□ Stay in 2023
□ E-mail : imyoungzoo@gmail.com
□ URL : http://www.imyoungzoo.com/
□ SNS: @imyoungzoo

Biography
Youngzoo IM primarily works with video, along with painting, installation, and publishing to examine absurd beliefs and their underlying structures. IM&s focus lies on the similarities, rather than differences, of scientific thinking with superstitions and religions that cannot be compatible by logic of the modern world. She interprets, borrows, and appropriates supernatural elements to create (quasi-) scientific images in her own way.

WaitingM, 4 channel video, stereo sound, 40min, 2022

Exhibition view of M (Outsight, 2021)

Exhibition view of Human/I (Hole1, 2021)

Exhibition view of Human/I (Hole1, 2021)

Exhibition view of diplopia (Arko Art Center, 2020)

Exhibition view of Ghost White (#F8F8FF Opacity75%) (Gallery Chosun, 2020)

Exhibition view of Aedong (Doosan Gallery New York, 2019)

Exhibition view of THEWESTLIESWINDCOMESANDGOES (Space O’NewWall, 2019)

Education
2009 MA Fine Art, Hongik University, Seoul, Korea
2005 BFA Fine Art, Hongik University, Seoul, Korea

Solo Exhibitions
2021 M, Outsight, Seoul, Korea
2021 Human/I, Hall 1, Seoul, Korea
2020 Ghost White (#F8F8FFOpacity 75%)幽靈白, Gallery chosun, Seoul, Korea
2019 AEDONG, Doosan Gallery New York, New York, US
2018 Gristle and Synovial Fluid, Doosan Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2017 LOOK, HERE BEGINS THE OMEGA, SANSUMUNHWA, Seoul, Korea
2016 THEWESTLIESWINDCOMESANDGOES, Space O&NewWall / Rock and Fairy, The Book Society, Seoul, Korea

Group Exhibitions
2023 Vom Spielen, Ludwig Museum, Koblenz
2022 The Adventures of Dots & Dashes, ELEPHANTSPACE X FIGRO, Seoul
2022 Back to square one, SeMA Bunker, Seoul
2022 HOW CURRENT IS A CASTHE?, Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral, BAD EMS, Germany
2022 SOUND OF THE MOUNTAIN: NINE-TAILED FOX GUMIHO AS SEXUAL TRICKSTER , PINK FACTORY, Pink Plant (Hongcheon Central Market rooftop), Hongcheon
2022 IF YOU ARE HAPPY I WILL BE HAPPY TOO, Jeongdong 1928, Seoul
2022 whisperwhispering,TINC, Seoul, Korea
2021 𝙎𝙪𝙣𝙨𝙚𝙩𝙑𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙮𝙑𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙜𝙚, ArtSonjeCenter, Seoul, Korea
2021 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘗𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, busan, Korea
2021 FortuneTelling: Special Screening, ILMIN MUSEUM OF ART, Seoul, Korea
2021 Perform Collection System(PCS), Elephantspace, Seoul, Korea
2021 Vuja De, boan1942, Seoul, Korea
2020 Diplopia, Arko Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2020 Vladimir et Estragon, Art Space Pool, Seoul
2019 APAP6, Anyang Pavilion, Anyang, Korea
2019 hOle, TCAC, Taipei
2019 Zoom Back Camera, Semabumker, Seoul, Korea
2019 Frequency of Magic, Outsight, Seoul, Korea
2019 Welcome! You Are Connected!, Suwon Ipark museum of art, Suwon, Korea
2018 Divided We Stand_Busan Biennale 2018, Busan, Korea
2018 Salt of the Jungle, Vietnamese Women&s Museum, Ha Noi, Viet Nam
2018 Tastes of Weather, SeMA NAM Seoul Museum, Seoul, Korea
2018 CROSSROADS 2018, FILM FESTIVAL, SFMOMA, San Francisco, US
2018 EXHIBITION OF EXHIBITION OF EXHIBITION, MMM, Seoul, Korea
2018 The Dialectic of the Stars: Extinction Dancefloor, Platform-L Contemporary Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2017 THE SCRAP, The Scrap, Seoul, Korea
2017 The Melting Sea, Art Space Pool, Seoul, Korea
2017 abstraction, Hapjungjugu, Seoul, Korea
2017 Salt of the Jungle, KF Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2017 Doosan Art LAB 2017, Doosan Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2017 do it 2017, Seoul, ILMIN MUSEUM OF ART, Seoul, Korea
2017 Point, INSA ART SPACE, Seoul, Korea
2017 Drifting Unconsciousness, GYEONGGI CREATION CENTER, Ansan, Korea
2017 Pool Rising, Art Space Pool, Seoul, Korea
2017 High Noon, Shinhan gallery, Seoul, Korea
2017 Geunraeanbumunyeoha, INDIPRESS, Seoul, Korea
2017 Glass Mirror, Doosan Art Lab, Doosan Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2016 Sitting Techniques, INDIPRESS, Seoul, Korea
2016 Room with Six Corners, KUMHO MUSEUM OF ART, Seoul, Korea
2016 Coincidental Painting, Gallery Planet, Seoul, Korea
2016 Kaleidoscope, Open The Door, Seoul, Korea
2015 Hesitation Form, Space O&NewWall, Seoul, Korea
2015 37th JOONGANG FINEARTS PRIZE, SEOUL ARTS CENTER, Seoul, Korea
2015 The Butterfly Effect, Kumho Museum Of Art, Seoul, Korea
2015 Fortune Tellers, ZAHA MUSEUM, Seoul, Korea
2015 A Few Little Fricks, Opsis Art, Seoul, Korea
2015 Pilot Hole, Boklim Building, Seoul, Korea
2014 Public Service: Kindness, Service, Cooperation, Dock-San Police Substation, Seoul, Korea
2014 Life, Work / Work, Life, Shinhan Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2014 Contemporary Art Trend, Ami Museum, Dang-gin
2014 O&New Wall Mayfest, Space O'NewWall, Seoul, Korea
2014 DANG IN LEE ART PROJECT, Gallery Bonun, Seoul, Korea

