We recently connected with Aram Han Sifuentes and have shared our conversation below.
Aram Han, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
The most meaning project that I have worked on is a project that I am working on now in collaboration with the HANA Center, an immigrant advocacy organization in Albany Park, Chicago. The project is called Citizenship for All: Storytelling through Nonggi Making. Nonggi are Korean folk banners historically used to lead cultural activities, including festivals, gatherings, and rituals. And particularly during times of colonial and political oppression, we use nonggi to gather people for collective action to build community power and to use for protest. Also, nonggi has spiritual abilities believed to protect from evil and speak to the gods with desires, commands, and demands for societal harmony and worldly blessing. This project is a community based nonggi making project with multi-generations of Korean, Asian American, and multi-ethnic immigrant communities to collectively work towards immigrant, racial, and economic justice through art.
The project has been tremendously meaningful for me because I get to create community through art, and learn from the different stories that participants tell through making art. Each nonggi takes around four sessions to make (8-12 hours total), so I end up spending much time with many different people who are sharing many different types of stories in their nonggi. I am always learning new things in these workshops and constantly moved by the stories, life experiences, and the hopes and desires of participants.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a social practice and fiber artist, writer, and educator who works to center immigrant and disenfranchised communities. I aim to confront social and racial injustices against the disenfranchised and riffs off official institutions and bureaucratic processes to reimagine new, inclusive, and humanized systems of civic engagement and belonging. I do this by creating participatory and active environments where safety, play, and skill-sharing are emphasized. And even though many of my projects are collaborative and communal in nature, they incite and highlight individual’s experiences, politics, and voice.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
In my socially engaged practice I am constantly asking: How can we develop a stronger and more inclusive sense of community, even if temporary, through art making? How can we exercise our full citizenship through making? How do we push through the margins and put ourselves and our communities, in all our complexities, into the center? And how can we stand up and talk back to power? Ultimately my goal in all my projects is to imagine a world where there aren’t any borders (literally and figuratively), where we are all invested in each other.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
It is always absolute magic to imagine an idea and to be able to bring it into fruition. I get to do this all the time as an artist, and I find this one of the most rewarding aspects of being an artist.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.aramhansifuentes.com
- Instagram: aramhansifuentes
Image Credits
Image 1: eedahahm Image 2: OffThaRecord x Steer Image 3: Viorella Luciana Image 4 and 5: Steve Weinik Image 6: Field Studio Image 7 and 8: Bun Stout