DECONSTRUCTING NARRATIVES IN THE SONG OF THE WHALE

By
Yoon Young Park

A THESIS SUPPORT PAPER SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF FINE ARTS

EMILY CARR UNIVERSITY OF ART + DESIGN
2018

© Yoon Young Park, 2018

ABSTRACT
My project, The Song of the Whale, is a product of an interdependent narrative structure,
and has been led by my conjectural knowledge and artistic research. My research has led me to
my current investigation and exploration of particular events and techniques in relation to
methods and methodologies, which could represent historical progress with regard to an
impending future catastrophe - Armageddon, which is from a verse in the New Testament, “And
he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon” (King James
Version, Rev. 16.16).
The dichotomy between fear - of war or disasters, and goodness in relation to being
brought up in the Christian faith, performs the formation of my framing metaphor and my
figuration which is my positionality, through embodied knowledge, which is always moving with
my ideas into different positions.
My artistic process often begins with narrative. Mieke Bal’s Narratology has provided
significant insight because her theory of narrative, involving fabula, story, and narrative text, is
effectual in breaking down the essential features of narratives in my work. Allegory threads these
three layers of narrative together. In this process of decomposing and interpreting my narrative, I
explore Manfred Jahn’s theory of focalization - the relationship between the vision, the agent
that sees, and that which is seen (Bal 146). In further exploring this connection, I found it useful
to consider both my situated and embodied knowledge in relation to Jahn’s Model of Vision. In
this context, I began to speculate about narrative perspective in my writings, and I experimented
with second person narration and stumbled upon an unpredicted momentum, which made me
step into and play again in the relationship among my elements and audience. I developed more
of a sense of concern with, and curiosity about, how the audience becomes a participant in
connection with my artwork.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................................. iii
LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................... vi
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 1
1

CHAPTER ONE: FABULA ............................................................................................. 3
1.1 Situated and Embodied Knowledge ............................................................................ 5
1.2 The Song of the Whale Timeline ................................................................................. 10

2

CHAPTER TWO: STORY ............................................................................................... 13
2.1 Allegory ...................................................................................................................... 13
2.1.1 Allegory through Elements .......................................................................... 13
2.1.2 Actors and Allegory ..................................................................................... 14
2.2 Focalization and Model of Vision............................................................................... 16

3

CHAPTER THREE: NARRATIVE TEXT ...................................................................... 19
3.1 Written Narrative Text ................................................................................................ 20
3.2 Sounds: The Musical Chord E la mi and the Shepard Tone ....................................... 22
3.3 Video ........................................................................................................................... 28
3.4 Drawings: Pictogram on a Folding Screen and a Hanging Scroll .............................. 29
3.5 Installation and Reflection .......................................................................................... 34

CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 39
WORKS CITED ........................................................................................................................... 41
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................... 44

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LIST OF FIGURES
Fig. 1. Tel Megiddo, Joe Freeman; Ruins atop Tel Megiddo, Israel; Wikimedia Commons; 9 Nov.
2006; Web; 5 Aug. 2018. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic.
Fig. 2. Chernobyl Disaster, Pripyat Chernobyl; Pixabay; 15 June 2013; Web; 7 Aug. 2018.
CC0 Creative Commons. Free for commercial use. No attribution required.
Fig. 3. Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Digital Globe; Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant after the
2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami; Wikimedia Commons; 16 Mar. 2011; Web; 7
Aug. 2018. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.
Fig. 4. Korean War, The United States Federal Government; Montage of Images from the
Korean War; Wikimedia Commons; Between circa 1950 and circa 1953; Web; 3 Aug.
2018. Public Domain.
Fig. 5. Operation ELLAMY, RAF; Royal Air Force Striking Libyan Warship; Wikimedia
Commons; 20 May 2011; Web; 12 Apr. 2017. Open Government Licence v1.0.
Fig. 6. Operation ELLAMY, Ed Marshall; RAF Tornado GR4 Aircraft During Operation
ELLAMY; Wikimedia Commons; 22 Mar. 2011; Web; 12 Apr. 2017.
Open Government Licence v1.0.
Fig. 7. E la mi from Greek Musical Theory Tetrachord (Burney 4).
Fig. 8. Yoon Young Park. “Door Handle in My House.” 12 May 2016. JPG.
Fig. 9. A Model of Vision (Jahn 242)
Fig. 10. Yoon Young Park, The Song of the Whale, installation view, 2018.
Fig. 11. E Note in Tetrachords, Two Greek Tetrachords in the Enharmonic Genus,
Forming an Enharmonic Dorian Scale; Wikiwand; Web; 22 Apr. 2016.cc by-sa 4.0.
Fig. 12. E Note in Tetrachords, Three Types of Greek Tetrachord;
Autodidact-Adventures; 12 Feb. 2018; Web; 7 June 2018. cc by-sa 4.0.
Fig. 13. Yoon Young Park. “E Notes in Tetrachords.” 2016.
Fig. 14. Yoon Young Park. “Harmony of Wings.” 2016.
Fig. 15. Yoon Young Park. “Tetrachord Colour Octave.” 2016.
iv

Fig. 16. Taegukgi, 태극기 Flag of South Korea; Wikimedia Commons; 30 May 2011; Web; 27
Aug. 2018. Public Domain.
Fig. 17. Yoon Young Park. “Tetrachord Colour Octave.” 2016.
Fig. 18. The Shepard tone, Grin; Shepard Tones Downpitch, Spectrum, Linear Scaled;
Wikimedia Commons; 31 Mar. 2008; Web; 7 Nov. 2017. Creative Commons.
Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International, 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic,
and 1.0 Generic.
Fig. 19. Yoon Young Park, The Song of the Whale, 2018. Cello, door handles, electric
guitar cables, trumpet, and parabolic speaker, dimensions variable.
Fig. 20. Yoon Young Park, The Song of the Whale, 2018. Single-channel video, 00:02:57. MP4.
Fig. 21. Yoon Young Park, The Song of the Whale, installation view, 2018.
Fig. 22. Yoon Young Park. “Pictograms at the Guildford Town Centre Mall.” 2018. JPG.
Fig. 23. Pictogram, Pixabay; 14 Oct. 2013; Web; 27 June 2018; CC0 Creative Commons.
Free for commercial use. No attribution required.
Fig. 24. Pictogram, Pixabay; 1 Apr. 2013; Web; 27 June 2018; CC0 Creative Commons.
Free for commercial use. No attribution required.
Fig. 25. Chinese Pictograph, Yug, Erin Silversmith, and Ju Gatsu Mikka; Evolution of the
Sinogram 山; Wikimedia Commons; 9 Dec. 2009; Web; 17 May 2018. Creative
Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.
Fig. 26. Yoon Young Park, The Song of the Whale, 2018. Ink, rice paper, and folding screen,
dimensions variable.
Fig. 27. Yoon Young Park, The Song of the Whale, 2018. Ink, rice paper, and silk hanging
scrolls, each 55x213cm.
Fig. 28. Yoon Young Park, The Song of the Whale, detail. 2018. Ink, rice paper, and silk
hanging scrolls.
Fig. 29. Yoon Young Park, The Song of the Whale, installation view, 2018.
Fig. 30. Yoon Young Park, The Song of the Whale, stage, 2018.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to thank God Almighty for granting me the inspiration,
knowledge, and faith to undertake and continue my research. I express my humble gratitude to
my instructors and examiners, in particular Kimberly Phillips, Sadira Rodrigues, Simon Levin,
Henry Tsang, Matilda Aslizadeh, and Peter Bussigel, for giving me insightful advice and
thoughtful guidance throughout my thesis project. I extend my sincere thanks to my cohort for all
of their encouragement. To my supportive father and my mother who has always given me
confidence, love, and care, I am forever indebted.

