Exhibition | Sora Park | I love dogs

RP
2 days ago
2 min read

Park, Sora. Past (The wise mother cuts her rice cake perfectly in complete darkness.) 2023 Styrofoam, joint compound, acrylic paint, grunt gallery, Vancouver.

June 21 - August 26, 2025

Opening & Artist Presentation: Friday, June 20, 5-7pm

Walk through with the artist at 6pm

I love dogs by Korean-Canadian artist Sora Park explores diasporic experiences through the complex relationships between racialized people and animals. Centered around the phrase “Koreans eat dogs”—a statement the artist still encounters when expressing her absolute love for dogs, especially her own—this exhibition investigates how pets have been weaponized to reinforce racial stereotypes and perpetuate discrimination, particularly against Asian communities.

The exhibition confronts the painful reality many diasporic people face, where racial stereotypes dehumanize entire communities by associating their identities with savagery and uncivilized behavior through their connection to animals. Yet, in juxtaposition to this pain, the artist also depicts the tenderness that comes with loving and caring for animals. Weaving together these contrasting emotions, I love dogs reflects on how the presence of dogs in the artist’s life has brought both comfort and cultural tension.

Artist statement:

Sora Park’s research-based practice explores how her identity as a Korean-Canadian person is shaped and continuously transformed by her experience of diaspora. She weaves memories, empathy, and humour into her immersive artworks to evoke psychological and visceral sensations in viewers. Informed heavily by the experience of diaspora, her practice investigates how globalization and migration complicate the process of defining identity in everyday life. Some of the themes she explores include the role of text and language in creating an unsettled space between clarity and confusion, family dynamics within an immigrant household, passion as a cultural commodity, and the construction of national identity and patriotism through exported cultural products.

About the artist

Sora Park (she/her) is a Korean-Canadian interdisciplinary artist living on the traditional territories of the q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), Máthxwi (Matsqui) and Se’mya’me’ (Semiahmoo) First Nations, also known as Langley, BC. She received her BFA in Photography from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver and an MA in Fine Arts from Bergen Academy of Art and Design in Bergen, Norway. She is a grant recipient from the BC Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts and Arts Council Norway. Her works have been exhibited in various spaces in Canada and internationally. In her free time, she likes going to movie festivals, hanging out with her lazy dog, listening to Bachata, and playing and watching tennis.

See more of Sora's work on her website.