During the pandemic, many people have leaned into art and hobbies to ease the stress of everyday life.
For Chanhee Choi, a multidisciplinary interactive artist and Ph.D. candidate in the University of Washington Digital Arts and Experimental Media department, art became a way to reflect on her experience with discrimination and racism as a Korean in America during the pandemic.
Last March, after the first few cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed the United States, but before the pandemic completely shut down life as we knew it, Choi was walking down the street with a face mask on when a man shouted a racial slur at her.
“I was walking around the place over there and then someone who looked like a stranger I never met was saying ‘Hey, you (expletive) Chinese, you brought coronavirus,’” Choi said.
After the interaction, Choi said she was inspired to create “Pandemic…