Stop Playing With Your Food! …Or Not
Lina Sun Park on her journey with miniature sculptures, her latest project with partner and photographer, David Brandon Geeting, and her life as a creative in New York.
Lina Sun Park embodies her artwork by creatively utilizing everyday materials that she considers temporal and precarious. Throughout the approximately two-year pandemic, which confined us to our intimate spaces, she dedicated herself to her art.
In "A Spell Too Far," Lina Sun Park and her partner, photographer David Brandon Geeting, offer a captivating look into their transformative journey during the period of confinement. What some might perceive as mundane daily life in a limited space, the duo turned into a remarkable collection showcasing their collaborative creativity. Geeting's photography captures the essence of their partnership, while Park's exceptional talent shines through as she transforms edible materials and beyond into enchanting designs.
Amor Díaz: Tell me about the beginning of your journey with your sculptures. How did it all start?
Lina Sun Park: I'm a very tactile person and using my hands has always been one of my favorite forms of expression and outlets. As a kid, I was drawn to anything sensory, like play-doh, origami, or assembling arrangements. I very much enjoy working with precarious, ephemeral, temporal materials. I’ve always had a knack for choosing uncooperative and unusual materials, and nostalgia plays a part as well. It was a very natural progression of curiosity of both tactility and visuals that led to me making sculptures. I studied fine art in college, and would often be making these interactive installations that were encouraging part of the sculpture to be activated or continued by the viewer. Now my work feels more like I've already physically activated it, and will capture the sculpture in that state.
AD: How was it working with your partner for A Spell Too Far?
LSP: My partner and photographer, David Brandon Geeting, and I created the work for A Spell Too Far as a way to give ourselves a sense of happiness and sanity during an otherwise rather bleak time. It also fulfilled a sense of synergy we had been yearning for, as we had been wanting to work together for some time and lockdown presented itself as the perfect time to do so. The whole thing was very organic, never in our wildest dreams could we fathom it would turn into a book. We would wake up every morning, and fresh from our dreams, talk about our ideas of what we wanted to make that day. About a year after Dave and I had made the initial group of images together, our friends at Same Paper reached out about wanting to create a book of the images. We didn’t want the book to be solely images made in lockdown, so we created more images, using the initial images as a jumping-off point for the book. Unlike the initial images, these later images had no limits, as we had the ability to shoot in a studio setting, and use things found outside the bubble of our abode. Dave is a quick worker and jumps into things intuitively. I take my time and am quite inclined to focus on little details. It was a synergistic mix of energies to bring to the table, as we were able to push each other out of our comfort zones, and for that, I feel very lucky. Each photo is a conversation between both of our sensibilities and art-making processes, both physically and verbally.
AD: It looks like a lot of your recent projects bloomed during lockdown. How has it been life after the pandemic for you as an artist and for you both as a couple?
LSP: It has been an exercise in finding time to make work without the infinite time bubble of the pandemic. Prioritizing quiet time to recharge me in the busy buzz of life has been something on my mind too. We each have our own projects resuming after the pandemic, and it has been exciting for us to each express ourselves in our truest forms. We have also been approached to work on commercial projects as a duo, and it has been so fun and fascinating to see what comes out in that context. As a couple, it has been lovely, we got married and have been building our lives together even more than before.
AD: Why food art? Do you think that your cultural background had an impact on the type of art you are doing today? How?
LSP: My parents operated Japanese sushi restaurants my whole childhood. I'm Korean American, however, it was very common at the time for Korean immigrants to open up Japanese restaurants as that was a more widely accepted Asian cuisine in the US back then. I would spend much of my time in the restaurant, leafing through these shiny, large paged books or calendars of beautifully plated sushi with elaborate garnishes and unusual color and texture pairings. That really informed my young and current mind in so many ways, especially in terms of the presentation of food and the different forms it can take. Also just seeing so many food items in bulk, lent a sort of industrial nature to them. I'd see all these garnishes being made in the restaurant kitchen and often see the bento boxes going out beautifully garnished and returning later with everything eaten but the garnish, despite it being edible. My sister and I would always help my mom make food as children too, things like making dumplings from scratch. We would fold the dumpling wrappers into funny shapes and laugh at how they emerged looking once cooked. Creating food has been a natural progression from so many elements of my childhood.
AD: Where are you currently based and why?
LSP: I am currently based in New York, and will have been here for a decade this fall!! I first moved to New York in my early 20s to start grad school. New York was where I dreamed of moving as a young child. I grew up in Northern California and always longed to experience the four seasons and be surrounded by older buildings than what was around me. For whatever reasons that have brought me here, I am so happy to have met all the intriguing and inspiring people I have here, and simply cannot imagine myself anywhere else, for now.
AD: What does a regular day look like in your life?
LSP: Every day feels a little bit different, but usually a regular day for me would be to wake up around 10 am, do some stretches or morning pages if I'm really on top of things, and have breakfast with Dave. I like to take a walk around my neighborhood after that and then dive into my tasks for the day. I'll then try to take a walk after my work day is done, before my evening meal. I try to give my cat Sasha showers of pets throughout the day too.
AD: What are your favorite spots in your city? Restaurants, bars, cafes, etc...?
LSP: We tend to eat much more home-cooked meals these days, but if I'm going out to eat, one of my favorite spots is Divya's in the East Village. It's an Ayurvedic restaurant and just has the most nourishing and cozy dishes. I also love Cafe Himalaya, a tiny Tibetan restaurant with the most scrumptious avocado salad and potato momos.
AD: What are you currently working on? Any upcoming projects you can share with us?
LSP: I am currently working on a project with a jewelry company, I really love this company and have worked with them before. This time it is on a bigger project, and I am quite excited! Dave and I are also working on an exciting project together for a shoe company, I can't say much yet, but stay tuned!
AD: What do you enjoy the most about what you do?
LSP: What I enjoy the most about what I do, is being able to make the fantastical ideas and scenes in my head a reality - and then being able to share and connect to others through this very specific and esoteric thing. It truly never gets old.
AD: How's your creative process? Guide us through what it is to create one of your pieces.
LSP: Sometimes the idea pops right into my head, and sometimes it takes a bit of pencil-on-paper sketching to really let an idea blossom into one with potential. However, once the actual physical making of a piece commences, it really can go any which way, as much of my work starts as a loose skeleton, and is then thoroughly realized in the actual making of it.
AD: Who inspires your music/art-wise? Are there any past or current artists you take inspiration from?
LSP: Janine Antoni is a performance artist and sculptor whose work has always been formative to me, especially her chocolate and lard pieces. Another artist is Felix Gonzalez-Torres, a visual artist whose interactive installations never cease to inspire me. They are beautiful and touching both before and after you read any text on his work.