vi

INTRODUCTION
My thesis project, The Song of the Whale, began with me being drawn to various
inspirational moments that appeared to me as images, sound, text, and events, and this brought
me to collect, observe, investigate, research, and interweave together my narrative text. I usually
write a narrative text to make sense of these moments, and then I subsequently create my artwork.
When I am pulled into one of my moments, I think that there must be some reason that I am
attracted to or focused on it, and this makes me look for something beyond what I understand
and see. In other words, I have been searching for why I am drawn to particular moments that
lead me to my creations. I feel that my research is just as significant as the final artwork, and
evidence of it can always be seen as part of my installation in the physical space.
During this research process, my subjectivity guides me in my choice of influences when
I encounter particular moments in the world, and these specific moments have subsequently
become my elements, which interweave themselves together. First, I mix these elements together
and write a narrative text in which I organize the images in my mind. Then, I visualize and create
my work in a physical space. I attempt to perceive beyond these moments, to the “how” and
“why” and reflect on them so as to reveal something that baffles my understanding and cannot be
explained in the world around me.
My work is therefore the product of an interdependent narrative structure, which has been
led by my conjectural knowledge (Ginzburg 15) and artistic research. In focusing on the biblical
verse 16:16, I have researched and collected the information of Tel Megiddo and the various
battles in this place, and this research has led me to believe that Armageddon has probably
already begun. I started researching nuclear power plant failure, wars, and public documents of
data that exist and show the technical and mechanical problems that resulted in the calamities of
the nuclear power plant disasters. These helped me to reflect on past atrocious events. However,
I felt that there must be other reasons behind these happenings, and I started to write my
narrative text to organize images in my mind with the research data.
In an attempt to analyze why my work stems from the moments that stand out to me, I
have chosen narratology, the theory of narrative (Bal 3), as an effectual theory to deconstruct the
methodology of The Song of the Whale. The theory of narratology involves fabula, story, and
narrative text, and I have analyzed the allegorical references in my work, which show my

1

creative process, in relation to these layers. I begin by looking at fabula and how it connects to
my methodology. Next, I analyze the element of story in my narrative, in which I examine how
my focalization works through the layers and helps interweave them together for the audience first through seeing my work, then grasping the story, and finally putting the events together in
their minds chronologically. Finally, I explore how my narrative texts work in the physical space
with materiality.
The Song of the Whale intertwines world disasters such as the Chernobyl nuclear accident,
and the 2011 UK military intervention in Libya with more personal components, including door
handles from my little nephew’s curiosity, crutches due to my ankle wound, the cello from
Salvador Dalí’s last painting: The Swallow’s Tail - Series on Catastrophes, a whale from The
Story of Minke the Whale by Tacita Dean, and the blue whale at the Museum of Natural History
in New York. It became a mix of war and beauty. I combine mediums, such as hanging scrolls,
influenced by my academic background in Northeast Asian art studies, with specifically
designed pictograms that represent my narrative, a single-channel video, different sounds and
musical chords, as well as a hanging sculpture that carefully presents a cello, trumpet, wheels,
and door handles.

2

1

CHAPTER ONE: FABULA
My fabula consists of numerous moments that I have encountered and is complicatedly

connected beyond time and space. A fabula is a series of logically and chronologically related
events that are caused or experienced by actors, in which the actors are agents that perform
actions and are not necessarily human (Bal 5). They have an intention towards a goal (197).
One of my goals, or one of the reasons why I have created my thesis work, is to be able to
explore how present and past events are related to an impending future catastrophe, and more
importantly - what it is behind these events’ scenes, and what is the relationship between what is
behind the scenes and myself?
I am particularly drawn to Armageddon. Many people know Armageddon as the “end of
the world” from popular culture references - movies, animation, plays, and songs. When I read
16:16 from the Book of Revelation, I was attracted to the idea of Armageddon and began to
research it. I was drawn to this word because I had been thinking about the end of the world. I
had been reading books by different philosophers and when I came to this verse from the Bible a
connection formed in my mind. It was the initial moment in the creation of The Song of the
Whale. While researching and collecting the information of Tel Megiddo1, I noticed a couple of
words that returned to me repeatedly, such as nuclear which has been one of the biggest issues in
the world recently. I started researching nuclear power plant failure, including the Chernobyl2
and Fukushima Daiichi3 nuclear power plant disasters.

1

Tel Megiddo is an ancient fortified defensive city, located on a hill in northern Israel near Kibbutz Megiddo.
Megiddo is identified as the scene of many battles, which was prophesied in the Book of Revelation under its Greek name
Armageddon (Robert 57).
2
The Chernobyl accident occurred on April 25th, 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukrainian Soviet
Socialist Republic, Soviet Union. The accident is considered the most disastrous nuclear power plant accident in history, both in
terms of cost and casualties (Aleksievich 10).
3

The Fukushima nuclear disaster was primarily caused by a series of tsunami, following the earthquake on March 11th, 201l.
Although the active reactors mechanically shut down their sustained fission chain reactions after the earthquake, the tsunami
made it impossible for the emergency generators to cool the reactors. The disaster was the most serious nuclear incident since the
1986 Chernobyl disaster (Atomic Energy Society of Japan 165).

3

Fig. 1. Tel Megiddo, Joe Freeman; Ruins atop Tel Megiddo, Israel; Wikimedia Commons; 9 Nov. 2006; Web; 5 Aug. 2018.
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic.

Fig. 2. Chernobyl Disaster, Pripyat Chernobyl, Pixabay; 15 June 2013; Web; 7 Aug. 2018. CC0 Creative Commons. Free for
commercial use. No attribution required.

Fig. 3. Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Digital Globe; Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant after the 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and
Tsunami; Wikimedia Commons; 16 Mar. 2011; Web; 7 Aug. 2018. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.

4

Public documents and data exist that show the technical and mechanical problems that
resulted from these atrocious calamities, and they have helped me to reflect on my worldview
and then my work. I believe that my situated and embodied knowledge, the experiences and
background of my life, have led me to this connection to Armageddon.

