Journey: a play of identity

Scene 1: Seoul City crowds in the lunch hour
all strolling
all perfect
and perfectly attired.
No, this is not a movie.
This is real.

Rachel as seen in Uncanny Mirror by Mario Klingemann commissioned by Seoul Mediacity Biennale 2018

Rachel as seen in Uncanny Mirror by Mario Klingemann commissioned by Seoul Mediacity Biennale 2018

Scene 2: me in the Uncanny Mirror. Yes
that is my identical identity, my oddness
vast forehead, tuft of feathers
and cloudy evanescent self.
I’m lonely. I like her. I want her to be me
(and yet, that’s not my shirt).

Two elegant nuns walking in Seoul

Two elegant nuns walking in Seoul

Scene 3: Two young nuns are walking
with a double dose of grace.
I want to look
and love the parallels
the paired serenity
and then revert to being motley me.


This half-formed writing is a travel diary. Photos and words by Rachel McAlpine cc by 2.0; portrait caught in Mario Klingemann’s Uncanny Mirror, Seoul Mediacity Biennale 2.0. (Seoul Art Space — Yeonhui, 8 Sept 2018)

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