with the children of
the orphanage) and Belgian-Korean (with
my Belgian adopted identity and the
biological Korean identity).
There are two connected aspects to the
project :
1. A mural on a piece of exterior wall to
the orphanage that will be painted by
Youm’s Wonderland (a.k.a. me). The
theme will evolve around nature designs,
and words calligraphed in hangeul and in French (the link between my 2 identities),
symbolic trace of my return to my Korean roots.
2. A collective mural executed by the children of the orphanage supervised and guided by me, on a wall they walk by every day, testimony of their work built together.
CONCLUSION
This project’s meaning is to complete the Circle. Coming back to Korea as “myself”, being
able to share, and most of all, give a voice through art, and allow those children in the
orphanages to EXIST in the reality of today’s world, those children without a family, “in
between” two lives... Those children who were ME once, a mirror, sort of speak. Most
certainly a kind of art therapy.
To be able to participate, in my own way to the collective memory of the adoptees
throughout the world today and to share some light in the lives of the many orphans in
Korea, those of today and yesterday, so that their very existences are RECOGNIZED and
VALIDATED, so the world consciousness can assimilate them to a more responsible future,
better supervised, more human and respectable of their personal stories in the setting of
International Adoption.
This is what I consider MY memory duty as an adoptee.
I so hope with all my heart that giving life to this project will make people think and
discuss in a deeper and more human way about a possible path to identity completion for
the adoptees, this indispensable base for a whole and serene construction of oneself that
so many of us lack in, by lack of connection to our Korean roots.