1.1

Situated and Embodied Knowledge
Sarat Maharaj declares that artistic research is “embodied knowledge” (47). This

perspective is a vital process to engage in artistic research in which to examine knowledge
production as “spasms and episodes of the mind-body continuum” (46). It is closely relevant to
my artistic research point of view because the process of mind-body continuum makes me fully
inspired by encounters, and the “motor-sensory-somatic process” (47) leads my artistic research
to reflect and begin to deal with encounters in the world.
Donna Haraway states that, “situated knowledges are about communities, not about
isolated individuals,” and she says that situated knowledges make connections and unexpected
openings possible (583). In my work I have been striving to make connections between the
moments that leap out to me by using the knowledge absorbed by the places and situations where
I have lived or spent time.
I know the world because I experience it through my body, and my body has been created
by my experiences, which have been influenced by my situated and embodied knowledge. My
experiences and relationships with the world change the world in my mind in particular ways,
and in turn they change the experiences of my body. In her article, “Embodiment Epistemology:
Philosophy of Mind, Evolution, Perception Studies, Cognitive Science,” Ellie Epp states that
“perception is automatically categorical,” that is, images in the world are already categorized by
my entire nervous system in terms of my situated knowledge before I see, with vision, the
particulars. Additionally, Haraway made me think of my subjectivity that I applied through my
embodied knowledge, which has led me to question and convert this knowledge into “mutual and
unequal structuring” as an obscure and ambiguous existence (595).
My Christian faith and being raised in South Korea, a country under constant threat of
nuclear attack, have both contributed to my situated and embodied knowledge. My parents’

5

generation directly suffered the pain of the Korean War4 and the tragic period after the division
of the country and the Japanese colonial period. I have been educated on how the disaster of war
causes pain and loss of life as well as the disappearance of human rights. From both school and
world events, I have learned that we always need to focus on military power, and the military
government remains in power in South Korea to this day.

Fig. 4. Korean War, The United States Federal Government; Montage of Images from the Korean War;
Wikimedia Commons; circa 1950 - 1953; Web; 3 Aug. 2018. Public Domain.

My father often warned me that it would be tragic if war occurred. War makes people
miserable because there is not any sanctity or dignity of human life. My father would say that in
a wartime situation, all we had worked for would be lost. As I was growing up, people would say

4

North Korean forces invaded South Korea on June 25th, 1950, and the Korean War started. The United Nations came to the aid
of South Korea, while China and the Soviet Union came to the aid of North Korea. Korea became split into two regions with
separate governments; in fact, it was a product of the Cold War tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States
(Cho 469).

6

that we were in the middle of a war, that the war between North and South Korea was not
finished, and that we were only at a cease-fire. Growing up in this radical political environment
strongly affected my body, which continued to negatively affect my experience of the world.
Now that I divide my time between Canada and Korea, I feel I have eliminated some ingrained
prejudices of particular theories, such as socialism and cultural bias, and am removed from these
beliefs; nevertheless, I think unconsciously they remain with me and still affect my work and
myself.
I feel that my body has existed in the world power structures and social structures. One
example is education. In Korea, when I was young, students did not question their teachers. To
do so was looked down upon and considered annoying and odd. It was very negative to stand out
from the crowd. I used to agree with and obey the teachers who taught me, even if I secretly
disagreed with what they were promoting. In my mind I questioned them, but never outright.
Now in Canada, where standing out from the crowd is often considered unique, I feel freer to
speak out, and I feel it can be strange in some situations if I do not speak out. Of course this
change took time and came as a bit of a culture shock at first; nonetheless, I have slowly adjusted.
It entailed a lot of confusion internally in various situations; subsequently, it led me to clearly
face who I am and what I think, which in turn has allowed me to deal with the world situation in
different perspectives. It has therefore also affected the perspectives of my work.
Along with this, during my childhood, I pursued books that my grandmother and my
mother read to me for hours and hours every day. Through dialogues between my grandmother,
mother, and myself, my education and knowledge grew and transformed. My grandmother
always told me various Bible stories, and was my spiritual mainstay before she passed away
when I was in middle school. I also have been introduced to diverse books because my father, a
voracious reader, had collected numerous books and bought a healthy number of artistic books
for me. In addition, I was brought up to experience various cultures in foreign cities. Due to my
father’s business, I could visit museums and galleries with my mother in different cities in the
U.S. and Europe. My mother, who has classical taste, has led me to easily access various art
performances, such as ballet, classical music, musicals, and operas.

7

One strong artistic influence for The Song of the Whale has been the animated series
Neon Genesis Evangelion5, directed by Hideaki Anno. The series concerns itself with the
historical background of the atomic bombs in World War II. Parts of the series show the situation
after the city was severely attacked by enemies and destroyed with missiles. The next day people
do not care and are peacefully returning to work while buildings, which have been hidden under
the ground, rise from the ground as if nothing had occurred.
It overlaps with the situation I experience whenever I am in Seoul. North Korea continues
to threaten to turn South Korea into a ‘sea of fire’ and has caused regional wars from time to
time, such as the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island6, the ROKS Cheonan sinking7, and most
recently the numerous missile launches of 2017.
Throughout his series, Anno alludes to personal struggles in relation to his situated and
embodied knowledge, and his subjectivity. My knowledge helps me to approach Evangelion,
through which I have experienced numerous intersected moments. Another reason I am
specifically drawn to this series is because of its biblical connection and imagery that is derived
from Christianity. Such references as the theme of the apocalypse, and various biblical
references, including Adam, the Trinity, Golgotha Base, Bethany Base, the Ark, King
Nubuchadnezzar, the twelve apostles, angels, Lance of Longinus, and a Tree of Life surface
repeatedly in the animation and drew me in.
These personal experiences were, and continue to be, major influences in my narrative
and subsequent artistic expression. I believe these experiences are one of the reasons as to why
the particular moments I encounter leave a strong impression on me, and make their way, in
some way or other, into my art. Much of my artwork for The Song of the Whale mixes tones of

5

Neon Genesis Evangelion is a Japanese anime series, written and directed by Hideaki Anno. The series aired from October 4th,
1995 to March 27th, 1996. The term “evangelion” is in relation to the ancient Greek term for good messenger or good news. The
name was chosen in part for its religious symbolism, as well as for the fact that Anno said he liked the word evangelion because
it sounded complicated (Schilling).
6

North Korean forces fired around 170 artillery shells and rockets at Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea on November 23rd, 2010.
They hit both military and civilian targets, and the shelling caused widespread damage on the island (Kim).
7

The ROKS Cheonan sinking occurred on March 26th, 2010, in which 46 seamen were killed. The cause of the sinking remains
in dispute, although overwhelming evidence points to North Korea. A South Korean-led official investigation carried out by a
team of international experts from South Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Sweden
presented a summary of its investigation on May 20th, 2010, concluding that a North Korean torpedo had sunk the warship
(Lendon).

8

this militarized environment within the expectation of war with the softness and beauty of
reading and being exposed to different cultures and events with my family. For example,
I created a harmony for my installation which originated from a military code name ELLAMY8- (war) but through my research, lead me to certain music notes - E la mi - that I used
to compose the new melody with my mother’s help on the piano (family and music).

Fig. 5. Operation ELLAMY, RAF; Royal Air Force Striking Libyan Warship; Wikimedia Commons; 20 May 2011;
Web; 12 Apr. 2017. Open Government Licence v1.0.

Fig. 6. Operation ELLAMY, Ed Marshall; RAF Tornado GR4 Aircraft During Operation Ellamy; Wikimedia Commons; 22 Mar.
2011; Web; 12 Apr. 2017. Open Government Licence v1.0.

8

The military intervention was part of an international organization of particular countries aimed at imposing a Libyan airspace
prohibited area in compliance with the United Nations Security Council Resolution of 1973. It specified that all necessary
measures should be taken to keep civilians safe. NATO began a military intervention in Libya on March 19 th, 2011 (House of
Commons 13).

