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M+, Hong Kong, © Theresa Hak Kyung Cha/Electronic Arts Intermix
On View
Mediatheque
Mouth to Mouth 嘴對嘴
1975
An artist, performer, and novelist, Korean-born Theresa Hak Kyung Cha often reflected on how the experience of immigrating to the United States at an early age informed her understanding of language and identity. Her work often asks us to consider the visual and visceral experience of language.
Mouth to Mouth is an eight-minute video meditation on how language can express nuanced feelings of displacement. The work begins with a slow camera pan across the English words of the title. The artist’s mouth appears in extreme close-up as she silently pronounces eight Korean vowels. The image appears through a haze of white static and gradually fades into darkness. Any suggestion of discernable speech is disrupted by the noise of running water and birdsong. Through its spare aesthetic, Cha’s video also conveys a sense of unsettling fragility, and even loss.
Mouth to Mouth is an eight-minute video meditation on how language can express nuanced feelings of displacement. The work begins with a slow camera pan across the English words of the title. The artist’s mouth appears in extreme close-up as she silently pronounces eight Korean vowels. The image appears through a haze of white static and gradually fades into darkness. Any suggestion of discernable speech is disrupted by the noise of running water and birdsong. Through its spare aesthetic, Cha’s video also conveys a sense of unsettling fragility, and even loss.
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