The Faraway Nearby


Artists in Dialogue

October, 2024. In response to Kazumi Tanaka and Jayoung Yoon

Sooyoung Leam is an art historian and curator based in Seoul. She specializes in modern and contemporary art with a particular focus on East Asia. She studied History of Art at Cambridge University and completed her PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Her recent curatorial projects include the 14th Gwangju Biennale(2023), Spirals, Loops, Mutants (Shanghai, 2023) and To A Faraway Friend: Beyond Afro-Southeast Asian Affinities (Busan, 2022). Sooyoung currently teaches at Seoul National University and Kyunghee University.
 
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It was a privilege to read their intimate and deeply personal conversations about life, motherhood, and family. There were moments when I was reminded of my own grandmother, who recently passed away, or when I reminisced about a day when my mom and I walked along the blooming riverside one spring. I wanted to respond by drawing together books from my personal library that seem to resonate the most with the conversations between Kazumi and Jayoung. The compilation is eclectic. It includes a book I received from my mom as a gift, a Buddhist chanting book my grandmother read every morning with love and prayer, a poetry collection about time and loss, and novels about longing, belonging, and history. I feel as though we are connected through these stories and memories.

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