and flyers. Living in our current hyper-connected Internet age, however, artists have greater power over the exhibiting, displaying and even marketing of their work, and are free to explore and live in the areas between the invisible space of the Internet and the physical space of the gallery and studio. By sharing his/her work directly with public social networks in an approach alternative to presenting work through galleries, the artist can feel the subtle changes that come from communicating directly with the public. Unlike when works are displayed in a traditional gallery, social networks receive immediate response and interaction from the public. Changes in creating arise through dialogue and engagement of the audience provided by these invisible layers and open windows in the relationship between an artist and the masses. The liminal and invisible spaces of the technological ‘cloud’ and cyberspace are topics too broad to focus on in this project. This includes discussion of the recreation of a virtual world based on the real world, which leads to the possibility of re-creating individuals.
This would provide a flexible invisible space for users with infinite creative possibility, and research on cyberspace in invisible space is ongoing. This cyberspace concept would also expand the discourse on identity.
Bhabha describes these places of turning within liminal space as a stairwell (Bhabha 1994: 2, 6). In a stairwell, there are gradual and incremental shifts in direction and perspective. Bhabha states that identity is always ambiguous between ‘shadow and substance’ and these in-
between spaces ‘provide the terrain for elaborating strategies of selfhood – singular or communal – that initiate new signs of identity’ (Bhabha 1994: 2). These new perceptions of identity are not only renewed perceptions of selfhood but renewed perceptions of the communal, of society itself. This expansion is due to the overlap and displacement of different domains within liminal space. At intermediate points, liminality prevents severe polarization of individual identity, based on for example class, race, nationality, gender, and opens up possibilities that are not fixed. Since there is always a distance between the image and the ideal in situations and reality, the space between them is always fluid. Rather than leaning towards one side, there is expansion and the forming of a different sense of identity and community through a stairwell concept.
The sense of a shifting liminal identity also links back to my interest in play and role-play.
The different roles or identities that children take on during play (Thomassen 2014: 105), whether playing with toys or other children, are immersive experiences that not only reflect internalised perceptions of the various roles or identities taken on during play but fluidly shift between various roles or identities. The shifting of identities and interplay of social
expectations on identity also link to my discussion of rites of passage. Specifically, as relating to my experience, in the context of bringing different families together through a marriage.
Van Gennep (1960: 139) aptly describes marriage as a ‘social disturbance’ that involves several groups of people and modifies numerous elements within relationships. These changes disturb equilibrium in the individuals and groups as new relational connections and roles are established and identities shift. These social disturbances are most apparent in small communities, not in large cities. My experience of this, and the social expectations associated with it, have been affected by emigration.
My ethnographic liminality and sense of ‘in-betweenness’ (between South Korea and South Africa) is the main focus of this research. In her picture book, Figures in a Foreign
Landscape: Aspects of Liminality in Shaun Tan’s The Arrival, Melanie Otto described her
sense of identity, belonging, and isolation through her experiences of migration and
settlement (Downey & Kinane 2016). Through this, she establishes her identity in the midst of migration and settlement, and expresses the position of ‘limitation’ and ‘intermediateness’.
In this way, Downey and Kinane argue that cultural identities are not static but are continually evolving and are fluid in nature. South Koreans adopted many practices associated with Western civilization, trading outdated Japanese colonial values for more liberal Western values (Jung 2019). With these values, the South Korean economy grew at a rapid pace and showed remarkable economic development (Kim 2017). Citizens still enjoyed the results of new liberal principles and equality, but it also brought on the pressure to live a life of
materialism, authority and expediency (Jung 2019). This dualism of values led me to develop my own guidelines and boundaries to create a sense of stability. With my own principles I could choose to keep myself rigid and contained when necessary, but open and flexible when I desired. I could create my own ideal identity and explore more diverse aspects when in complex situations. The cultural diversity that comes from Korea and South Africa and the
‘entanglement’ within it (Bystrom & Nuttall 2013: 326) is a topography in which the concept of an ‘intermediate region’ is established and a new identity and common self-strategy emerge (Bhabha 1994: 2). The ‘middle region’ creates a new sense of identity in the process of separation and transformation and in the uncertain self.