M HKA Ensembles

Installation, Variable dimensions.

Collection: Courtesy the artist.

Her installation Four Months, Four Million Light Years consists of a film, a series of drawings and text works on paper and fabric that engulf the installation space. The work presents a shamanic healing journey through space and time, addresses the colonial narratives behind transnational and transracial adoption, through the historical relations between The Netherlands and Korea. In the Netherlands alone around 40,000 people have been adopted from the Global South, often through child trafficking and with falsified documents. The four months of the title refer to a Korean decree, which required children to stay a minimum of four months in a Korean orphanage in order to become adoptable by law for the lucrative transnational and transracial industry. This industry started to flourish after the Korean War and still perpetuates the same colonial relations from 300 years ago. Chang, in her multi-layered and evocative installation, refers to historical events such as the participation of Dutch soldiers in the deadly Korean War (1950–1953), early Dutch colonial descriptions of Asian people and contemporary Dutch society. Shamanic poems, songs and visions invoke the ancestors for support. The work is an homage to those who have been cut off from their mothers, fathers, families, ancestors, land, culture and spirits.