2024 Art Space Is Your Space Resident: Okyoung Noh

In her exhibition, I Take Care of You and Survive, ASYS Resident, Okyoung Noh explores how workers of color maintain, repair, or support other bodies within their communities.  She invites audiences to consider, how do we reciprocally survive by exchanging physically intimate, transformative, yet demanding care offered by laborers of Asian descent? How can we access and honor the narratives of migrant workers, who are so often silenced, overlooked, stigmatized, or even exploited under socio-cultural, racial, and gendered hierarchies?

The exhibition I Take Care of You and Survive will transform Wave Pool’s gallery into a participatory stage and a mock massage parlor, adorned with LED signs, vibrant curtains, and colorful lighting. These elements borrow from the aesthetics of the shops and businesses that serve as inspiration for this project. The installation is designed to lead audiences to enter a closed space and witness the stories of Asian caregiving workers. These stories are collected through interviews with massage therapists, nail artists, and hairdressers of Asian descent working in Greater Cincinnati and Noh’s current residence of Washtenaw County, Michigan.

Noh’s show both gathers and honors the omitted narratives of Asian labor, which vividly haunt those spaces. The artist’s collected stories of attentiveness and consideration are unfolded throughout the exhibition, with respect and care for those doing this work. 

Official Collaborators:
- GG Massage, Lisa G Wang (Cincinnati, OH)
- Spanky's Barber Shop, Ricky Han (Covington, KY)
- Acupressure Massage and Reflexology (Canton, MI)
- Jolis Cheveux by Nick Koo (Ann Arbor, MI)
- Horang Nails (Novi, MI)

Videographer: Okyoung Noh, Ben Zink, Luis Reyes, Craig Fishbein
Performer: Ana Hart, Okyoung Noh
Project Assistant: Yuchen Wu
Installation Assistant: Do Young Kim.
Poster Designer: Elliot Myers
Exhibition Photographer: Elliot Myers

About the Artist in Resident: Okyoung Noh (b. Seoul, South Korea) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. Her lived experiences in Seoul with her mother from Jeju Island and her grandmother from North Korea informed her practice of multimedia installations, social practice, and performance in the United States.

In her work, Noh focuses on various manifestations of dehumanization that the bodies of Asian female diasporas – especially, their movements and vocals – exhibit during the processes of resistance and adaptation in a state of mis/dislocation. By dwelling on them, Noh maps and visualizes the socio-cultural violence and pressures that contribute to their dehumanization and creates a platform for challenging the power dynamics associated with them.

Tracing the trans-generational and living trauma of Asian diasporas, Noh unveils their marginalized narratives under neo-nationalism and imperialism accompanying xenophobia and white supremacy.

On view March 30 - April 27, 2024

Wave Pool's 2024 Artist Residency is generously supported by Miriam & Jake Hodesh, and Judy Williams.