I Will Sanctify Your Path. The Reconstruction Biennial. Exit Art, New York 2003

In "I Will Sanctify Your Path," I am interested in the necessary choices that we make to give up our precious possessions in life to go beyond. It is a long, painful, sometimes dangerous path to walk for one's own lonely experience through loss, separation and death, but all for the promise of eternal return.

I used fabric softener sheets for the top layer of the installation, strung on nine to ten foot fishing lines, and then hung densely from a wire mess cluster-like cloud. Some were used by my friends or peers and given to me. Others were purchased new, washed repeatedly to take out their strong perfume and suds, and then put into the dryer for other clothing to soften them. This laborious process suits my purpose as a symbolic cleansing ritual; of sanctification for my Christian beliefs. The bottom part of the installation has sharply edged and reflective mylar cones into which are inserted black sharpened objects. In the initial performances, I walked through the sculpture. Later, I allowed selected volunteers from the audience to walk through it. The ritual of walking through the installation symbolizes the sacrifice of each individual, and to me, it parallels the sacrificial path of Jesus for our sins.

As I walk through the layers of absorptive fabric softener strands, and onto the dangerously sharp reflective cones, in the background, plays a recorded sound of my heart beat overlapped by my reading and singing of the inspirational poem to the installation (Azalea, which is an old Korean poem). I created the tune, which was sung and spoken mostly in Korean. The meditative and bare footed steps are slow, but difficult because of the danger of getting cut from the sharp surfaces throughout the floor piece. Flower petals are thrown onto the path after every few steps, as part of the sanctification process, but they can also be interpreted by each viewer through their own associations and life experiences. In this way, I am opening up the performance for the viewers' own subliminal experience.