Screenings
2022 e-flux Video &Films platform Forum
2022 The 19th Seoul International Experimental Film Festival Indie Visual Section Indie Space
2022 The Stream: Screening/ Talk
2021 Talking Stone: IM Youngzoo Special Screening, Ilmin Museum of Art

Publications
2023 Participated in News Paper ISSUE No. 3
2021 Human/I (ISBN: 9791196540081 (119654008X)), Nasun Press
2018 Rock and Fairy Vol. 3 LOOK, HERE BEGINS THE OMEGA,
(ISBN:978-89-94027-87-6 (93600)), mediabus
2016 Rock and Fairy Vol. 1 ODD ROCK FORCE,
(ISBN::979-11-950642-0 (03600)), Space O&NewWall, Seoul
2016 Rock and Fairy Vol. 2 THEWESTERLIESWINDCOMESANDGOES,
(ISBN::978-89-94849-88-1 (03600)), Seoul Museum of Art
2015 Workshop; Training Report (ISBN:979-11-86561-13-3 (03600)), Booknomad
2014 The Tale of Sam Sin, (ISBN:978-89-94027-39-5 (93600)), mediabus

Residencies
2023 Seoul Art Space Geumcheon
2022 Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral, Bad Ems, German
2021 MMCA Residency, Goyang, Korea
2019 DOOSAN Residency, New York, US
2018 Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, Korea
2017 Gyeonggi Creation Center, Ansan, Korea
2014-2015 Kumho Art Studio, Seoul, Korea

Awards & Nominations
2017 Korean Exis Award, 14thExperimentalFilm&VideoFestivalinSeoul
2016 SeMA Emerging Artists & Curators Supporting Program, Seoul Museum of Art
2015 Public Art New hero, Public Art Magazine
2015 37th JOONGANG FINEARTS PRIZE, Joongang Culture Media Network, Jtbc
2014 L&espace71 YOUNG ARTIST COMPE, L&espace 71
2014 Shinhan Young Artist Festa, Shinhan Gallery

□ Stay in 2023
□ E-mail : omyocho@gmail.com
□ URL: http://omyocho.com/
□ SNS: @omyocho

BIOGRAPHY

Contemporary artist. Primarily works with sculpture, but her identity has become as ambiguous as modern society since she became obsessed with video technology (VR) a few years ago. She works 10-hours a day like a laborer and worries about the future while watching YouTube videos edited by algorithms. With too much anxiety, She cannot fully express thoughts through her practice, so she has been writing science fiction since a certain moment. She lives with a white mixed dog and writes a gratitude diary every single day in order to look at the world positively.

