wHAT IS YOUR NAME?
 

ArtPort Artists-in-Residence Haksul Lee (born in Korea, lives in Flushing) and Natsuki Takauji (born in Japan, lives in Astoria) create a new 5- to 6-foot sculpture that celebrates the diversity of New York City’s community members as well as its visitors.

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During the artists completing the collaborative What is your name?, visitors to the studio can also participate in the creation of the work. The artists invited all passersby to come into the space and meet the artists and learn about the project. Participants will introduce themselves, write their names in their own language, and then will be recorded pronouncing their name. By making these momentary connections, the artists hope to take a space that is typically filled with strangers – an airport – and recognize that we all have our own stories and identity, and aren’t merely “faces in the crowd.”

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What is your name? evokes the form of a Clipper seaplane and its reflection on the water. On a white plane form, this collaboration transcribes original signatures of passersby, showcasing their different handwriting styles, languages, and alphabets. A blue plane signifying the water’s reflection will have the same names transcribed in the standardized International Phonetic Alphabet based on the visitor’s pronunciation of their own names.

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Juxtaposing participants’ names in their native language on the white plane and in a uniform style on the blue, What is your name? celebrates the cultural diversity of the visitors and New York City as a whole.