Hidden Songs in Our Mother’s Dreams
Hidden Songs in Our Mother’s Dreams, 2024
Multimedia Installation
Crow Museum of Asian Art
The opening chapter of Kinmakers, Hidden Songs in Our Mother's Dreams, unfolds through kinmaking and quantum listening—an exploration of the unspoken yet deeply felt dreams of our mothers' mothers and beyond.
This immersive installation includes a three-channel video called The Hum, a video sculpture titled Song of Kin, and two participatory performances called Rituals of Kinmagic.
The Hum, 2024
3-channel video installation with sound
Crow Museum of Asian Art
Duration: 20 minutes
Over the years, the blob has taken many forms—an organizing principle, a metaphor for emotion, a shapeshifting intelligence and now within Kinmakers, the blob has become The Hum.
Porous and fluid, The Hum is a vessel of intergenerational memory and desire—the unspoken yet felt dreams of our mothers, their mothers, and beyond.
It vibrates in the echoes of a lullaby, in the resonance of sound moving through the body.
Named after the primal act of humming—a practice of grounding and attunement—The Hum invites deep listening to the unseen frequencies that bind us. A shapeshifting presence within Kinmakers, it carries echoes of past forms, now attuned to kinmaking and quantum listening.
Song of Kin, 2024
Single-channel video sculpture
Crow Museum of Asian Art
Duration: 2 minutes
The Song of Kin is the video sculpture that holds the song, and acts as the portal to the world of Kinmakers.
listen to dream.
the hum of kin
shimmers under my skin.
half-asleep,
half-awake,
my body, porous like sand,
luminous.
lines and wrinkles deepen,
when our hidden songs blend,
my love,
my friend,
my mother,
In my dream,
I am mine and,
you are yours,
and all that breathes is,
our kin.
Ritual of Kinmagic, 2024
Live AV performance
Crow Museum of Asian Art
Duration: 45 minutes
Rituals of Kinmagic are participatory performances that open and close Kinmakers: Hidden Songs in Our Mother’s Dreams—embodied rituals shaped by deep listening, somatic movement, and collective care.
Emerging from years of inquiry into how technology and emotion shape our bodies and beliefs, these performances offer an antidote to disconnection. They invite audiences into a mystical field animated by The Hum—a shapeshifting presence that evokes playful attunement and expanded states of kinship.
The opening performance, Kinmagic #1 (September 28, 2024), invited visitors into a spellbinding ritual of live movement and sound, evoking deep relaxation and a whole-body immersion in listening beyond the self. The closing performance, Kinmagic #2 (February 15, 2025), extended this world-building practice, drawing audiences into a participatory choreography of care and resonance.
Both performances were conceived and led by artists Surabhi Saraf and Laura Hyunjhee Kim, with Zack Nguyen and Kristen Duong joining in the closing ritual.
Documentation of Ritual of Kinmagic performance by @brendavegaphoto
