Adam Colman | 2026 | Industrial Design & Mechanical Engineering
Aji
Birch Plywood, Laser Cutter, BaDuk Pieces, Assorted foods, Chopsticks, Spoon
This is a performance piece that deals with honoring the memory of my grandfather and reflecting on what he meant to me. I called my grandfather Aji, a word that I created as a baby in an attempt to pronounce 할아버지 (haraboji), the Korean word for grandfather. This personal translation of the Korean word stuck, and my whole family has called him Aji since. I begin my performance with a 바둑 (BaDuk) game board arranged with the pieces exactly where they were during a game that I played when my grandfather was teaching me. The first time that I won a game of BaDuk against my grandfather, I felt more concerned and sad than excited, because I knew that he was better than me and that this was a sign of his mental decline and a worsening of his sickness. I flip the board, dumping the pieces into a box. I place the lid on with the other side facing up, revealing that the box is actually a headstone. The writing on the headstone is calligraphy from my grandmother, mother, and myself. This represents Aji’s death. I continue my performance by layering new text on top of the headstone‚ text to represent what my grandfather meant to me. When I was a baby, Aji fed me by spoon. I represent this by writing my birth year using a spoon and cheerios on top of the headstone. As Aji got sicker, he lost his appetite, but I was one of the few people who could get him to eat. I represent this arduous and saddening process by writing his name using chopsticks to place the food that I used to feed him. I then write the year that he died in the same fashion. To complete the memorial, I top it off with two ceremonial Korean bows. The presentation of the piece is formally aligned with the traditional Korean Jesa ceremony for honoring the deceased. However, I have translated the ceremonial Korean foods for the individual foods that I fed Aji to embody my personal experience with this loss and represent the hybridization of traditions within my family.
