Irene (Hyo-Jung) Song

Irene Song is a Ph.D. student in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Stanford University, where her research focuses on modern and contemporary Korean art, material culture, and the intersection of Korean diasporic art and literature. She is particularly interested in how artists and writers from the Korean and larger Asian diaspora engage with themes of colonial biopolitics, mutation/monstrosity and abjection, often through sensory modes such as olfactory landscapes and other visceral, embodied aesthetics. Her work explores how speculative frameworks and abject materialities unsettle dominant social and political structures, offering alternative modes of perception. As a visual artist, Song’s practice is informed by her academic research and often takes the form of large-scale ephemeral installations that incorporate video, graphics, sculpture, writing, and publishing. Song received her B.F.A. from Cornell University and M.A. from Stanford University. Previously, she has worked in curatorial roles at the Queens Museum, New York, Art Sonje Center in Seoul, and the Museum of Modern Art.