Samantha Yun Wall: Nothing to be afraid of

Samantha Yun Wall delves into our collective stories to better understand contemporary social structures that stigmatize difference. She focuses on the female archetypes found throughout global mythologies, folktales, and creation narratives. Vilified figures, such as ghosts, monsters, healers, and storytellers, are the most revealing. The women described defy traditional expectations and are consequently transformed into altered beings, made invisible or hyper-visible, and treated as outcasts. Wall has found striking reflections in these stories of her lived experience as a multiracial woman navigating a world that often alienates and exoticizes those perceived as Other. Her highly detailed monochromatic images draw from East Asian and Western storytelling traditions to explore themes of hybridity, transformation, and feminine power.

Myths, folklore, and fairy tales provide a symbolic framework that shapes our understanding of interpersonal relationships, social behavior, and the environment. They teach us all strict mores to function within. They prescribe how crucial connections between the individual and the social sphere should function. These tales influence how we construct meaning about ourselves and others. Stories are a way to encode social expectations and pass them on to future generations. They are evidence of a collective unconscious. Examining them can reveal their scaffolding and architecture, and with that knowledge, the structure can be remodeled through effort and time. These stories can be reinterpreted to include perspectives that have been previously ignored, prompting a shift in societal viewpoints. These cautionary tales that diminish and devalue women may also provide the most fertile pathways to change. The monsters that inhabit the borders of behavior becoming trailblazers, guides to ecstatic release from oppressive ideologies. Wall contributes to this effort by making works that challenge patriarchal interpretations of the role of women like herself in our culture.

“My experiences as a Black Korean immigrant inform my practice. There is a longing to uncover lost histories, revealing the narratives that have shaped me. This is the backbone of my research. The effort to reclaim my identity has led to my discovery of Amerasian experiences within the United States and abroad. Amerasians are the people born to Asian women and U.S. service members during periods of military occupation, such as the Korean War, and the genetic shadows cast decades later. The children born within these circumstances were often viewed as outcasts. The discrimination that Black Amerasians experience is two-fold: stigmatizing the women and their children and perpetuating a legacy of trauma and shame. I am seeking to create broader pathways for contextualizing Black experiences within the U.S.”

The figures Wall shows us challenge the limitations imposed upon them that devalue their difference. They draw strength from their contradictions and reject distorted views that would deny the complexity of their identities. They allow us to imagine new narratives that challenge outdated ways of seeing.