What Is Your Name?
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What is Your Name?
Natsuki Takauji / Haksul Lee
2020
Size: H 6’ W 3’ D 3’
Material: Paper, steel, aluminum
Takauji and Lee’s collaboration project, "What Is Your Name?" was created at Marine Air Terminal, Laguardia Airport, through the ArtPort Residency Program by the Queens Council on the Arts and the Port Authority of NY and NJ through January to March, 2020. The project was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, they transported it and completed it in their studio in the summer of 2020. It was selected for a virtual exhibition “Mother Tongue” by The Immigrant Artist Biennial.
What Is Your Name? is composed of a sound installation and blue and white airplane-like sculptures that face each other as though one is a reflection of the other. For this work, Lee and Takauji interviewed people in public spaces throughout New York City such as LaGuardia Airport and Flushing Queens Public Library to collect their names in their mother languages, handwriting, and voices. The various colors and alphabets on the white side of the work’s sculpture illustrate the diversity of people. The artists have transcribed these names into the International Phonetic Alphabet on the blue side to symbolize unity, signifying our collective effort to understand other languages: IPA is used to determine the pronunciation of any spoken language: Therefore, for anyone who studies a foreign language, IPA plays a critical role. IPA is a symbol of the universal use of language, and the only common ground of all the languages.
The unique handwriting and recorded voices symbolize the value of individual and cultural differences. Through this socially engaged art project, Lee and Takauji addressed people's origins and coexisting differences.
Natsuki Takauji / Haksul Lee
2020
Size: H 6’ W 3’ D 3’
Material: Paper, steel, aluminum
Takauji and Lee’s collaboration project, "What Is Your Name?" was created at Marine Air Terminal, Laguardia Airport, through the ArtPort Residency Program by the Queens Council on the Arts and the Port Authority of NY and NJ through January to March, 2020. The project was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, they transported it and completed it in their studio in the summer of 2020. It was selected for a virtual exhibition “Mother Tongue” by The Immigrant Artist Biennial.
What Is Your Name? is composed of a sound installation and blue and white airplane-like sculptures that face each other as though one is a reflection of the other. For this work, Lee and Takauji interviewed people in public spaces throughout New York City such as LaGuardia Airport and Flushing Queens Public Library to collect their names in their mother languages, handwriting, and voices. The various colors and alphabets on the white side of the work’s sculpture illustrate the diversity of people. The artists have transcribed these names into the International Phonetic Alphabet on the blue side to symbolize unity, signifying our collective effort to understand other languages: IPA is used to determine the pronunciation of any spoken language: Therefore, for anyone who studies a foreign language, IPA plays a critical role. IPA is a symbol of the universal use of language, and the only common ground of all the languages.
The unique handwriting and recorded voices symbolize the value of individual and cultural differences. Through this socially engaged art project, Lee and Takauji addressed people's origins and coexisting differences.
