The Landscape and Historical Ecology of Tan Tans’ Garden: The Consequential World Birthed by American Imperialism

Tan Tans’ Garden is a research-based practice deeply rooted in the creation and dissection of a parafictional world. Tan Tans’ Garden is a metaphorical parallel universe birthed by the affects that American imperialism had on the Korean Peninsula, the Korean culture, and the Korean diaspora. In this paper, I discuss the creation of this world along with the studies of its landscape and its historical ecology from the perspective of a young millennial artist as well as a kin to generations of colonial trauma. The creative process manifests itself through critical analysis of histories and creative approaches to world-building, bookmaking, letter writing, collages, drawings, storytelling, object making, and video documentary. At the same time, the practice mutates itself into narratives of science-fiction and notions of post-humanism. Throughout this practice, I refer to the storytelling method in the context of geopolitics. I am heavily interested in how vulnerability, fermented memories—a term I will later explain—and the process of mourning can be utilized to explore the radiating violence of American imperialism. The works in Tan Tans’ Garden invite you to a fictional world in which the personal insights and intimate effects of being a byproduct of U.S. imperialism can be explored. This paper is sectioned by differing subject matter. The Key Terms are there to help guide you through the barriers of translation that I do not attempt to clarify or negotiate. Tan Tans’ Garden remains an ongoing practice and I am not seeking to find a pure conclusion to this work. Here, I am only trying to understand why it took so long for my grandparents to understand their own internalized trauma and memories, and why it took another 50 years to find words to their fermented memories. In this paper, I am only attempting to reiterate the stories that were told to me during the creation of this parafictional world. Here, the goal was to be vulnerable, without hindrance. Note: The collection of works and research findings presented in this paper were studied and created through the times of Covid-19. Having faced limitations to physical spaces of studio practice and research, these works were made in a personal household space. Initially what felt like a barrier ultimately became a realizing haven.