Danspace Project invited interdisciplinary artist and educator, Gyun Hur to attend the Platform 2022 performances and respond. The following piece is the last of 3 offerings from Hur, in response to the Platform, and includes words, images, and poetics prompted by mayfield brooks’ Sensoria: An Opera Strange.

“우리들 사랑이 깨진다 해도

모든 것을 한꺼번에 잃는다 해도

우리들 가슴속에는 뚜렷이 있다

한마리 예쁜 고래 하나가

[translation]

Even our love breaks

Even we may lose everything at once

In our hearts, there surely is

One beautiful whale.” [1]

“Where is the whale

My heart is always broken

Where is the whale

I wanted to be a gospel singer

Where is the whale 

I don’t know what i’m doing but i’m trying to actually weep for my ancestors

Where is the whale (wail)

Where is the whale (wail) refrain

Where is the whale (wail)

Where is the whale (wail) refrain” [2]

고래사냥 Whale seeking and loving No.2, watercolor and pen drawing on paper (9” x 8”), digital montage, 2022 | Korean Image Archive

If you were to ask me if I ever dreamt of a day of full healing,
I would smirk and spit you warm cabbage leaves chewed, softened from my colostrum.

I would shout and insist that you find that whale forever lost.

Where is the whale, 

My love, my everything.

I dreamt being sucked into that turquoise blue, whale seeking and loving in my darkness.

고래야, 어디있노

내 사랑, 나의 모든 것

When

love is made,

we sink ourselves in relief and

we tell ourselves these lies that we can delight in such a promise

of full healing, 

that forever-ness may be possible.

Hallelujah. 

고래사냥 Whale seeking and loving No.3, blue pea flower tea (made by mayfield brooks) and pen drawing on paper (18” x 11”), digital montage, 2022 | Korean Image Archive

You tell me now, 

Oh the whale, I saw it.

Way deep down her throat and bosoms, 

The daughter of that poor blind man swallowed that whale

And dived herself as deep as she could in the East Ocean next to that island no one claimed. 

And we have not seen her or the whale for about 2 years. 

Oh that whale… my love, my everything.

고래사냥 Whale seeking and loving No.4, digital montage, 2022 | Korean Image Archive and Sensoria: An Opera Strange, mayfield brooks, Danspace Project.

나의 전부였던 나의 사랑, 나의 고래는

그 장님의 딸, 심청이의 목 메인 가슴속에 있다하니

깜깜한 어둠속에서 

꺼이 꺼이 운다 한들

나의 가슴속에서 떠나가버린 그 고래가 돌아오지 않으ㅡㅡㅡ듯 하다.

한 맺힌 노래가 창이 되고

콧물과 눈물이 머리카락과 범벅이가 되어

젖살 부른 가슴을 매어 잡고 

나의 잃어버린 사랑, 나의 고래를

무릎으로 질질 끌어가본다. 

[translation]

My whale, my love, my everything –

Now buried in that blind man’s daughter Sim Chong’s [3] choked up heart,

In darkness,

As I wail gguh ee gguh ee [4]…

That whale left from my bosom may not everrrrr return.

Song borne in han [5] becomes an old folk song,

Snots and tears mudded with tangled hair,

I hold swollen breasts,

My lost love, my whale,

I drag them and crawl on my knees.

Gyun Hur. Artist notes taken during mayfield brooks’ performance, SenSoria: An Opera Strange, 2022.