9

Fig. 7. E la mi in Greek Musical Theory Tetrachord (Burney 4).

Yet, I still continue to wonder if there must be something more behind my moments and
the reason between what is behind the moments and myself. I have continued to create my
artwork, influenced by the mixtures of these moments, in an attempt to pursue these inquiries.

1.2

The Song of the Whale Timeline
As previously mentioned, Bal defines a fabula as a series of logically and chronologically

related events that are caused or experienced by actors who are agents that perform actions and
are not necessarily human (5). It is a memorable trace that remains with the reader after the
reading has finished (xv), and has been arranged into a story, but is still not a text (8). The
chronological timeline for The Song of the Whale was influenced by my moments, which include
personal memories as well as certain historical events that stood out to me when I encountered
them.
As I grew up, hearing about war and terror from my parents and from adults around me,
I lost my innocence in relation to curiosity. I often think about my nephew’s ingenuous curiosity
in his childhood. I constantly wonder about why he was obsessed with door handles (see fig. 8)
and pulled down on them all the time. Because of these memories of his curiosity, door handles
have made their way into my recent artistic pieces.

10

Fig. 8. Yoon Young Park. “Door Handle in My House.” 12 May 2016. JPG file.

My fabula for The Song of the Whale is arranged into these twelve door handles - or
twelve major events. I selected the number twelve because it comes from the Book of Revelation
and appears in connection to Armageddon. The last part of the Book of Revelation mentions the
number twelve many times, including twelve gates, twelve angels, twelve tribes, twelve
foundations, twelve apostles, twelve precious stones, and twelve manner of fruits, in which the
twelve is all the different kinds, and they are put into certain situations. These diverse
combinations ultimately give an explanation of the holy city, New Jerusalem coming from God
out of heaven (King James Version, Rev. 21-22). The number twelve settled conclusively in my
mind while I was blending my memories which have been strongly influenced by my life
experiences and preferences, as well as actual historical occurrences that, when I encountered
them, made a personal association. I chose twelve events to juxtapose into my narrative with the
door handles. For example, Chernobyl reflects history and Noah is an actor based on my
nephew’s character as a young boy. The events are chronological from Door Handle ONE to
TWELVE, though not all events have specific dates:

Door Handle ONE: 1986. The Chernobyl nuclear power accident initiates.
Door Handle TWO: 2006. Noah contemplates a door handle around this period.
Door Handle THREE: 2008. Noah’s face skids on the cement as he falls on a
downhill road.
Door Handle FOUR: March 11, 2011. Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster starts.

11

Door Handle FIVE: March 19, 2011. The UK starts invading Libya with the international
coalition designated by NATO.
Door Handle SIX: 2016. Noah goes back to when he was seven years old and meets a huge
whale beached in shallow waters.
Door Handle SEVEN: 2017. Noah hurts his ankle so badly that he has to stop all activity,
and walks on crutches for quite a while. He contemplates
medical devices.
Door Handle EIGHT: Noah goes back to when he was eight years old and meets Alan.
The two young boys try to understand why wars happen in their
countries and talk about what feud is.
Door Handle NINE: North Korean’s blitzkrieg (sudden attack) by missile Polaris, known
as Pukguksong, and underground tunnels .
Door Handle TEN: An old man Noah stares at a huge blue whale that is suspended from
the arched ceiling of a museum.
Door Handle ELEVEN: Atrocious events in the world have concentrated on one point,
and militaries in the whole world are gathered to the battle into a
place called Armageddon.
Door Handle TWELVE: 2072. Noah, as a grandfather, recalls his childhood with
his grandson.

These door handle events are moments mixing and taking shape. They are not a
coincidence, but hold deeper meanings or reasons, and I feel that they often cast vital clues about
the world that I perceive, although they often seem to explicate that absurd. This process
maximizes my artistic research with imagination and reflection, in which they are a kind of
dynamic power and momentum to practically and actively metamorphose encounters that I face
with my sensory perception, leading my practice to connect to actual space with my narratives
and creativity, as fabula becomes story.

12

2

CHAPTER TWO: STORY
Unlike the definite chronological structure of fabula, time and space are not linear or

logical in my stories, and the various events are presented as I relate to them. In this context, a
cinematographical mechanism of thought - “cut and paste” - helps me to create algorithmic
sequences in my stories (Maharaj 4). In this regard, sensory conditions and social conditions are
twisted together in a close manner (Howes 4), and therefore allegory becomes more significant.
As Mieke Bal says, a story is the fabula that is presented in a certain manner (5).

2.1

Allegory
My narrative texts have been presented allegorically through various elements - events,

actors, time, and location - the material of the fabula (Bal 7) that becomes my story. I feel it is
necessary to analyse my diverse elements because they have been presented through my
subjectivity, embodied and situated as knowledge in my narrative texts. Although they may seem
like my arbitrary choices, I have felt that the allegorical expression could be one of the
significant ways to represent the world beyond surface visuals to get to the true deeper meaning.
In his article, “Water Benjamin’s Theory of Allegory,” Bainard Cowan asserts that “allegory is
more than outward form of expression; it is also the intuition, the inner experience itself” (110).
My story has been operating in a non-linear flow because it is difficult to express the linear
fabula in my mind, and, for me, it is very natural to write my stream of consciousness into story
form. Therefore, the world in my stories is fragmentary and enigmatic - a complicated fabula to
see, in which the world ceases to be purely physical and becomes an aggregation of signs
(Cowan 110).
2.1.1

Allegory through Elements
Allegory in The Song of the Whale presents itself through the elements of events,

actors, time and locations. Below are the significant moments that went into creating The
Song of the Whale, organized into elements.

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1. Events: The UK military intervention in Libya, nuclear power plant disasters,
battles in Armageddon, Noah’s injury, Noah’s encounter with a whale
2. Actors: Noah, ELLAMY, a whale, wheels, wings, f-holes, door handles, the
Shepard tone, a wheels, wings
3. Time: Twelve door handles timeline, before and after Armageddon, particularly,
in 2006, 2008, 2011, 2016, and 2072
4. Locations: The beach, and the sky, the museum, the house in Eagle Ridge

These elements have continued to interact in their various allegorical meanings
for the formation of my story, The Song of the Whale. In particular, the actors are one of
the essential elements, with which I have developed my narrative and moved to the next
stage of events.

