October, 2024. In response to Lipika Bhargava and Naho Taruishi
Minjee Hwang Kim is a South Korean visual artist based in Helsinki, Finland. Her art practice focuses on self-portraiture through the Buddhist idea of no-self (무아 無我) and references to women’s art history.
Website www.minjee-hwang-kim.com
Instagram @minjee.grasshopper
“Are you done playing?”
my boyfriend shouted from across the hall.
He knows I should not be spending my entire day on the PS5.
I was tired of dying too much anyway,
so I turned off the game and screamed back,
“Yes!”
my boyfriend shouted from across the hall.
He knows I should not be spending my entire day on the PS5.
I was tired of dying too much anyway,
so I turned off the game and screamed back,
“Yes!”
How do we live with dead people? I don’t mean it spiritually, but in a more literal way. People die all the
time, and we need ways to cope with it. I live in a Northern European city, and there is a big cemetery a few
tram stops from my apartment. I always awe at this “extremely European view” whenever I pass by the place
—how this city has room for dead people, where everyone can come and spend time. I like to go to a small
bakery adjacent to the cemetery and watch families visiting the gravesite, cleaning out the fallen leaves and
laying down fresh flowers.
“Did you kill it?”
“I did.”
“I did.”
Compared to how often I visit this cemetery, it has been a really long time since I visited any of my
grandparents' graves. Even last month, when I visited Korea for the first time in three years, I didn’t go to the
temples or gravesites where my ancestors are supposed to be resting. Ancestral rites are an important part of
Korean culture, but it seems like people care less and less, including myself. My family used to set out a big
table for the ancestors during the holidays, but the size of the table and the amount of food have gotten
significantly smaller over time. This year, we (the younger members of the family) even suggested we could
buy the necessary food for the ritual or eat out.
“How many tries did it take?”
“More than ten.”
“More than ten.”
My grandmother simply refused our insistence, claiming that she would cook by herself if she needed to. She
wanted to set out a nice table for my dead grandfather, her late husband, with whom she spent most of her
life raising five children. We (the younger members of the family) were grumpy about my grandmother’s
stubbornness: “Dead people don’t know if they are getting home-cooked food or not!” But my parents,
uncles, and aunts didn’t protest further. If your grandmother wants to cook for her husband, she will cook for
her husband. Young people don’t understand. This is an important part of living.
“How did you kill it?”
“You need to attack from behind.”
“You need to attack from behind.”
I guess any kind of ancestral rite is actually about continuing to live. My grandmother is really cooking for
herself, not for my late grandfather. There have been various efforts to cope with mortality across human
history and culture—for example, building a grave, visiting the grave, doing ancestral rites, setting up an
altar, keeping an urn. These are all ways for us to continue living with dead people. It is also a reminder of
how we should live. If we ever really consider dead people, whether they are directly related to us or died
hundreds of years ago on another continent, we shouldn’t be able to make certain choices, choices like war.
But we still do.
“Are you happy?