Statement
Talon (she/her) is a queer Korean transracial, transnational adoption survivor and emerging found poetry and analog paper collage artist. At the intersection of identity, lack of ancestry, adoptee sovereignty, and abolition she uses collage as a form of resistance to disrupt the adoption narrative. The "Adoption; Held Ransom" series uses cut out words and phrases found in a multitude of printed materials. This deliberate visual style pays homage to the adoptees who were kidnapped, our birth families lied to, and then sold to predominantly white Christian countries in the West.
The collages present interrelated issues we wrestle with, and highlight the uphill struggle against the industrial adoption complex when wanting to find the truth. The purpose of this work is inform and offer an adoptee's perspective that not everything is happily ever after once a "forever family" is found, nor should that be adoption's primary purpose. The intent for the audience is to be more curious about the legacy of adoption in this country, particularly its effects on transracial, transnational adoptees. Or at the very least ask, who actually benefits from adoption?