Nudi Hallucination,

glass, silver, aluminum, stainless steel, resin, artificial plant, pigment, dimensions variable, 2022

Exhibition view of Nudi Hallucination, 2022

Barrel Eye, glass, silver, aluminum, stainless steel, resin, artificial plant, pigment,

single channel video, sound, acrylic, dimensions variable, 2022

JUMBO SHRIMP,

ceramic, paper ceramic, stainless steel, UV printed wall paper, dimensions variable, 2021

TAXIDERMIA: Dear Thomson #1, wood, powder coated steel, dimensions variable, 2019

TAXIDERMIA: Dear Thomson #2, wood, powder coated steel, dimensions variable, 2019

Broken Reality, glass, distilled water, stainless steel, dimensions variable, 2020

Education

BA FineArt, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

Solo Exhibitions

2022 BarrelEye, OSISUN, Seoul, South Korea

2021 Jumbo Shrimp, artist residency Temi, Daejeon, South Korea

2019 TAXIDERMIA, N/A gallery, Seoul, South Korea

Selected Group Exhibitions

2022 Iridescent, MMCA Residency Goyang, Goyang, South Korea

2022 Pageone, SoorimCube, Seoul, South Korea

2022 The usefulness of the useless, Osan museum of art, Osan, South Korea

2022 From now to now, Ulsan contemporary art festival, Ulasn, South Korea

2022 Data jungwon, Soorim cultural foundation, Seoul, South Korea

2022 Hardner, C. ENTER, Seoul, South Korea

2021 Shadowland, Amado Art Space, Seoul, South Korea

2021 re:makers, DMZ, Goseong, South Korea

2020 Soorim Art Award, Soorim Art center, Seoul, South Korea

Publications

2018 Trace of things unmentioned ISBN 979-11-87576-16-7

Residencies

2022 MMCA Residency Goyang

2021 Artist Residency Temi

Awards & Grants

2020 Soorim Art Award, Soorim Art center, Seoul, South Korea

Collections

2020 Soorim Art center, Seoul, South Korea

□ Stay in 2023

□ E-mail: leejuri00@gmail.com
□ SNS: @welcome.sunsetvalley

Biography
Lee Juri (b.1986) focuses on the production and consumption structure of contemporary images and the boundary where they syncretize. The artist created the Sunset Valley Image Simulator by structuralizing her visual methodology to narrow the gap between the traditional work process and contemporary images that are produced and consumed simultaneously. She reorganizes the production method through web programs and pursues a decentralized perspective and relationship through omnidirectional collaboration.

Exhibition view of Sunset Valley Village, (Art Sonje Center 1F Project Space, 2021)

Sunset Valley Village Image Generating Recorded Video (2021.11.2121:45:00~22:47:11), single-channel video, color, silent, 50min, loop, 2021

Sunset Valley, web application, real-time data streaming, 2018-2023

Exhibition view of REPACKAGE, (SeMA Storage, 2020)

P16rh3820K (feat. Sungseok Ahn), mixed media, dimensions variable, 2020

Exhibition view of Double Negative: From White Cube to Netflix, (Arko Art Museum, 2018)

Showcase view of Sample Book, (Soshoroom, 2018)

Exhibition view of Her, (Gallery Sangsangmadang, 2018)

Signal, acrylic on canvas, 162×112cm, 2016

Exhibition view of Spectrum Spectrum, (PLATEAU Samsung Museum of Art, 2014)

Education
2011 MFA, Visual Art, Korea National University of Arts
2009 BFA, Visual Art, Korea National University of Arts

Solo Exhibitions
2021 REPACKAGE, SeMA Storage, Seoul
2019 落日谷, Pier-2 Art Center, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2016 Lord of the bait, Gallery2, Seoul
2013 Lucid Dream, OCI Museum, Seoul
2012 Dark Fantasy, PS Sarubia, Seoul

Selected Group Exhibitions
2021 Sunset Valley Village, Art Sonje Center Project Space, Seoul
2019 SOSHO OPEN WEEK: ART TECH & MAKERS, SOSHO, Seoul
2018 TasteView, Tastehouse, Seoul
2018 Double Negative: From White Cube to Netflix, Arko Art Museum, Seoul
2018 Her, Gallery Sangsangmadang, Seoul
2017 Inner View, Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation, Suwon
2016 Richard's Collection of Joseon Art, Jemulpo Club, Incheon
2015 Amado Annualnale, Amado Art Space/Lap, Seoul
2014 Spectrum-Spectrum, PLATEAU Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul

