Yaloo

https://www.yaloopop.com/
Birthday Garden Seaweed Fairy
September 2022

Set in an undiscovered archaeological site from the near future, the underwater garden connects stories told across generations of a fictional Korean family to aspects of contemporary Korean culture. The installation is divided into a temple-like gateway, a pond and a shrine to seaweed. Seaweed has long held an important position in Korean culture, particularly as a comforting ritual repeated across generations, with families eating seaweed soup every year as a nutritious birthday meal. Yaloo weaves these memories together with a glowing altar in the shape of a sheet mask, and images of guardian fairies dancing to K-Pop, choreographed with members from the University of Liverpool's K-pop Society and a group of young people from Liverpool.

Acting as a ‘tour guide’ to this shrine, Yaloo invites us to excavate fragments of Korean culture which have been traded and sold for global consumption. By merging these fragments with both her own and her family’s experiences and memories, Yaloo reclaims their meaning: forging her own path through the world

Curated by Ivar Zeile of Denver Digerati