Souvenirs of the Self
1991, Series of 6 Photographs
A set of six postcards that featured her wearing a Nordic sweater and jeans posing in front of a museum vitrine, a tour bus, Lake Louise, and other tourist sites, this series plays on the discomfort that her racialized body inserts into the national narratives staged in these postcards. With witty, ironic text on the postcard backs, Yoon unravels those narratives, and interrogates the representational claims made by museums, the tourist industry and photography itself, prompting the viewer to ask themselves who is Canadian? Whose land is this? As Monika Kin Gagnon writes, 'who is the rightful and naturalized national subject, especially given the ongoing history of colonization vis à vis the First Nations peoples?'
- Ming Tiampo
Souvenirs of the Self (Lake Louise), 1991/2019, (detail), inkjet print on laminated vinyl, 185.4 x 121.9 cm
Souvenirs of the Self (Banff Park Museum) , 1991/1996, chromogenic print transmounted to plexiglass, 243.8 x 182.9 cm
Souvenirs of the Self (postcard project), 1991, six perforated colour postcards, each 15.2 X 10.1 cm