Mirage by Soovin Choi

Hello, oasis. Are you there?

I often feel like my dream in the United States can be reachable but cannot be. I thought it was almost there, but it was not there, and I was not there. However, I am almost there. Is it a mirage? My life is a mirage, my dream is a mirage, and my study is a mirage: digital media arts.

Just like a rabbit hole, I keep falling deep down into the art world. People who know me in Korea think that I see mirages. They are suspicious about what I am pursuing in the United States. My friends have already graduated from university, got a job, and are married. Am I an oddity because I am following my mirage: dream? Is this alright?

The international student life reminded me of a mirage. My friends returned to their countries since hardly any company sponsors international students, and international students cannot stay without an H1B visa. Graduation is just around the corner, and I desperately realized that what I was hoping for and dreaming were mirages. I thought I could make it, but maybe I could not.

Digital Media Arts are studying the world inside of the monitor: internet, 3D space, virtual world. Unlike painting, photography,and sculpture, digital media arts handle invisible elements.

Interestingly, I cannot touch nor see what I am studying, nor can I see what I am achieving. However, I have done my best to live my alien life for six years, loving those invisible mirages that I pursue: dreams and digital media arts. In this BFA exhibition, I like to bring them out from the invisible area to the real world. This is my study about my mirages: I wanted to make them visible. I like to prove their existence and my existence at the same time. This exhibition is my dearest shout to the world that my dream is not false or empty.

My mirages make me hopeful and feel alive. I cannot stop dreaming. The positive attitude and passion to go through those mirages would lead me to reach the oasis.

Indeed, oasis was here for the whole time right inside my heart.