Residencies
2023 Art Space Geumcheon, Seoul
2020 MMCA Residency, Goyang
2019 Pier-2 Art Center, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2013 Incheon Art Platform, Incheon
2011~2012 OCI Museum of Art residency, Incheon

Nominations & Awards
2021 Artist Support Program(Visual Arts), Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture
2020 SeMA emerging artists Supporting Program, Seoul Museum of Art
2013 Promising Artists Support Program 99℃, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture
2013 OCI Young Creatives, OCI Museum of Art

□ Stay in 2023
□ E-mail: art.mijung@gmail.com
□ URL: http://www.shinmijung.com/

Biography
The message that Shin Mi jung has relayed with her works are the people, who have lost their place of living via irresistible external forces, such as deportations, or expels, or refuge, as well as physical and psychological space which they haven’t restored yet. What she has captured in her video works are, the eyes of locals that consider migrants as ‘Others (Autre)’, and the memories of the migrants. Particularly, she has recorded life of individuals, forced to be forgotten or erased from the Modern History of Korea, as well as tried a potentiality of video works with open-ended interpretations.

Exhibition view of Signaling Perimeters, (Nam Seoul Museum, 2021)

Leaving hometown, Single channel video, sound, 13min 03sec, 2018 (Collection of Ulsan Museum of Art)

Bam Island, Single channel video, sound, 19min 41sec, 2020 (Collection of Seoul Museum of Art)

Bam Island: A Record of drifting Images, Single channel video, sound, 6min 35sec, 2020

Exhibition view of CityXIslandXArchive, (SeMA Bunker, 2021)

Exhibition view of CityXIslandXArchive, (SeMA Bunker, 2021)

Exhibition view of CityXIslandXArchive, (SeMA Bunker, 2021)

Education
2010–2012 National School of Art of Dijon
Obtaining of French National Superior Artistic Expression Diploma(DNSEP), France
2008–2010 Dijon national art school,
Obtaining of French National Art Diploma(DNAP) with Committee Praise, France
2002–2006 Chu-gye University for the Arts(CUFA), Korean painting, Bachelor's degree, South Korea

Solo Exhibitions
2021 CityXIslandXArchive, SeMA Bunker, Seoul 2018 <Leaving hometown>, MOHA Art Studio, Ulsan
2018 The Landscape of people who kept silence, Space 9, Seoul
2015 Colony/Memory, Mullae Art Factory, Seoul
2015 RE.CONSTRUCTION, Space1326, Chang won
2014 A Theft case at an Adandoned Factory, Mullae Art Factory, Seoul
2014 SELF DEFENSE, Mullae Factory, Seoul

Selected Group Exhibitions
2022 Exhibition Publication, Wess, Seoul
2022 éco (…..) éco (…..) éco (…….), Gallery Dohyang Lee, Paris
2022 Thinking island, Online Streaming, Mapo Foundation for Arts and Culture
2022 Micro Observer, Online Streaming
2022 Face_to_Face, Ulsan Art Museum, Ulsan
2022 Forms of that Night, Gallery meme, Seoul
2021 Signaling Perimeters, Nam Seoul Museum, Seoul
2021 Cities of Korea, Ottawa Korean Film Festival, Canada
2021 Tele-Type-Lighter, Space298, Pohang
2021 Ghost fishing, Daejeon Sejong Research institute(DSI), Daejeon
2021 Flickering Homes, Insaartspace, Seoul
2021 Two Sundays Two Mouths A House, Art space Bom, Suwon
2020 Soje, Remember the city, Narae Hall, Container Soje, Daejeon
2020 Quest for reality, Seoul International ALT Cinema & Media Festival, Aigong, Seoul
2020 Korean ALT Cinema&Media arts 2000-2020, Nemaf 2020, Wavve(Online Screening)
2020 A record of memory, Busan Metropolitan Library, Busan
2019 Great reign cometh after chaos, Nanji Art Show, SEMA Nanji Residency, Seoul
2019 Roam the Sanjicheon, Sanjicheon Gallery, Jeju Foundation for Art&Culture, Jeju Island
2019 Leaving hometown, Ulsan Museum, Ulsan
2018 Neo-Localism, Gyeongnam, Busan, Ulsan Art creative center integrate exhibition
2018 Anthropometry for Repetition and Failure, The 13th BIVAF, Busan
2017 The way of faith, Research Project, Artist Residency TEMI, Daejeon,
2016 Path of my life, Art Platform Gaetbae, MAP, Sokcho
2016 Mapo Story, Haenghwatang Project, KAWF, Seoul
2016 Love song, The year France-Korea, Gallery Ducie, Nante
2015 East and West, Art creative center integrate exhibition, Art District_p, Busan
2015 In the Ancient City, Exhibition marking the 5th Anniversary of ICC, Ik-san
2015 Responsive confession, Exhibition of ICC, Ik-san
2015 Move! Move! Move!Fastival BOM, Art space Gong, Seoul
2014 1st Exhibition of performance artists' drawings, Gallery 5Cijung, Seoul
2014 W-Foundation, Exhibition of young artists, Alver-square, Seoul
2014 Asia Art Festival, Community Space LITMUS, Seoul