2.1.2

Actors and Allegory
Hideaki Anno’s narratives in Evangelion use various compositions to present an

apocalyptic setting, which takes place in the futuristic city of Tokyo-3 fifteen years after
a worldwide cataclysm, known as the Second Impact, with diverse allegorical references.
In Anno’s series, many actors, including Adam, a cross, twelve apostles, angels, Lance of
Longinus, and a Tree of Life are biblical references, and they show how he creates his
world with his personal expression towards the world that he perceives. Similarly, my
actors have various allegorical references, including biblical ones, and tie together
particular moments in my narrative, often with a dichotomous effect:

a Noah: My nephew’s playmate, whom he met on Jericho beach,
Biblical character, who survived the deluge (a severe flood)
b Whale: A baleen whale from Tacita Dean’s The Story of Minke the Whale
The white whale from Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick
A great fish from The Book of Jonah
The Blue Whale in the American Museum of Natural History
14

c Door handle: Door handles in my house, which my nephew was obsessed with
pulling ceaselessly when he was young.
d ELLAMY: Code name, Operation ELLAMY
Greek music theory Tetrachord (Burney 6)
The poem “The Armonye of Byrdes” written by John Skelton
e Shepard Tone: Time and history
Repetitive pattern of octave sounds
Air-raid and all-clear siren that I had listened to in relation to
North Korean attacks, Chinese defected jets, and Civil Defense
Training day once every month.
f

RAM: The Book of Daniel
The United States Navy

g Wings: Drosophila wings
The poem “The Armonye of Byrdes” written by John Skelton
Jet aircrafts of UK
The Book of Genesis, The Book of Ezekiel, and The Book of Revelation
h Wheels: Gyroscopes, Navigation systems of jet aircrafts
Constantly turning, and going somewhere
Time and history
The book Beneath the Wheel written by Hermann Hesse
The Book of Ezekiel and Daniel

I feel that the dichotomy between fear - of war or disasters, and goodness,
innocence, and beauty is my framing metaphor. Many of my actors above have
allegorical references to both fear and goodness. For example, in (a), the actor Noah
embodies both my nephew’s playmate and the biblical character, who survived a flood.
The dichotomy of fear and destruction or war, and that of childhood innocence arises and
this has presented itself in my current installation as a pictogram of a young boy
presented on both my folding screen and hanging scroll. An old man, the young boy

15

grown old (biblical Noah), appears in my narrative reminiscing about his past - including
surviving war-like conditions.
Paul Virilio’s The Administration of Fear has inspired me to explore and unpack
this dichotomy that I have found with many of my actors in my story. His strong
correlation between fear and speed is intriguing and significant in relation to my work.
He points out that fear occupies and preoccupies us, and talks about using confidence to
approach fear (14). Moreover, his idea that in order to have confidence one needs to build
it over time is one I will continue to examine, “ . . . confidence can never be instantaneous.
It must be built, earned, over time. Instant confidence, like instant faith, doesn’t work.
You need time to have confidence; you need time to have faith” (76). I started creating
my narrative in The Song of the Whale with the elements of fear, speed, and faith;
however, I think that the final work may be beyond these feelings and is something of an
unsolvable mystery or riddle that prompts the audience to search for meaning with clues
from within the work.
2.2

Focalization and Model of Vision
When I am developing the narratives that form the foundation of my artwork, I use

focalization to be able to understand and organize the various elements. It is an important way
that I imagine them interweaving. Focalization is the relationship between the vision - the agent
that sees - and that which is seen (Bal 146). I find Manfred Jahn’s Model of Vision (see fig. 9)
effective in illustrating my focalization.

F1 Armageddon; L lens, my subjectivity;
F2 The Song of the Whale; V my field of vision; W world
Fig. 9. A Model of Vision (Jahn 242)

16

Focalization, related to point of view in my personal narrative, is one of the significant
factors that explain how this project is located relationally. The elements above (1 - 4) are the
material of my fabula (F1), and are processed through my situated and embodied knowledge lens,
which contains my personal memories (L). My fabula (F1) in my mind is related to Armageddon,
which is my burning point, or focus (242). In the twelve door handles of The Song of the Whale
(F2), narrators use certain points of view in a mixture of various events that have influenced, or
presented themselves to me through my field of vision (V) and the world (W). I feel this brings
about a poiesis; an “undercurrent striving toward the light of day” (Whitehead 2) in my artwork.
My creative intentionality is similar to Whitehead's, who describes it as, “[coming] into play as
sense-impressions become living sensations. Such sensations find their way into - and transfuse the work of creativity” (5).
While researching Bal’s Narratology as well as Jahn’s theory of focalization, I started to
think more about narrative perspective in my writings and artwork. I realized that most of my
narrative has been written in either first or third person - not on purpose, but just as a natural
flow in my process. While reading Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place, which is written in the
second person point of view, I found her use of this perspective significant as it creates empathy
in her writing, particularly around issues of colonization. I felt an embodied connection to her
work as a Korean who has similar history of colonization. In this respect, I felt that I became the
“you” she was addressing in her novel. I recognized that I have not devoted myself fully to
understanding and empathizing with others and felt that this shift is important because it brought
about the moment when I started thinking about the relationship between myself, and otherness. I
went from being focused on one-way self-expression, to an attempt at communication with
others and the world. I gained more of a consideration for and appreciation of the audience.
Similarly, the cinematography of Twin Peaks has been an influence on my work. It
explores the ideas of juxtaposition, configuration, and heterotopias. Particularly, the director
David Lynch uses a character called The Log Lady as both an actor and narrator. She is a
conveyer through which he transfers his thoughts about the world. Lynch has The Log Lady
narrate to the audience at the beginning of each episode. The following is a monologue by The
Log Lady in the first episode of Twin Peaks’ first season:

17

THE LOG LADY
I carry a log, yes. Is it funny to you? It is not to me.
Behind all things are reasons. Reasons can even explain the
absurd. Do we have the time to learn the reasons behind
human beings' varied behavior? I think not. Some take the
time. Are they called detectives? Watch, and see what life
teaches (Twin Peaks, Season 1, Episode 1).

I perceive this as Lynch’s way of engaging the audience, as if the Log Lady is Lynch
himself enquiring the audience to answer riddles, making them ask questions and seek answers
about the world. Lynch’s organization of this eccentric character and his timeline when he
chooses to juxtapose her into scenes is part of his process, which causes viewers to be actively
involved in his world of Twin Peaks.
I continue to contemplate ways to involve the audience in The Song of the Whale. How
can I make my work interactive, or directly capture each audience member’s own situated and
embodied knowledge? By incorporating events such as Chernobyl and Armageddon I believe I
have attempted to draw upon my audience's’ knowledge and conjecturally ruminate experiences
for them. I am inviting them into my field of vision, to interact with The Song of the Whale, but I
continue to wonder whether I can influence their lens, which is dependent upon subjectivity. Can
they see the story I am envisioning purely from observing my artwork, or do they need to read
my written narrative text, and if this is the case should my written text be part of my installation?

18

3

CHAPTER THREE: NARRATIVE TEXT

Fig. 10. Yoon Young Park, The Song of the Whale, installation view, 2018.

I started writing my narrative text to unpack many inquiries in my mind, interweaving
questions as well as other references mentioned in section 2.1.2 Actors and Allegory. Mieke Bal
defines narrative text as “a text in which an agent relates (‘tells’) a story in a particular medium,
such as language, imagery, sound, buildings, or a combination thereof” (5). She adds that, “‘text’
refers to narratives in any medium . . .” (6). There are diverse references that I have conflated in
The Song of the Whale, enchanted in my mind, such as The Story of Minke the Whale by Tacita
Dean, The Book of Jonah in the Bible, Moby-Dick written by Herman Melville, Salvador Dalí's
The Swallow’s Tale, the missile Polaris developed by North Korea, Gravity’s Rainbow written
by Thomas Pynchon, a memory of my nephew and a door handle, and others. My conjectural
research has led me to explore particular mediums and techniques, in which the process for my

19

work is very essential for me because all the elements of my work represent my research process,
and it is very much a part of the work itself. The Song of the Whale (see fig. 10) is presented in a
variety of mediums, including a written narrative text, sounds, sculpture, video, drawings on a
folding screen, and hanging scrolls.

