Image credit: Jessica Maurer

The red chair in your picture does not exist

Lisa Myeong-Joo

Gallery 3

room sheet

There is a red chair that once existed in an adoption agency in Seoul. Between 1983-1991, the red chair, also known amongst social workers as the ‘photo chair’ in the ‘photo room’, helped stage (by its very function) the ‘first photo’ of a child for their future family. The ‘photo chair’ was almost inconspicuous were it not for its gold detailing and bright red vinyl. It is understood that this red chair was sat on by every adoptee (propped up by their foster mother) from this adoption agency during this period––with two copies posted to the receiving family and one kept in a file at the agency. The camera’s flash captures the act of sitting – a momentary pause – before departure. This year, 36 years after the artist’s ‘red chair photo’ was taken, she contacted the agency to enquire about this red chair and if it might still be there. The social worker’s only response––‘The red chair in your picture does not exist’. In the potent slippage of translation, correspondence and negation, this exhibition is a performative affirmation that, ‘yes, it does!’

By addressing an absence with a presence, the artist has worked with a local prop maker to reproduce the red chair, re-asserting its existence in the here-now. Approaching the neglected histories, subjects and objects encountered through her photo, she engages counter-memory as an act of resistance against dominant narratives of remembrance. This red chair, extruded to 4m in length, not only stands in for the long (ongoing) history of Korean transnational adoption, but offers space to sit together as adults, self-consciously and supported – as a collective site of repair, belonging and return.

The artist would like to thank Pink Cactus Props whose expertise, dedication and sensitivity brought the red chair back to life. And to all of those who sat on the red chair, and those who didn't––this is for you/us to sit on together, now. 

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.