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Interviewer(s)
Dr. Sandra Yocum, Chanel Winston
University Professor of Faith and Culture
Dr. Sandra Yocum
Description
In this inspiring conversation, Professor Suki Kwon of UD guides us through a beautiful, personal portrait of her understanding of faith and culture, and how her work in art and design relate to that personal journey. Speaking on a trying existential crisis of faith in her early years that led her to tears in front of a rather simple painting in a European art gallery, Professor Kwon talks about the challenges she has faced in reconciling her Christian faith with certain aspects of her East Asian and Korean cultural context. She has worked to bring about that reconciliation in her artistic work, with the use of the wabi-sabi aesthetic. In her work, Prof. Kwon combines the egalitarian nature of the Gospel and her faith with her cultural idiom, and this finds a perfect home in the intentional imperfectionism and ruggedness of wabi-sabi. This conversation illuminates just how personal the faith journey is, and the many complexities of navigating such a journey in connection with one's culture, which may present many challenges, but also many opportunities, to that faith.
Date
2021
Keywords
Wabi-sabi, art, design, painting, aesthetics, faith, culture, Gospel, inculturation
Disciplines
Art and Design | Art Practice | Christianity | East Asian Languages and Societies | History of Religions of Eastern Origins | Japanese Studies | Korean Studies | Painting
Recommended Citation
Kwon, Suki MFA, "Wrestling, Crisis, and Integration: Suki Kwon on Faith and Culture" (2021). Interviews: Whose Faith? Whose Culture?. 16.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/faith_culture_wfwc/16
Comments
Please note that the captions (transcript) for this interview will be available soon.