Namumok-soosoo
Namumok-Soosoo / 南無木樹水, 2017
Single-channel video (color, sound), 12 minutes 42 seconds
    Filmed and edited by Yujin Lee
    Starring Doh Yul
    Voice narration by Choi Seung-gook
    Korean language with English subtitle
Namumok-Soosoo centers around two unexpected interpersonal relationship (in-yeon in Korean) formed during a short 8-day artist residency located inside a tangerine farm in South Korea’s Jeju Island. In-yeon One: Doh Yul. The footage depicts a house situated within a small tangerine farm, owned and run by Ms. Oh’s father since the 1970s. Ms. Oh grew up in that house until she moved to Seoul for college. Her 7 year old daughter, Yul, has also been visiting the house since she was an infant. Yul and I quickly became good friends. Everyday before dinner, we spent an hour exploring the vicinity of the farm house playing games that only require each other and the nature surrounding us. Through Yul, I was able to see, experience, and imagine an untamed perspective on the relationship between the body and the earth. In-yeon Two: Choi Seung-gook. The residency invited an agricultural researcher from the local government office, Choi Seung-gook, to give a talk on sustainable farming. Immediately, he exuded his talent in persuasive storytelling through a colorful personification of the trees, wind, and stone. The seemingly unfamiliar and uninteresting topic of agriculture transformed into a fable full of philosophical and moral questions about life and death. Throughout the talk, Mr. Choi, a native Jeju Islander, prided in his contribution and duty towards the local farming community and, surely, for all of the future of humanity.
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