From Witnessing to Redress: Objects, Remnants, and Wreckage after the Sewol

Abstract

Abstracts: On April 16, 2014, the Sewol Ferry capsized off the southwestern coast of South Korea, killing 304 people, including 250 high school students. The incident traumatized Koreans, who helplessly watched the capsized ferry sink on live news. The Korean government's (mis)handling of the disaster and its aftermaths made the sinking of the Sewol Ferry the most galvanizing event in contemporary South Korean history. In the wake of the Sewol, activists and artists created memorials in honor of the victims—or rather their absence—as well as their loved ones who remember them. Using critical scholarship from memory studies and performance studies with ethnographic methodologies, this essay explores three of these works, combining tools of close reading and participant observation. In analyzing the three works, I focus on their strategic use of physical objects belonging to victims or their loved ones—namely, childhood artifacts, a blanket, and a bus. Through these objects, activists and artists go beyond an invitation to witness the Sewol and its tragic aftermaths; rather, they index the sustained nature of loss as well as critique the persistence of government malfeasance and unaccountability. Ultimately, I theorize the three case studies as activist performances that animate the material remains of disaster in the service of materializing truth and redress.