SEATTLE, WASHINGTON.- The Henry Art Gallery presents "The Dream of the Audience: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha," on view through March 2, 2003. This exhibition is a retrospective of works by Korean-American artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. Cha worked in media ranging from performance, film and video to mail art and artist books. Her works illustrate an ongoing exploration of themes born out of personal experiences-primarily those of geographic exile and cultural and linguistic displacement. The artist, whose family left Korea for the United States when she was 11, expresses the frustrations immigrants experience-some of which are specific to Koreans and women and others which are relevant to all transplants who face a language barrier, prejudice and the loss of their cultural traditions. Multiple cultural references and languages, including Korean, French and English, distinguish Cha’s complex works.

 

The exhibition features extensive documentation of the artist’s performances, video and film installations, sculpture, artist books, works on paper and documentation relating to the unfinished film "White Dust from Mongolia," which Cha was working on at the time of her murder in New York in 1982 at the age of 31. Cha’s work has become increasingly important and relevant to a broad range of disciplines-from ethnic studies, Asian American Studies, and Women’s Studies to film, literature, and linguistics as well as visual and performance art.

 

The Dream of the Audience is organized by the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, and curated by Senior Curator for Exhibitions Constance Lewallen. The exhibition is supported by grants from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts; the Peter Norton Family Foundation; the Korea Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; The Judith Rothschild Foundation; an anonymous donor with a matching grant from the TRW Foundation; the Consortium for the Arts at UC Berkeley; and the Koret Foundation. The museum would also like to thank Mr. H. Jin Lee, President, Lee Company, Inc., El Segundo, CA; Mr. Kong Chil Kim, Chairman, and Mr. Dae Joong Kim of Dae Gong Development Company, Seoul, Korea, for their support. The Dream of the Audience is organized for the Henry Art Gallery by Assistant Curator Robin Held.