Endless

2003–2004, mixed media installation with trophies

In Endless, Park transforms a spontaneous encounter with an ordinary thrift-store object into a deeply personal meditation on recognition, memory, and familial connection. The work began when a small trophy topped with a bowler figure caught the artist’s attention. Drawn to its gleaming surface and form, Park purchased it without initially understanding his attraction—an intuitive process typical of his practice, in which everyday objects reveal layered meanings over time.

Upon reflection, the trophy evoked memories of his brother, who, years earlier, had assembled a collection of secondhand trophies displayed in his bedroom window. These trophies, Park realized, were not awards his brother had earned but symbolic substitutes for the acknowledgment he longed for as a talented soccer player who, despite his achievements, felt unrecognized. In Endless, the artist reinterprets this personal history through hundreds of trophy figures arranged in a continuous circular formation—an infinite loop of competition and aspiration.

The installation reconsiders the cultural symbolism of the trophy as a marker of success, proposing instead a more humanistic understanding of worth and self-validation. By recontextualizing these mass-produced emblems of victory, Park challenges the societal measures of achievement and celebrates intrinsic value, resilience, and the quiet dignity of perseverance. The work ultimately serves as a tribute to his brother, who later found fulfillment as a soccer coach, finally earning a trophy that reflected not only accomplishment but also personal growth and meaning.

Delightful Buddha

Mixed media (vegetable-shaped magnets on appliance-white board)
16 x 20 inches

In Buddha’s Delight, Park transforms an ordinary, whimsical find into a meditation on cultural translation and material play. The work originates from an encounter in Chinatown, where the artist noticed brightly colored magnets in the form of vegetables—objects of everyday kitsch that evoke the ubiquitous vegetarian dish of the same name found on Chinese restaurant menus.

Recontextualizing these small, mass-produced items, Park arranges them into a loosely anthropomorphic composition suggesting the seated form of Buddha. The result merges humor with reverence, domestic familiarity with spiritual reference. The white magnetic surface—reminiscent of an appliance or refrigerator door—anchors the work within the realm of household routine, while the assembled magnets invite reflection on consumption, cultural hybridity, and the reimagining of identity through humble, found materials.

In this playful yet contemplative composition, Park extends his ongoing exploration of how ordinary objects—especially those linked to food, sustenance, and daily rituals—become vessels of meaning that connect the personal with the communal, and the material with the spiritual.

7 Train and Byond " Returning To The Earth"
2001 - 2002
Clay
50" x 35" x 6"
7 Train and Beyond In 7 Train and Beyond, Park transforms an ordinary urban moment into a meditation on human existence and shared destiny. The work originates from his daily commute on the 7 train at the Vernon/Jackson station in Queens, where one winter morning he observed the weary faces of fellow passengers—each distinct in appearance, background, and circumstance, yet united in the quiet endurance of daily routine. This experience prompted Park to reflect on the universality of human life and mortality. Each person, he realized, carries an individual story, yet all ultimately return to the same earth. From this contemplation, he created hundreds of small sculpted faces, each approximately the size of a clenched fist. Rendered in various shades of air-hardened clay, the faces verge on caricature, evoking both individuality and collectivity. Installed together on a large panel, these compressed, patiently waiting visages evoke the crowded intimacy of the subway platform while also suggesting the broader human condition—a collective of lives moving in parallel toward a shared fate.

I’m Looking at You
Mixed Media Assemblage, Bottle Caps and Photographic Prints
Dimensions Variable

I’m Looking at You is a series of works composed of dozens of images of human eyes—pupils and irises of various colors—encased within bottle caps and mounted on panels. As in many of Park’s works, this series centers on the complexities of communication: how individuals perceive, interpret, and connect with one another across cultural and social boundaries.

The viewer’s first encounter with the piece can be unsettling. The multiplicity of gazes—fixed, silent, and unyielding—produces a feeling of being watched, prompting reflection on the mutual act of seeing and being seen. What do these eyes perceive in us, and what are we, in turn, meant to recognize within them?

The genesis of the series lies in a news story that deeply resonated with Park: a Korean woman on trial in Los Angeles was wrongfully convicted after jurors interpreted her avoidance of eye contact as deceit. Only later was her testimony verified as truthful. Her gesture, misunderstood in an American context, reflected a cultural code of respect; in Korean tradition, averting one’s gaze before a superior is a sign of humility rather than evasion.

I’m Looking at You
Mixed Media Assemblage, Bottle Caps and Photographic Prints

I’m Looking at You is a series of works composed of dozens of images of human eyes—pupils and irises of various colors—encased within bottle caps and mounted on panels. As in many of Park’s works, this series centers on the complexities of communication: how individuals perceive, interpret, and connect with one another across cultural and social boundaries.

The viewer’s first encounter with the piece can be unsettling. The multiplicity of gazes—fixed, silent, and unyielding—produces a feeling of being watched, prompting reflection on the mutual act of seeing and being seen. What do these eyes perceive in us, and what are we, in turn, meant to recognize within them?

The genesis of the series lies in a news story that deeply resonated with Park: a Korean woman on trial in Los Angeles was wrongfully convicted after jurors interpreted her avoidance of eye contact as deceit. Only later was her testimony verified as truthful. Her gesture, misunderstood in an American context, reflected a cultural code of respect; in Korean tradition, averting one’s gaze before a superior is a sign of humility rather than evasion.

Forks

The Forks series extends Park’s ongoing exploration of everyday dining utensils as sculptural material, this time focusing on forks arranged in intricate compositions on panels. Although Park initially declined a bucket of forks offered to him in 1989—at the time seeking only spoons for his early conceptual works—he returned to the material twenty-five years later, discovering a new expressive potential within their form.

In this series, dozens of forks with twisted handles and bent tines are methodically composed across panels in patterns that may first appear arbitrary. Upon closer examination, however, the viewer discerns that the artist has manipulated the tines into the shapes of letters, forming words charged with political and social resonance. Terms such as HATE, BORDER, GUN, and WAR emerge from the metallic configurations, evoking the tensions and divisions of contemporary life. Through this transformation of an ordinary utensil, Park reclaims a symbol of consumption and utility as a vehicle for reflection on the violence and conflict embedded in the social fabric.

Penny and Dime Musket Balls Guns

US Coin Musket Balls

US cast resin guns

Recycled Pennies Guns

Forks

The Forks series extends Park’s ongoing exploration of everyday dining utensils as sculptural material, this time focusing on forks arranged in intricate compositions on panels. Although Park initially declined a bucket of forks offered to him in 1989—at the time seeking only spoons for his early conceptual works—he returned to the material twenty-five years later, discovering a new expressive potential within their form.

In this series, dozens of forks with twisted handles and bent tines are methodically composed across panels in patterns that may first appear arbitrary. Upon closer examination, however, the viewer discerns that the artist has manipulated the tines into the shapes of letters, forming words charged with political and social resonance. Terms such as HATE, BORDER, GUN, and WAR emerge from the metallic configurations, evoking the tensions and divisions of contemporary life. Through this transformation of an ordinary utensil, Park reclaims a symbol of consumption and utility as a vehicle for reflection on the violence and conflict embedded in the social fabric.