Jungyoon Wie

Note | Start Video at 1:05:20

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A Prayer for Peace in four movements explores different themes in my journey of immigration and search for peace.

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I. Echo within yourself (외로움)

 

This first movement symbolizes loneliness. The same melody repeats throughout without developing. This creates a sense of monologue that feels isolated and stuck. Loneliness is what I struggled with the most as an immigrant. It was primarily due to cultural barriers and my inability to speak the langugage. But on top of that, I found that minorities end up creating minorities within themselves, resulting in another layer of isolation and loneliness.

 

II. Heartbeat; difference (다름)

 

Another emotion I struggled with as an immigrant was anger. Once I began to understand the language and nuance, I started to feel rather resentful. As I began to recognize other people's perceptions based on one's race and sex, I became doubtful, cautious, and cynical. Often times, I felt as though my heart was beating at a different speed as everyone else around me, and that made me feel angry. Heartbeat; difference represents a state that is about to burst, one that would make your face flushed.

 

III. Mirror; distortion (왜곡)

 

In Mirror; distortion, I wanted to musically portray a state in which one sees what they want to see in their reality. When my anger consumed me, I wasn't able to see things clearly anymore; everyone seemed like my enemy. Later I realized that some of my thoughts and behaviors were distorted, and that was when I realized that I overlooked all the good things in my reality, especially the people who have helped me throughout my good and bad times.

 

IV. Peace; indifference (무관심)

 

The last piece to this story is my peace and happiness. Now I rather feel content with where I am in my life as I have surrounded myself with what makes me happy and people that I love. However, I can't help but feel like a hypocrite because I can find myself indifferent to the tragedies of others; sometimes it feels as if I try to protect the peace that I have created, and that's all it matters.

 

 

This is my prayer for peace: the journey, confliction and my hypocrisy.