3.1

Written Narrative Text
“The Song of the Whale” is a dialogue script. A form of dialogue is often my natural

starting point and continues throughout the entire process of my artwork. It has been interwoven
with organic oral discussions with the maternal women in my family, such as my grandmother’s
stories of Korean myth and those from the Bible. Then it has been crafted into a narrative form
because storytelling and verbal communication have been influential in my life and subsequently
in my artwork.
The written version of “The Song of the Whale” reflects my inquiry of the reality that I
encounter in which I believe there is more beyond what I perceive. My written narrative text
started with certain happenings - Armageddon, door handles, and whales - that I encountered and
juxtaposed with various references in my mind. I connected these to contextual images with
similar themes of fear and death, such as the “whale” in The Story of Minke the Whale, the
“whale” from Moby-Dick, and a “great fish” from The Book of Jonah. Another connection was
the code name Operation “ELLAMY” from the 2011 UK Intervention in Libya and the music
note E la mi from Greek musical theory a tetra (four) chord. The four stringed cello from
Salvador Dalí's The Swallow’s Tale - Catastrophe Series, connects the integral symbol ∫ of the
catastrophe theory of Rene Thom and the cello f-hole linked to the memory of my nephew and
door handles. I attempt to unfold nonlinear timelines and sequences because the past, present,
and future are interwoven in various angles in my written narrative text.
Below is an excerpt from “The Song of the Whale” in which the actors Noah (a young
boy) and Alyosha (a whale) are discussing the disappearance of Minky (another whale who has
been beached and is dying). I tried to convey a childhood innocence with their dialogue being
light and trusting amid a serious situation. Through the second person narrator the audience sees
the true gruesomeness of what is really happening.

20

CUT TO:
Door Handle SIX
EXT. A MISTY SEASHORE

SUNSET
NOAH
(in a serious tone)

Does MINKY have a hole on top of her head like you?
ALYOSHA
(in an excited tone with a smile)
Yes, she spouts hot air from the hole when she breathes.
NOAH
Does she have teeth?
ALYOSHA
(tries to shake her head but cannot because of the chains
holding her in place)
MINKY doesn’t have them. Instead, she has a kind of
curtain that

hangs from the roof of her mouth like me.

Now, look at mine.

NOAH
(surprised and in such a very curious tone
with a tilt of his head)
That looks like small bones.
YOU look closely at ALYOSHA’S huge mouth and picture an equally
massive Japanese fisherman hooking her and reeling her in. Some
of the fish swimming by have deformities.
ALYOSHA
(with an energetic voice)
It’s called a baleen, made of fine bone. When I want to
feed, I just open my mouth wide and swim full speed ahead.
Soon my huge mouth is filled with water and thousands of
tiny sea animals and plants that flow in with it.

21

CUT TO:
YOUR eyes are going to a large pulley, which has been attached
to the whales’ mouth, cranking it open.
CUT TO:
NOAH
(earnestly)
I like your toothless smile. But I wonder why you
continue smiling like The Joker? I could hear the wave
sounds from the sea. By the way, what did GREAT BEAR say
when you told him about MINKY?
FADE OUT:

Through writing this script I was able to organize images in my mind. From the script I
began to visualize particular elements such as Noah, whale, trumpet, wheels, as well as others.
Ideas for different media came out in the process.

3.2

Sounds: The Musical Chord E la mi and the Shepard Tone
The musical chord E is from the codename for the UK participation in the 2011 military

intervention in Libya, Operation ELLAMY. The UK Royal Air Force randomly selected the
word “ellamy” by a computer programme because they did not want the code name to have
anything to do with their military operation. I learned that the word “ellamy” is an early modern
English word, which is often found in ancient classics, such as the poem “The Armony of Byrdes”
written by John Skelton.
Then sang the avys
Called the mavys
The treble in ellamy,
That from the ground
Her notes round
Were herde into the skye (Skelton 4)
22

Fig. 11. E Notes in Tetrachords, Two Greek Tetrachords in the Enharmonic Genus, Forming an Enharmonic Dorian Scale;
Wikiwand; Web; 22 Apr. 2016.cc by-sa 4.0.

Fig. 12. E Notes in Tetrachords, Three Types of Greek Tetrachord; Autodidact-Adventures; 12 Feb. 2018;
Web; 7 June 2018. cc by-sa 4.0.

I then became interested that the word “ellamy” is an alternative orthography of E la mi
in the early modern age, a musical solmization designating the chord E in the context of a
tetrachord (see fig. 11 and 12). I talked with my mother, who plays the piano, and asked her to
improvise on the harmony with the chords on the piano, also asking her to make some
dissonance. I practiced and played these chords to make harmony using smart strings in
GarageBand. I included sounds of the cello.

23

Fig. 13. Yoon Young Park. “E Notes in Tetrachords.” 2016.

Fig. 14. Yoon Young Park. “Harmony of Wings.” 2016.

24

The process of research for the tetrachord led me to find the colour octave in the musical
chord, which shows the code of long and short-range waves of light. These colours are RGBW when mixed together they make white. I found that RGBW is related to the yang9 part (Achilles).

Fig. 15. Yoon Young Park. “Tetrachord Colour Octave.” 2016.

9

In Northeast Asian philosophy, the yin-yang theory is one of the significant views to understand the universe, in which it
represents a balanced and harmonious relationship between contrary forces and aspects in the universe, such as the sun and
moon. The South Korean national flag Taegukgi incorporates various yin-yang symbols.

Fig. 16. Taegukgi, 태극기 Flag of South Korea; Wikimedia Commons;
30 May 2011; Web; 27 Aug. 2018. Public Domain.
The color blue and red represent yin and yang, respectively, and the short and long black bar Kwe also show mutual dependent
relationship of yin (short) and yang (long), such as heaven and earth (Chang and Chang 16). These relationships show
interdependent dichotomous aspects of the universe, which can be related to my situated and embodied knowledge.

25

Fig. 17. Yoon Young Park. “Tetrachord Colour Octave.” 2016.

It is musically called a tetrachord, but in the colour octave. This process also allowed me
to focus on the Shepard tone (see fig. 18), which creates the auditory illusion of a tone that
causes tension and builds suspense. The Shepard tone sounds like it is continuously ascending or
descending in pitch, but it is not. I felt the characteristic of the Shepard tone could be a good
medium to represent the pattern of history - a repetitive pattern of octave and the endless scale
illusion of the Shepard tone are similar to the atrocious events in our history, such as war, which
repeat over and over. I also note that I felt dizzy and nauseous while listening to the Shepard tone.
I was wondering why and how the tone influences my physical, mental, and emotional states.

Fig. 18. The Shepard tone, Grin; Shepard Tones Downpitch, Spectrum, Linear Scaled; Wikimedia Commons; 31 Mar. 2008; Web;
7 Nov. 2017. Creative Commons. Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International, 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic, and 1.0
Generic.

26

Fig. 19. Yoon Young Park. The Song of the Whale, 2018.
Cello, door handles, electric guitar cables, trumpet, and parabolic speaker, dimensions variable.

