Adapting Story
Lena Haerim Ha
January 17 - February 7, 2006


Adapting Story, video still, 2006

I love pets. They have always been a large part of my life and I have spent more time with them than with any person. I feel pets can be the universal connector among people when they meet for the first time especially those from different countries. When my family brought a dog to Canada, it seemed as if the dog was adapting perfectly to the new surroundings, but I am sure she felt the same way I did; feeling difference in food, people, and most of all, language. All the dogs in my video have a similarity in that they are living with a Korean family. The video is made as if seen through the eyes of the dogs, It was interesting to notice that the dogs became bilingual since now they react to both Korean and English words. During the time when I was working on these videos, I realized that the so-called “cultural differences” are partially defined by our own norms which set the boundaries of what it is supposed to be different between countries and existing people.

Lena Haerim Ha was born in Seoul, Korea and immigrated to Canada in 1997. She is currently in her 4th year in the Fine Art Honours degree program at Queen’s University in Kingston. She has studied art and languages in Korea, Japan, and Italy, and in the Queen’s University Venice Summer School Program in 2004. She is focusing on her major on the silkscreen, but is also interested in other media such as video production. Her video works are focused on the theme of cultural differences through the eyes of pets that she has owned in Korean and Canada.