Jewan Goo (he/him, b. Seoul, South Korea) is a research-driven photographer whose work examines how colonial power structures systematically erased historically marginalized voices under Japanese occupation. He deconstructs historiographic lacunae as contested spaces of memory using dioramas and photography, foregrounding unphotographed histories within gaps in historical records as sites of intellectual contestation. His practice dissects how perceptual culture embeds dominant ideologies while presenting itself as neutral, demonstrating how archival frameworks mediate the dialectics of visibility and erasure through the imperial scopic regime to uphold normative narratives. Situated at the intersection of Critical Theory and Visual Culture, his work applies the politics of representation to examine how ruling frameworks marginalize subaltern narratives through imperial control.
By reframing absence as a site of resistance, he challenges systemic exclusion. His methodology explores how configurations of power weaponized education, scientific classification, and spatial hierarchies to assert dominance, while photography and dioramas serve as counter-doctrinal tools. Through critical optic methodology and interventions in representational ethics, these works expose how perceptual structures enforce the visual regime, transforming archival absences into dynamic platforms for counter-normative knowledge production within contemporary memory systems, advancing decolonial approaches that foreground accountability and justice while cultivating subaltern counterpublic spheres.
Goo holds an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently based in Philadelphia, where he continues to explore the intersections of historiography and critical inquiry.
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Jewan Goo (he/him, b. Seoul, South Korea) is a research-driven photographer whose work examines how colonial power structures systematically erased historically marginalized voices under Japanese occupation. He deconstructs historiographic lacunae as contested spaces of memory using dioramas and photography, foregrounding unphotographed histories within gaps in historical records as sites of intellectual contestation. His practice dissects how perceptual culture embeds dominant ideologies while presenting itself as neutral, demonstrating how archival frameworks mediate the dialectics of visibility and erasure through the imperial scopic regime to uphold normative narratives. Situated at the intersection of Critical Theory and Visual Culture, his work applies the politics of representation to examine how ruling frameworks marginalize subaltern narratives through imperial control.
By reframing absence as a site of resistance, he challenges systemic exclusion. His methodology explores how configurations of power weaponized education, scientific classification, and spatial hierarchies to assert dominance, while photography and dioramas serve as counter-doctrinal tools. Through critical optic methodology and interventions in representational ethics, these works expose how perceptual structures enforce the visual regime, transforming archival absences into dynamic platforms for counter-normative knowledge production within contemporary memory systems, advancing decolonial approaches that foreground accountability and justice while cultivating subaltern counterpublic spheres.
Goo holds an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently based in Philadelphia, where he continues to explore the intersections of historiography and critical inquiry.
MENU
Jewan Goo (he/him, b. Seoul, South Korea) is a research-driven photographer whose work examines how colonial power structures systematically erased historically marginalized voices under Japanese occupation. He deconstructs historiographic lacunae as contested spaces of memory using dioramas and photography, foregrounding unphotographed histories within gaps in historical records as sites of intellectual contestation. His practice dissects how perceptual culture embeds dominant ideologies while presenting itself as neutral, demonstrating how archival frameworks mediate the dialectics of visibility and erasure through the imperial scopic regime to uphold normative narratives. Situated at the intersection of Critical Theory and Visual Culture, his work applies the politics of representation to examine how ruling frameworks marginalize subaltern narratives through imperial control.
By reframing absence as a site of resistance, he challenges systemic exclusion. His methodology explores how configurations of power weaponized education, scientific classification, and spatial hierarchies to assert dominance, while photography and dioramas serve as counter-doctrinal tools. Through critical optic methodology and interventions in representational ethics, these works expose how perceptual structures enforce the visual regime, transforming archival absences into dynamic platforms for counter-normative knowledge production within contemporary memory systems, advancing decolonial approaches that foreground accountability and justice while cultivating subaltern counterpublic spheres.
Goo holds an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently based in Philadelphia, where he continues to explore the intersections of historiography and critical inquiry.