For The Song of the Whale, I experimented with the Shepard tone and musical chord E (E
la mi), played on the cello, by first using the Shepard tone and then interspersing it with the E
chord. I used a parabolic speaker to play these sounds and made a sculpture like object (see fig.
19) combining a trumpet, wheels, cello, twelve door handles, cables, chains as well as the
parabolic speaker.

27

3.3

Video
While in New York last year, my curiosity got the better of me and I visited a nuclear

power plant. I also visited the American Museum of Natural History, specifically to research
historical events and see its famous blue whale. Both moments became important elements and
connected to some other events in the timeline of my narrative. The blue whale also became one
of the key actors, together with the whale from The Story of Minke the Whale by Tacita Dean in
relation to fear.

Fig. 20. Yoon Young Park, The Song of the Whale, 2018. Single-channel video, 00:02:57, MP4 file.

28

Fig. 21. Yoon Young Park. The Song of the Whale, installation view, 2018.

I made a single-channel video (see fig. 20 and 21) with images of myself at both of these
locations. I also used an x-ray filter through the editing program Final Cut Pro X to signify
radioactive waste from nuclear power plant disasters. I tried to make associations creatively and
form new relationships with images, sounds, and effects, which have been constructed through a
chain of causality and personal memory sources. The single-channel video renders dichotomous
scenes between the inhumane killing of Minke the whale, atrocious nuclear failures, and the
beautiful villages I saw surrounding the nuclear power plant in New York.

3.4

Drawings: Pictogram on a Folding Screen and a Hanging Scroll
As well as written text, pictogram is a significant medium to represent my narrative.

When I first came to Vancouver, I found distinctly dissimilar use of pictograms and a different
way of combining pictograms as compared with Korea. For example, I find the pictograms in
Canada very interesting, especially in public places and also when driving along the highway and
observing them on the large billboards - picnic table, gas station, watch for bears, bathrooms

29

ahead. The pictures are clear and have a kind of balance and organization. In Korea, I feel, the
pictograms are not as well designed.

Fig. 22. Yoon Young Park. “Pictograms at Guildford Town Centre in Surrey.” 2018. JPEG file.

Fig. 23. Pictogram (left), Pixabay; 14 Oct. 2013; Web; 27 June 2018;
CC0 Creative Commons. Free for commercial use. No attribution required.
Fig. 24. Pictogram (right), Pixabay; 1 Apr. 2013; Web; 27 June 2018;
CC0 Creative Commons. Free for commercial use. No attribution required.

30

Fig. 25. Chinese Pictograph, Yug, Erin Silversmith, and Ju Gatsu Mikka; Evolution of the Sinogram 山; Wikimedia Commons; 9
Dec. 2009; Web; 17 May 2018. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.

The Canadian pictograms reminded me of the Chinese calligraphy that I learned because
many Chinese characters are derived from shapes of things or their meanings are similar to
pictograms. For example, the Chinese character (see fig. 25) illustrates how the characters
developed. I started making my own pictograms. The Song of the Whale shows a twelve section
folding screen (see fig. 26) and two hanging scrolls (see fig. 27 and 28) with pictograms in my
thesis exhibition, in which they represent parts of my narrative. Some of the pictograms I am still
developing contain narratives in each single graphic symbol.

Fig. 26. Yoon Young Park. The Song of the Whale, 2018. Ink, rice paper, and folding screen, dimensions variable.

31

I use traditional Northeast Asian media such as a folding screen and hanging scrolls to
present my narrative. Traditional Northeast Asian art has had a significant impact on my work in
both technical and conceptual aspects. I had studied that area for several years, and after
graduation I have experimented and explored its conventional form and faded spirits within.
For example, traditional Korean painting is based on a written form of dialogue, which
naturally connects to narratives in my work. Particularly, in Northeast Asia, a painting was a
song in conjunction with entertainment, life’s poetry, and politics, which was sung about the
most ideal societal status - utopia - which is not reality (Cho 69). The relationship between art
and storytelling, especially traditional artwork inspired by storytelling, has influenced my work
to become a collaborative creation, to make history as conversation, and to create drawings and
text like a dialogue.

Fig. 27. Yoon Young Park, The Song of the Whale, 2018. Ink, rice paper, and silk hanging scrolls, each 55x213cm.

32

Fig. 28. Yoon Young Park, The Song of the Whale, detail, 2018. Ink, rice paper, and silk hanging scrolls.

I have questioned the conventions of Northeast Asian art. Is there an extension of
reviewing the concept of it? Traditionally, it has tended to be viewed as a pictorial representation,
excluding drawing mediums as a part of the artwork. To propose an alternative, I have suggested
not only understanding the traditional Northeast Asian artwork as an image itself, but also as an
image-containing object or objects, which could then break the boundaries between images,
objects, and cultural backgrounds. For example, the folding screen with pictograms that I created
for The Song of the Whale is an aggregate of my twelve door handle narrative. It not only
presents whole sequences of the twelve door handle stories, but also represents one component,
the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR)10 used in nuclear power. I wanted to show a metaphor
comparing the process of research for my artwork (that may never achieve its goal but creates
forward movement in the particular course of research) to the TFTR, which also never reached
10

TFTR was designed with the explicit goal of reaching break-even, the point where the heat being released from the fusion
reactions in the plasma is equal or greater than the heating being supplied to the plasma by external devices to warm it up
(Horton 17).

33

its goal but produced major advances. My feeling is that art does not need to achieve goals, but
should be about the artistic process. My narrative attempts to connect human past, present, and
future events that have been heavily interwoven and intertwined with each other, and the reasons
and mysteries behind the facts that I cannot solve.
By combining such media as traditional Northeast Asian folding screens containing
pictograms, two hanging scrolls, a single-channel video, sounds of the Shepard tone and E la mi,
a hanging sculpture including a cello, trumpet, and door handles, The Song of the Whale depicts
my narrative conflated with world history and my personal experiences. It seems to ceaselessly
repeat itself as if it is eternal, but it is not. The work of The Song of the Whale is an invisible
space that is connected to this world mixed with various elements, such as fear, speed, and faith
but transcends them all. It is an entrance to the exit of another world.

3.5

Installation and Reflection
In the process of my installation, I interrogated not only the meaning of each actor -

whale, trumpet, wheels, wings, and door handles, but also each element in the gallery space - the
folding screen containing pictograms, two hanging scrolls, the single-channel video, and the
sounds of the Shepard tone and E la mi. For instance, the whale represents both an innocent
chained and an imprisoned creature in The Story of Minke the Whale by Tacita Dean, and at the
same time a dangerous and murderous creation in other works, like Moby-Dick by Herman
Melville and The Book of Jonah in The Old Testament. Noah represents both my innocently
curious nephew and the man who underwent hardship to survive the great flood in The Book of
Genesis. Considering these factors, I have discovered that my actors and elements tend to
embody prominent dichotomous aspects in my narratives, and these come from my situated and
embodied knowledge - living in both post war Korea with constant nuclear threat, and Canada
with more peaceful surroundings, as well as my Christian faith. This dichotomy could be seen
throughout my installation as it developed.

34

Fig. 29. Yoon Young Park, The Song of the Whale, installation view, 2018.

