제(Je): Jindgo Story, Korean Shamanism and the Art of Displacement
RMIT December 19, 2025 Yi Won Park
The author investigates the experience of feeling culturally adrift within a hybrid South Korean-Australian identity, using Korean shamanism as an aesthetic and symbolic framework for autoethnographic art practice. Core shamanic elements—ritual, water, colour, light—are explored through animation, installation, projection, and performance. Hybrid animal motifs, especially the invented Jindgo (combining the Korean Jindo dog and Australian dingo), serve as autobiographical metaphors for psychological complexity. The research is situated among artists drawing on shamanic traditions, such as Nam June Paik and Haegue Yang. Drawing on Homi Bhabha's "Third Space" and Kuan-Hsing Chen's Asia as Method, the author contends that this framework offers new perspectives on cultural hybridity, ancestral bonds, and place, aiming to deepen understanding of the complexities faced by South Korean-Australian individuals.