Studies on Smiling I (Black Odonata Larva), 2018
Studies on Smiling explores the politics of the smile, especially as performed by first-generation migrant women in the Asian diaspora working in the retail and service industries. The project is inspired by the autobiography of my aunt, who migrated from South Korea to West Germany at the age of 26 in the 1980s and spent her whole life working at a small kiosk. The smile acts as a kinetic form of resistance that goes beyond the means of spoken or written language.
The study uses Black Odonata, a fictive dragonfly character with black teeth, to kinetically archive and reimagine the yellow woman’s act of smiling as an economically and socially shaped emotional display. In her larval stage, Black Odonata refuses to morph into an angry dragonfly. Instead, she incessantly performs a wide spectrum of smiles in public, interacting with the audience through this process.
Audio description excerpt from the performance:
The display of happiness becomes a currency as tangible as any coin. A female migrant from South Korea living in Germany, who is unable to access language education and other socially valued forms of communication due to economic realities, uses the smile to navigate power dynamics. In a place marked by racism and sexism, the smile becomes her shield and a tool for survival. Seven days a week, she sells cigarettes and newspapers through the small opening of her kiosk. One of the newspapers reports on groups of women worldwide who are refraining from smiling. These women, identifying as feminists, have announced their intention to reclaim unpaid emotional labor by boycotting the smile.
Black Odonata in Los Angeles. Photography by Christian Alvarez