Artist Talks & Interviews
2022 MMCA Residency Seminar 2022, Seoul
2022 Mapo Foundation for Arts and Culture, Special Lecture <Mapo Photography School>, Seoul
2021 UNIST <Artist Talk>, Online
2021 Mapo Foundation for Arts and Culture, Special Lecture <Memory X Imagination>, Seoul
2018 Ulsan Museum, Artist Talk (MC: Lee Ik-joo/University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne), Ulsan
2018 Space9 Artist Talk, Seoul
2016 The House Concert, Artist Talk, Seoul
2015 Culture M Magazine Interview, Seoul

Residencies
2023 Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, Seoul
2022 MMCA Residency Goyang, Goyang
2019 SEMA Nanji Residency, Seoul
2018 MOHA Art Studio, Ulsan
2015 Iksan Creative Center, Iksan

Nominations & Awards
2020 SeMA emerging artist 2020
2020 20th Nemaf 2020, New Alternative Movie
2019 Han Nefkens Foundation & Buk SeMA Korean Video Art Production Award, Final Nominee of 7
2018 Korea Communications Commission, Grand prize
2018 13th Busan International Video Art Festival(BIVAF), Competition Award
2017 Artist Residency TEMI, Daejeon Research Project Artist

Collections
2021 Collection of Ulsan Museum of Art
2021 Collection of Seoul Museum of Art
2020 Collection of Seoul Museum of Art
2019 Collection of Museum of Contemporary Art Busan

□ Stay in 2023
□ E-mail : miryuyoon@hotmail.com
□ SNS: @miryuyoon

Biography
Miryu Yoon (b.1991) focuses on the formal aesthetics and narratives in the interaction between humans and the space and environment of objects by visualizing their inherent and unique materiality. Yoon’s work is grounded in the sentiments evoked by close experience with ordinary objects. Yoon captures and creates the facets of diverse narratives that are revealed as they are centered around humans, and examines the way these facets can be arranged on canvas. Through this, Yoon attempts to metaphorically reveal personal and abstract sensations evoked by familiar objects.

Repeat the Spell, oil on canvas, 194×112cm (2ea), 2022

How Comfortable Are You With Silence?, oil on canvas, 100×73cm (2ea), 2022

Shapeless Like Water, oil on canvas, 130×80cm (2ea), 2022

I Don’t Know If It’s Just Me / Right Eye, oil on canvas, 32×32cm (2ea), 2022

Dripping Wet Ⅲ, oil on canvas, 194×130cm, 2021

Green Ray, oil on canvas, 145×97cm (2ea), 2021

It Forms, Flows, and Falls, oil on canvas, 53×180cm, 2021

Double Ripples, oil on canvas, 91×145cm, 2021

Education
2018 MFA in Painting, Seoul National University, Seoul
2016 BA in Art History and Theory, BFA in Painting, Hongik University, Seoul

Solo Exhibitions
2022 Double Weave, Cadalog, Seoul
2022 B Hyeong B Yeom Gwi Yeom, Sahng-up Gallery, Seoul
2021 Not Walking at a Consistent Pace, Plan C, Jeonju

Group Exhibitions
2022 Perigee Winter Show 2022, Perigee Gallery, Seoul
2022 MATCH BOX Edition 1. Duo X, Artplug Yeonsu, Incheon

2022 Jeonbuk Youth 2022, Jeonbuk Museum of Art, Wanju
2021 And Live, Seoul Art Space Mullae, Seoul
2022 Quantum Jump, Factory of Contemporary Arts in Palbok, Jeonju

Residencies
2023 Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, Seou
2022 Factory of Contemporary Arts in Palbok, Jeonju
2021 Artplug Yeonsu, Incheon

