Liz Kim

My current works are rooted in collected memory, of the liminal space between cultures and identity for individuals with multiple cultural identity. Cultural liminal space conveys a sense of nostalgia, uncertainty, lostness and a sense of in-betweenness. “Alice in Wonderland” is a widely known story by Lewis Caroll that has been adapted into Disney's animation films and gained global popularity. The strange yet fantastical story of wonderland strongly resembles my experiences as a cross-cultural individual in many ways as I hope to express the conflicting emotions of being a third culture and cross-culture individual with all the fascination, confusion, frustration, isolation, and explore the conflict between estrangement and entrancement. Growing up as a 1.5 generation immigrant, I experienced the change of living as a part of the majority for the first 9 years of my life in Korea and coming to Canada to become a minority in a foreign land. The experience of having to adapt and grow up as a minority and being in a world where one is expected to either assimilate or be alienated, be “one of us” or “one of them” has become a big part of my identity. Sense of in-betweenness and disconnection created by cultural gaps seems to be inevitable as an immigrant who is detached from one’s roots and forced to adapt to a new environment. After realizing that I do not and will never fully belong to either of my two distant cultures, I’m focused on creating works relating to the liminal space of both cultures like my dreamscapes, a place like wonderland. 

 
 

 

 

Instagram Account: @lizkim.art