New Collection by Nancy Kwon

Old Bablyonian omen texts reveal that ancient Mesopotamians observed the behavior of birds, weather patterns and other details of everyday life to predict the future. The tradition of divination in Korea involved practices including silk reading, rain-making rituals and offerings to birds, ancestors and deities. We are a species preoccupied with foretelling the future, and I think it arises from our need for safety and survival. I think about my grandparents and how they were displaced from their homes through war and how it must have put them in a constant state of fear, and how some of that anxiety must have passed down to me.

I recently gave birth to a baby girl, and in her face, I see myself, my parents, my grandparents and my great-grandparents. When I look in the mirror, I now see her. Childbirth is a transformative experience – it is incredible to feel such a full spectrum of emotion at once. I am no longer just myself. I feel so much more connected to my ancestors after her birth. I feel rebirth; I am completely new and ancient.

I created this collection while occupying this headspace, and much of the work embodies what was on my mind. My process is intuitive and free, and I recognize connections arising as I make. Some of the works appear to me as an imagined divination system, others feel as if parts are missing from an imagined whole, and further works reflect the imagery of pregnancy and burial mounds, connecting these two states into one image of rebirth.