Kimilsungia
(The Alice Gallery)
Kimilsungia is an installation incorporating live Dendrobiums (a genus of orchid) and performative collaboration. The work commemorates the Kimilsungia orchid, which was named by Indonesian President Sukarno for Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Premier Kim Il Sung during a 1965 state visit, when the two heads met in the Bogor Botanical Gardens.
The flower blooms each April for Kim Il Sung’s birthday on the 15th and is displayed at the annual Kimilsungia Flower Exhibition in Pyongyang.1
In collaboration with Bo Choi, who performed “Kimilsungia Full Blown All over the World” in Korean at intervals during the opening, the work engages the mechanisms by which an object — a flower in this case — is granted the authority, within a specific belief system, to represent a state.2, 3
1. Kim Jong Il, Kimilsungia Is an Immortal Flower That Has Bloomed in the Hearts of Mankind in the Era of Independence: Talk to the Senior Officials of the Information Department of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, April 6, Juche 94 (2005), 1–2.
2. “Kimilsungia Full Blown All Over the World,” words by Jon Pyong Gu, music by Ri Jong On, in Kimilsungia: Aroma of Flower Symbolic of a Great Man Is Everlasting (Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House, Juche 88 [1999]), 98.
3. Bo Choi is a Seattle-based fashion designer and artist. For Kimilsungia, she designed and made the traditional Korean dress worn during the opening performance.
Kimilsungia, 2018
Site-specific installation with performative collaboration by Bo Choi
Dendrobium orchids, biodegradable pots, orchid potting material; shelves, bronze plaque, pedestal; microphone, amplifier, cassette player; cassette recording of "Kimilsungia Full Blown All over the World" (4 min.)
Bo Choi performed “Kimilsungia Full Blown All over the World” at 30-minute intervals during the opening.
Exhibition: Thru the Roof, March 10–April 14, 2018
The Alice Gallery, Seattle, Washington
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