Bulgogi

‘Bulgogi’ consisted of a series of small, multi-sided and multi-paneled, pavilions. Form the outside they appeared to be typical of Pardo’s oeuvre, but inside each one was adorned with a series of framed images of anonymous Angelinos of Korean ancestry. Pardo used the term bulgogi – referring to a traditional Korean dish of marinated, barbecued beef - as a metaphor for Korean immigration and cultural assimilation in Los Angeles, Pardo himself being an immigrant (from Cuba). With ‘Bulgogi’, Pardo’s ongoing spatial inquiry into notions of the inside and outside was applied not only to disciplines and physical space but also to a community. The underlining dynamic of the work was located in the way the pavilions managed to appear both purely formal when experienced from the outside and yet laced with narrative on the inside.