Doria Choi is an interdisciplinary artist and a second generation Chinese-Korean immigrant who was born (1994) and raised in NYC. Her familial history deeply informs her practice. This manifests itself in research into the geo/sociopolitical conditions that brought her families to America. Doria strives to use relevant physical materials to support the work. She uses hanji in Paper Ghosts, which explores US-Korean relations and stems from her mother’s adoption by an American GI. Hanji is a Korean paper that has been made for thousands of years out of the inner bark of a mulberry tree. Traditionally it has been crafted into doors/windows, layered/polished into flooring with sesame oil, bound into books, and stitched into clothing. When creating gum bi-chromate prints, its long fibers hold it together even after repeated washing. Doria uses found archival images with ones taken while visiting family. She sutures the prints, to close a wound, into a large tapestry; projects into her living space, archival images to bend, warp, and overlay time/space. An accordion book folds the disparate experiences into each other. Doria recently visited her paternal homeland for the first time, resulting in the series Resilience. These photos are an attempt to grasp onto a heritage that she often feels no right to claim. They are to pay homage to people who labor with unfathomable perseverance, like her grandparents did in Hong Kong and again when they had to restart immigrating to America.
