An Bahk
Region: Midwest
An Bahk interweaves fragments of images from different cultures to construct an alienated space mimicking their multicultural identity. Just as East Asian culture values adaption to their surroundings, they collage abstracted images to create a pictorial space where different images blend to form a narrative as a whole. The ambiguity of collaged images is portraiture of their presence, which floats in between different cultural boundaries.
The process of constructing a space through collage is aligned to the process of adjusting to new surroundings. Visual elements harmonize, clash, and create tension like they do in physical spaces. They accumulate, reinterpret, and translate any information they consume on a day-to-day basis. They filter them into personal thoughts and exchange them through visual dialogue using photographs, fabrics, as well as painting and drawing tools.