my own che.

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I wore my Binna Choi t-shirt yesterday. It was the first time I wore one of My own Che t-shirts for the whole day. It felt quite special. I felt quite special. Did I feel I was Binna Choi? No. Of course I felt that everyone was looking at me. I really felt, however, that especially a group of Koreans (whose nationality I certainly could not prove) stared at me as they walked past me. Did I feel like shouting to them I was not Binna Choi? Yes. Did I think they could make sense of what’s written on my t-shirt, namely “Binna Choi”, even when it’s mirrored? Yes. That was why I was convinced they were Korean. Vive la logique!
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This t-shirt has made me think, the whole day, about my body and the mirror. It just made me realise so much that what I see of myself is not what people see of me. Never. I can only read this t-shirt properly in the mirror, and it says, there, BINNA // CHOI. That’s not how people read it! They would read it ANNIB // IOHC. When I try to imagine how they would see me in this t-shirt – by reflex I would just go look for a shiny window, or a mirror. There, it reads BINNA CHOI. It was a bit frustrating. I remember I kept thinking, I really want to see what they see! It was impossible. Except if someone would take a photograph of me now. But would that image be the real me?
My own Che is a work examining the relationship between identity, individuality, belongingness and ownership. Che refers to the popular icon of t-shirts and self-determination Che Guevara. As part of this work I manually print people’s names on second-hand white t-shirts to be sold as commercial commodity. People can choose to buy the available single edition t-shirts with a name on it – they could buy one with their own name, their friend’s, or even with a name unfamiliar to them. The names are printed in mirror image, so that the wearer can read the name imprinted on their t-shirts while looking at their own images on the mirror.