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Unfinished Business

A project by: Hyo Kim

Successful

WE RAISED £1,504

from 17 donors

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Help us turn a personal goodbye into a shared ritual of remembrance through theatre and multimedia

A short summary of your project

“Halmoni!” 

A final goodbye that didn’t feel right. 

We’re raising £2,000 to present Unfinished Business, a devised cross-cultural theatre piece blending Korean ritual, movement, and multimedia, at the Voila! Festival 2025 in London.

Inspired by the director’s true story with her grandmother, this project transforms a personal farewell into a collective act of remembrance and healing, reimagining how we face grief and how art can reconnect the living with what remains unfinished.

Who are you?

Hi, I’m Sarah Hyojin Kim, a Korean theatre director currently completing my MFA in Theatre Directing at East 15 Acting School. I founded Peculiar Matter, a London-based collective of international artists from South Korea, UK, US, Mainland China, and Hong Kong. Together, we create movement-based and multimedia performances that explore memory, identity, and community healing.

Our motto is “Rebuilding fragmented pieces from peculiar lives.”  With Unfinished Business, we continue our journey to merge Korean traditional rituals with contemporary performance for UK audiences.

Your story

Unfinished Business began in April 2024 at East 15 Acting School as a 15-minute practical project for the World Theatre module, during which I trained with Song of the Goat Theatre. The piece was rooted in rhythm-based movement and the Via Negativa approach.

Unfinished Business is a 50-minute devised physical theatre piece merging Korean ancestral rituals, videography, and movement-based storytelling.

It is deeply personal yet profoundly communal, exploring the unresolved feelings, words, and gestures that linger around loss, and creating a shared space to face them together.

As the work developed, we reimagined Korean ritual objects like the byeong-pung (folding screen) as theatrical and installation elements. Our international ensemble brought diverse cultural perspectives, turning personal grief into a collective act of remembrance.

Incorporating archival home videos filmed by my grandmother, the piece blends film installation and live ritual, inviting audiences to experience mourning not as closure, but as continuity. A story not for the dead, but for the living.

As an immigrant and early-career theatre maker, I hope to bring Korean traditional elements into conversation with the UK’s multicultural landscape. Your support helps us foster cross-cultural understanding, build community healing, and launch Peculiar Matter’s first professional season.

Where will the money go?

  • Venue hire & Festival Fee: £400
  • Rehearsal Room Hire: £400
  • Prop, Installation & Film Materials (Folding screen, ritual objects, video equipment, and installation setup): £350
  • Consultant (Specialist guidance on ritual ethics and wellbeing practice): £150
  • Insurance: £200
  • Marketing & Documentation: £200
  • Travel: £300

Your contribution ensures that our ensemble is fairly supported and that this deeply human story can reach the stage with care and integrity.

Rewards

  • £1+:  Join our ritual of remembrance, every supporter becomes part of our collective wish to remember and renew.
  • £10+: Your name in our Instagram shout-out and program credits! A small light in our ritual!
  • £25+: Ritual of Wishes. We offer a short prayer through a Korean ancestral ritual, sending your wish into the universe. Your wish can be secret or shared, we’ll send a short video of the ritual as a gift on our social media.
  • £50+:  Join our Producers Circle. Your name (or initials) will be inscribed on our Byeong-pung (folding screen) as part of the onstage ritual, in our program, and on social media, with a personal thank-you from the team.
  • £100+: Ritual & Reflection. Gathering Join a private rehearsal and share an intimate reflection with the creative team.

Find us here

We’ll be sharing weekly updates on our process through:

Instagram: @peculiarmatter.co

Behind-the-scenes rehearsal videos, creative reflections, and interviews with collaborators. Follow us to see how a personal memory grows into a shared artistic ritual.

Help us succeed!

Even the smallest gesture of sharing or conversation can make a difference.If you know of any communities or spaces that hold conversations around reflection, remembrance, or healing, we’d love for you to share our project with them. This piece was created to open a gentle dialogue, about how we live, love, and let go.  And if you choose to support us, your contribution will help turn a personal goodbye into a shared ritual of remembrance and hope. Together, we can finish what was left unsaid.