media artist | filmmaker


    



Original Works
Participation

Family Debris2018

Single-channel video, multimedia installation, variable dimensions


Family Debris is a short film made with collage animation techniques that raises questions about the meaning and value of ‘family’ in contemporary society. It shows a realistic cross-section of the parent–child relationship long taken for granted, and explores ways of parting ‘rationally.’

[Synopsis]
Daughter A and her father B meet at family court. Unable to reach an agreement, they are in the middle of an ‘ichin’ (parent–child divorce) lawsuit. Through his lawyer, B presents evidence of the support he generously gave A, arguing that there is no reason to sever their relationship and that, if anything, A has failed to treat him in kind. A says, ‘I never wanted to be born.’ After leaving the courtroom, A hands B a wedding invitation bearing nothing but the two parties’ names, and they part ways.

In Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, David says, “Doesn’t everyone want their parents dead?” Everyone has the desire to break free from the shadow of their parents and from the old world. Each time we look in the mirror, we despair at how helplessly we resemble our parents, yet we cannot deny ourselves either. Even while feeling love-hate and disillusionment toward family, people again unite with those they love, reproduce, and form families. Because they are human.

Should the boundary called family be preserved? Friends, lovers, and spouses can imagine a rational separation. The existence of divorce does not make it easy for spouses to part, but severing the bond between parent and child is hardly even imaginable. Each is the other’s world, and the parent is the child’s origin.

Is there a way to dissolve a family rationally while minimizing trauma? So I created a fictional institution called ‘ichin.’ Like today’s divorce system, parents and children could ‘ichin’ by mutual agreement, and if they could not agree, they could sever a father–child or mother–child relationship through a lawsuit. If a parent fails to do what they owe a child, or a child fails to do what they owe a parent, either could claim compensation. Ours is a society that takes for granted that parents raise their children and provide emotional and financial stability, while children should be grateful and serve their parents in return. I imagined what it would look like if these matters of ‘ye’ (禮, propriety) were codified into law.


Written, directed, postproduced by Jihyo Eom
D.O.P Yu Jen Chang
Cast Run Young Ko / Dae Sung Moon / Jin Gu Kim

Exhibited atPecha Cucha Link Up Project 3, 2018, Haekhwatang, Seoul, Korea