[INTERVIEW] A history of servitude: Artist duo traces troubled history of labor migration from Asia

A multimedia tapestry installation, "Fermented Flower" (2021), produced by London-based Korean artist duo Breakwater, interweaves the tumultuous history of Asian indentured labor in the 19th and early 20th centuries with the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster to note that the exploitation and stigmatization of Asian migrant workers remain continuing phenomena. Courtesy of ARKO Art Center

By Park Han-sol

On one wintry night in February 2004, across the treacherous sandflats of Morecambe Bay in northwest England, dozens of Chinese cockle pickers were already hours into filling their buckets with heaps of bivalves.

Their back-breaking toil would earn them a pittance of five pounds per 25-kilogram bag at the end of the day. Any other profit made from the lucrative trade would be pocketed by the local criminal agents, who trafficked the workers illegally from poverty-stricken provinces of China into the United Kingdom.

But on this particular night, the migrant cockle harvesters' "shift" was about to be cut short by an unforeseen tragedy.

Unfamiliar with the local geography and language, the laborers failed to notice anything strange about the turning of the tide. Twenty-three were swallowed up by the capricious waves and drowned in a matter of minutes.

London-based Korean artist duo Breakwater has brought to the fore the memory of the 2004 disaster ― a tragedy that goes largely unremembered outside of the U.K. ― through the multimedia tapestry installation, "Fermented Flower," appliqued with the imagery of cockles containing the names of each Chinese victim.

But even a quick glance at the four-meter-wide textile installation, which is currently on view at Seoul's ARKO Art Center for the group exhibition, "Local in the Making," makes it immediately clear that the composite image-heavy screen has many more stories to tell.

Taey Iohe, left, and Youngsook Choi engage in a storytelling performance, "Yellow Furry Lullaby," the content of which is in dialogue with their installation, "Fermented Flower," at the FACT Liverpool in February 2022. Courtesy of the artists

In fact, "Fermented Flower" visualizes Yongsook Choi and Taey Iohe's much larger, multifaceted approach to trace the layered history of labor migration in Asia that picked up momentum since the second half of the 19th century following the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.

Tens of thousands of indentured workers, mainly hailing from East and South Asian countries, like China and India, were brought to the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean and even South Africa to replace the loss of slave labor.

Suffering from substandard living conditions and high death rates, these low-wage laborers toiled away in the transnational railroad of the western U.S., in the gold mines of South Africa, in the guano fields of Peru and in the sugar plantations of Hawaii.

"The indentured servants of Asian descent used to be derogatorily referred to as 'coolies.' Today, the word has largely faded from everyday use," Iohe told The Korea Times in a recent joint interview with Choi.

"But it wasn't just the term that disappeared from public memory. Its whole racially charged history has faded into oblivion as well."

By interweaving the troubled history of Asian indentured labor in the 19th and early 20th centuries with the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster ― and the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings that killed eight people, six of whom were women of Asian descent, in the duo's related storytelling performance, "Yellow Furry Lullaby" ― the two artists note that the exploitation and stigmatization of Asian migrant workers remain continuing phenomena.

Breakwater's "Fermented Flower" and audio recording of "Yellow Furry Lullaby" will be on view at the ARKO Art Center in central Seoul until Jan. 21, 2023, as part of the ongoing group exhibition, "Local in the Making." Courtesy of ARKO Art Center

Choi and Iohe's focus on tracing the chronology of migrants' lived experiences has indeed been strengthened since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that coincided with an unprecedented surge in hate speech and crimes against the Asian community.

The situation in London was certainly no different, they recalled, which forced the community members to be in an "alert combat mode" at all times for their safety.

As a duo that was formed at the height of the pandemic, Breakwater then came to naturally task itself with "tracking down the historical lineage of the trauma that the Asian diaspora and their descendants are facing to this day," Choi said.

Nevertheless, the two artists' creative journey doesn't stop at bringing such forgotten chapters of history back into the public spotlight.

In fact, one common thread running through their audiovisual telling of the history of labor migration in Asia is a constellation of dandelions ― hand-embroidered on "Fermented Flower" and served to the audience in alcoholic beverages in "Yellow Furry Lullaby" ― that embodies the next step toward collective healing.

A bottle of dandelion liquor and soju glasses served to the audience as part of the duo's storytelling performance, "Yellow Furry Lullaby," at the FACT Liverpool / Courtesy of the artists, Rob Battersby

"It's a reference to a Korean shamanistic ritual, or 'gut,' originating from Gangwon Province," Choi said. "A shaman would first lure the spirit of madness of the suffering individual in a flower. Once they deem the process to be completed, they quickly bottle the floret into a liquor-filled container and bury it in the ground to heal the afflicted."

But instead of placing the dandelion out of sight, the artists make its presence all the more prominent in their oeuvre by encouraging the viewers to directly look at its woven imagery on the tapestry and drink the alcohol together at the end of the storytelling performance.

"It's a reminder that the process of finding peace for the Asian migrant communities is far from being over," Choi added. "By sharing the drink, we're also sharing the responsibility to work toward collective healing."

One participatory project that embodies Breakwater's experimentation with different possibilities of pursuing communal healing is "Becoming Forest."

Launched in partnership with two other London-based organizations, Kanlungan Filipino Consortium and Southeast and East Asian Centre, the project consisted of a series of seasonal walks in London's Epping Forest, creative workshops and radio programs throughout its two-year run.

Its aim was to provide cultural and spiritual connection among members of the Southeast Asian and East Asian diaspora in the U.K., particularly those with precarious visa statuses and low-paying jobs who remain under the radar when it comes to social welfare.

"Becoming Forest" (2020-22), a participatory project to promote solidarity and healing with Southeast Asian and East Asian migrants in Epping Forest, London / Courtesy of the artists

"One of the elements that we viewed to be an essential part of the project was the cultural common ground found among the participants," the two artists said, adding that Western psychotherapy was thus an unsuitable model for their goal. "Meeting or even just sharing a meal with others who have cultural awareness and sympathy can itself be therapeutic."

While the meditative forest walks emphasized being at one with nature and appreciating the seasonal changes through all five senses, online creative workshops were more free-form, packed with informal art therapy sessions and casual exchanges of traditional tales and food memories.

"'Becoming Forest' has turned into something that is now bigger than both of us. We plan to continue to work on establishing this project as a community healing infrastructure to seek the true meaning of solidarity," Choi said.

The group exhibition, "Local in the Making," runs through Jan. 21, 2023, at the ARKO Art Center.

"Becoming Forest" (2020-22), a participatory project to promote solidarity and healing with Southeast Asian and East Asian migrants in Epping Forest, London / Courtesy of the artists