I will wait for you until 2025

a curatorial project for Recreation at project8, Melbourne
(25 February — 1 april 2023)

I will wait for you until 2025 is a curated selection of merch, memorabilia, and fan-made goods related to the Kpop mega-group BTS, drawn from my personal collection.

Since 2019, I have been a member of the BTS fandom, also known collectively as ARMY (aka “Adorable Representative M.C. For Youth”). From 2020 – 2022, while others were baking sourdough bread or finding new at-home hobbies, I was scouting Facebook marketplace and eBay to collect BTS merch. For me, this collection has always been connected most closely to BTS’ music, message, and their growth as individuals, and the objects displayed here encompass that range.

As a curator and collector, I see my ‘BTS shrine’ as a declaration of my love and devotion to the group, but also an unashamed celebration of the ways that my life has changed because of my experience as a fan. The title of the work refers to the year when the 7 members of BTS are expected to complete their mandatory military enlistment in South Korea, and will reunite with ARMY.

Click here to read my extended exhibition text.

All photos by Lucy Foster.

build a door inside your heart

performance & talks, saturday 18 march 3pm

Please join us for an afternoon of talks and performances inspired by the art, music and performances of BTS.

The event will start with a special K-pop dance performance of 달려라 방탄 (Run BTS), followed by talks by four curators, writers, scholars, and fans, that demonstrate a range of cross-disciplinary approaches and research methodologies.

All welcome. No prior fandom knowledge necessary!

AO Crew is a K-pop cover dance group from Melbourne, Australia formed in early 2013. AO Crew have been active in the K-pop community and are the winners of the 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017 K-pop World Festival.

Sophia Cai 蔡晨昕 is a curator and arts writer based in Narrm/Melbourne, Australia. She currently teaches as a sessional lecturer in Critical and Theoretical Studies, Victorian College of Arts at the University of Melbourne, while also maintaining an independent curating and writing practice. For the last two years, Sophia has been researching the connection between fandom and curating as dual practices rooted in care.

Natasha Hertanto is a Chinese-Indonesian storyteller and dog-mom based in Naarm. Her work can be found in Australian Poetry Journal, Voiceworks, ABC Everyday, Archer and the Ultimo Press anthology Everything All At Once. She is currently working on her debut novel. 

Dr Maria Quirk is Curator, Research and Collections at the NGV, and a historian of women’s and art histories. She previously held teaching and research positions at the University of Queensland, Deakin University and the State Library of Queensland. Her book Women, Art and Money in Late Victorian and Edwardian England: The Hustle and the Scramble was published by Bloomsbury in 2019.

Janey Umback is a second year PhD candidate in the Department of Internet studies at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia. Janey’s PhD research examines digital remix cultures and gender identity within the Jung Kook and Harry Styles fan communities. Her wider research interests include youth studies and popular culture, influencer studies, platform studies, queer studies and fandom.