Memories and Records: Thoughts on <i>The Vaccine Archive</i>

Vicki Sung-yeon Kwon; Lathika Sritharan

doi:10.17742/IMAGE.IN.11.2.6

Authors

Vicki Sung-yeon Kwon University of Alberta
Lathika Sritharan Global Strategy Lab

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17742/IMAGE.IN.11.2.6

Keywords:

immunization records, migration, vaccine memorabilia, archive exhibition, curation, art as political intervention, collaboration

Abstract

Vicki Sung-yeon Kwon, an art historian and curator, and Lathika Sritharan, a public health researcher, discuss their collaborative project Memories and Records: The Vaccine Archive, an archive display of vaccine-related memories and immunization records of people from various parts of the world. They share challenges and accomplishments of collaborating with multidisciplinary participants and mounting an art exhibition at the UNAIDS building. As Canadians of Asian ethnic and cultural background, Kwon and Sritharan contemplate how vaccines are differently remembered in the Global North and the Global South.

Author Biographies

Vicki Sung-yeon Kwon, University of Alberta

Vicki Sung-yeon Kwon is an art historian and curator. Kwon is currently a PhD candidate in the History of Art, Design and Visual Culture and a lecturer of modern and contemporary East Asian art history at the University of Alberta. Her doctoral research explores socially engaged art in transnational contact zones facilitated by artists from East Asia, funded by SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, International Researcher Residency Program of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Korea, Junior Fellowship of Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies at the Seoul National University, etc. Having completed her BA in art history and semiotics and communication theories and MA in art history at the University of Toronto, she worked as an administrator, curator, project manager, and researcher for art, education, and cultural organizations. Her curated exhibitions include Designing Connection in Friction at Harcourt House in Edmonton (2018) and Mass and Individual: The Archive of the Guyanese Mass Games at the Arko Art Centre in Seoul (2016), which garnered the largest of the 2016 Korea Arts Council’s exhibition grants. Kwon has published research papers in the journals Korean Studies and Inter-Asian Cultural Studies. Kwon is participating in <Immune Nations> as an artist and project manager.

Lathika Sritharan, Global Strategy Lab

Lathika Sritharan is a Research Manager at the Global Strategy Lab, where she oversees the day-to-day operations of the lab. She has completed her Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from the University of Saskatchewan and her Hon. Bachelor of Science (HBSc) degree from the University of Toronto. Her research interests include immigrant health, health policy, and chronic disease research. Her passion for public health has led her to be actively involved in the Tamil Health Association (a not-for-profit organization in the Greater Toronto Area) as Director of Community Research and a board member of the Human Rights Internet (an organization dedicated to providing accessible information on human rights in Canada and beyond).