Political Installation in a downtown Long Beach window, in partnership with the Long Beach Arts Association
A painting on 4 scrolls by Young Summers and Ann Zumwinkle.
During exhibit period, window broken at night; unsure if due to nature of political statement.
This statement accompanied installation:
“Comfort Women” is a euphemism
for the 100,000 to 200,000 women and girls
swept away from their homes
and forced into service
for the Japanese military during World War II.
Many women were from Korea,
and others from China, the Philippines,
and other Japanese-occupied territories.
This collaborative work
by Korean-American artist Young Summers
and Japanese-American artist Ann Zumwinkle
is inspired by the poignant
“Comfort Women” memorial sculpture,
a life-size girl sitting beside an empty chair,
designed by Korean artists Kim Woon-seong and Kim Seo-gyeong.
Editions of the sculpture are installed in Seoul, South Korea,
Glendale, California,
and other cities around the world,
and have become both political magnets
for history revisionists who vocally oppose the sculptures’ installations,
and emotional emissaries that convey an agonizing narrative of inhumanity