My first idea for the setting of the installation of The Song of the Whale was a dark,
closed off area with the folding screen in circular form. This would be like a broken reaction
chamber and the hanging sculpture would be placed inside. I also considered contrasting a
distinct cave-like sensation and a beautiful beach scene - perhaps projected onto the ceiling or
floor, or by using a two-channel video. In this respect, I considered using the media gallery,
which would have created a closed space for the installation. This could have added to the fragile
state of containment, or cautiousness one would need to exercise when viewing the work.
Nevertheless, due to the actual space available, these initial ideas changed. The final installation
space turned out to be very open and bright, and gave a sense of vulnerability with the student
traffic moving through to the restroom and café, as well as above from the 2nd and 3rd floors.
This sense of instability and insecurity circumstantially contributed to the intended feeling of
Armageddon. Meanwhile, this condition led me to think about the audience in relation to
cinematic elements, particularly in my script. I experimented with second person perspective in
the written script, in which the process of writing in second person made me feel various things 35

Why am I bored? Why do I write? I found it difficult to think about the world from a different
perspective. To write in second person, I needed to become the “you,” the audience.
Being the audience made me uncomfortable because I used to see audience as the general
public and curators. As previously mentioned, I made artwork just to express myself purely for
my own artistic expression, and I had enjoyed writing and creating artwork to reflect the world
that I perceive, in which I satisfied myself. Therefore, audience consideration was a dreadful
nuisance and a real torment to me in the past. As I kept exploring writing the second person
script and enquiring further, my focalization of the world in relation to the audience became
gradually twisted from my original view, as though seen through various lenses. I started
considering the audience as a part of my narrative, as an actor playing a role in my work as
opposed to an audience imagining what is happening.
For this reason, it was essential to revisit the installation space repeatedly and to try some
different approaches in order to be able to present the work in a way that best reflected my
narrative, yet pushed me out of my comfort zone. The open space with the audience traffic led
me to divergently think about the relationship between my work and the people in it, even
though they were the same as before. I think that I am beginning to see that audience is more of a
yin yang relationship, in which there is a dependency on and harmony with each other. My
attempt at second person narration therefore created an unexpected connection to audience. It has
become a tool with which to consider the audience before actually creating my work, and
therefore also a removal of the discomfort I had usually felt. Instead of the usual first or third
person general views, the second person broke down otherness by creating empathy between text
and audience, and allowed me to guide the audience to experience individual and unique
characters while at the same time creating a relationship between myself, and the viewers. Going
forward, I would like to try to further develop The Song of the Whale in other spaces, perhaps
darker and more closed off ones as I had initially planned. My actors, elements, and the space
they occupy, will be examined more carefully, and I will reconsider the connections between
them.

36

Fig. 30. Yoon Young Park, The Song of the Whale, stage, 2018. 365(W)x365(L)x15(H) cm.

During the installation, an unfinished stage (see fig. 30), on which the folding screen was
placed, became an interesting discussion point. I began to think carefully as to why I had decided
to leave it unfinished. I believe that it represents the future and still unfinished event of
Armageddon. It is another dichotomous aspect. The contrast between finished and unfinished
also could be compared to one of my major influences - David Lynch. His eccentric characters
and atmosphere are incomplete, and so are my moments that inspire my work. Some of the actors
in The Song of the Whale have been cast in other works, and will be cast again. In this respect,
their roles are also unfinished. However, I need to unfold and develop how I express this
unfinished element in my subsequent work and installation with my narratives. The unfinished
needs to be looked at in an accomplished way with stronger reasoning. The unfinished elements
need to be seen as finished in relation to the work as a whole. How all my elements relate to each
other in physical and conceptual ways also led me to consider more deeply about my project, and
where it may go in the future.
Experimenting with script pushed me into another realm as I tried to learn to empathize
with the “you” or the audience of the second person perspective. The relationship between the
audience, the space, and myself in my narrative can be seen as an “intertextual as well as an

37

interdiscursive one” (Bal 168). I would like to continue to develop my script and the actors in my
narrative. Thinking about the installation space as an actor and how it has a role in my narrative
is something I will continue to explore. I experienced communication in a different way through
second person point of view as a form of otherness, in which it not only affected my artwork, but
also went beyond. I discovered that my work is created not only for myself, but also for the
world around me, including family, friends, neighbours, and future generations. Furthermore, it
is about the relationship with all of us. I started being interested in the true relationship with them
deep in my soul of souls. I feel strongly that this is a key moment for me, and my artwork will
continue to be developed in this perspective.

38

CONCLUSION
The Song of the Whale continues to be a work in progress, and I am therefore still
exploring different ways of presenting my process through narratology. But, along the way, I
have realized that my process and that of the viewers’ experience seem to be opposite. I see my
work broken down as fabula, story, and text, but I think my audience experiences it as text, story,
fabula. Perhaps this is why Mieke Bal wrote about fabula, story, and text in her first edition, but
reversed the order in later editions - encompassing narrative in visual art (xiii). This switch is
something I am interested in researching further as I continue my journey with this installation.
Focalization and allegory weave these layers together for me, allowing The Song of the Whale to
be an independent project while also part of a larger piece that is still ongoing. As I continue
with this work in progress, I find myself questioning its meaning and its relationship as well as
deeper connection to my surroundings.
I will also continue to question the idea of second person narration in my process. Bal
writes that, “ . . . the text is not identical to the story” (5). He gives the example that there can be
many different texts - some easy to read, others difficult; some literary, others not, but the story
remains the same (6). In other words, there can be different text versions of the same story.
Perhaps, I incorporate different texts, from different sources, into my story (my artwork). But in
the case of my work, I feel that the audience uses their situated and embodied knowledge to
experience the story, and perhaps this links to a second person perspective in which the outcome
is different for each viewer.
I am left feeling that there must be other reasons behind the turbulence of our world. Why
was Libya chosen as the country the UK invaded with the coalition of Canada, US, Belgium,
France, Denmark, and Italy, and why did they choose that particular time? Why did conflicts
across Africa and the Middle East refuel since then? In addition to the act of increasing the
strength of Isis and al-Qaeda, is there any relationship between the intervention and the terror,
which is spreading over the world, including Britain? And what is the relationship of these
events to myself, a person who thinks about the next future catastrophe? Why do certain
moments I have encountered in the world instantly attract me? The Earth gives us all materials
and we as humans have created destructive weapons and other toxic chemicals from them. Is this
leading us to Armageddon? In the good (Earth) we have found the bad (weapons). Perhaps my

39

audience will try to understand and interpret world events and history beyond surface visuals to
the true deeper meaning. Perhaps they will also think about the future through individual,
situated, and embodied knowledge to find some answers. In this way, my work is potentially
designed for future generations. Therefore, my allegories could be clues to allow my viewers to
understand “much more than can be directly seen” (Ginzburg 6). I want future viewers to look
back and realize that with the state of the world as it was at the time (now), many people could
see catastrophe coming.

40

WORKS CITED
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Braidotti, Rosi. Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary
Feminist Theory. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. Print.
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Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print.
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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275766000_Walter_Benjamin%27s_Theory_of
_Allegory.pdf

44

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Cognitive Science.” Embodiment Studies,
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Haraway, Donna. “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of
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47