Nominations & Awards
2022 Project Grant, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Seoul
2022 Project Grant, Arts Council Korea, Seoul
2022 Jeonbuk Youth 2022 – Selected Artists,, Jeonbuk Museum of Art, Wanju,
2021 Epop Friends Artist Awards, Jeonju Cultural Foundation, Jeonju
2021 Project Grant, Jeonbuk Culture & Tourism Foundation, Jeonbuk
2018 Research Grant, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Seoul

□ Stay in 2023
□ E-mail: heemin.chung@gmail.com
□ URL: http://heeminchung.com/

Biography
Heemin Chung investigates the material potential of digital images by translating them into the mediums of painting and sculpture. Her work interrogates how technology has shaped contemporary approaches to art and its role in society. She reimagines art historical genres, including the landscape and still life, through poetic visual metaphor, engaging with experimental techniques to explore the function of texture and volume in her work. Born in Korea, Heemin Chung lives and works in Seoul.

When Our Palmline Meets,

oil, acrylic, inkjet transferred gel medium, stainless chain on canvas, 260x194cm, 2021

Installation view of Busan Biennale 2022, mixed media, dimensions variable, 2022

Siren-Anemone and Her Reflected Self 3,

acrylic, gel medium and UV print on canvas, 100x80cm, 2022

Installation view of V8 (N/A, 2022)

Being Hued 2, oil, acrylic, gel medium, UV print, stainless studs on canvas_dimensions variable, 2022

Distant Calling, oil, acrylic, inkjet transferred gel medium on canvas, 223x190cm, 2022

Installation view of Myths of Our Time (Thaddaeus Ropac, 2022)

Veiled Bride, acrylic, inkjet transferred gel medium, PLA print on canvas, 117x91cm, 2022

Education
2015 MFA, Fine Art, Korea National University of Arts (Seoul, Korea)
2012 BFA, Department of Painting, Hongik University (Seoul, Korea)

Solo Exhibitions
2022 How Do We Get Lost in the Forest, P21, Seoul, Korea
2021 Soulites, Museumhead, Seoul, Korea
2020 If We Ever Meet Again, 021 Gallery, Daegu, Korea
2019 An Angel Whispers, P21, Seoul, Korea
2018 UTC-7:00 JUN 3PM, On the Table, Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2016 Yesterday&s Blues, Project Space SARUBIA, Seoul, Korea

Group Exhibitions
2022 Myths of Our Time, Thaddaeus Ropac, Seoul, Korea
2022 10th Busan Biennale: We, On the Rising Wave, Busan, Korea
2022 V8, Cylinder & N/A, Seoul, Korea
2022 Your Present, Pace Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2021 Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Nam-Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2021 Folding City, Eulji Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2020 Catastrophic Sensation, Soorim Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2020 Painting, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan, Korea
2020 Light and Crystalline, ONE AND J. Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2019 The Best World Possible, Platform-L Contemporary Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2019 Psychedelic Nature, Artspace Boan, Seoul, Korea
2019 Korean Young Artists 2019: Liquid Glass Sea, MMCA Gwacheon, Gwacheon, Korea
2019 Tarte, Audio Visual Pavillion, Seoul, Korea
2018 Allover, HITE Collection, Seoul, Korea
2018 EVE, Samyuk Building, Seoul, Korea
2018 Gray Navy Black, Korean Cultural Center Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
2017 Snowscreen, Archive Bomm, Seoul, Korea

Residencies
2022 SeMA Nanji Residency, Seoul, Korea
2020 MMCA Goyang Residency, Goyang, Korea
2019 Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, Korea
2018 K’arts Studio, Seoul, Korea

Awards & Nominations
2022 13th Doosan Artist Award, Doosan Yonkang Foundation, Seoul, Korea
2020 9th Sindoh Artist Support Program, Gaheon Sindoh Foundation, Seoul, Korea

□ Stay in 2023
□ E-mail: hackkimhack@gmail.com
□ SNS: @kimberlyleee_

Biography
Lee Eun-sol creates a virtual character named Kimberly Lee who lives on a digital network, spending her time maintaining and repairing it. Lee Eun-sol contributes to Kimberly's survival in the network by exploring the value of digital objects within the digital value system, while planning and executing tasks on various computing platforms in subsequent residences and living environments. The name Kimberly Lee comes from her experience of not noticing that someone hacked Lee Eun-sol's Instagram in 2017, and changed her name to Kimberly. This signified an intervention in EunSol’s life which highlighted the structural framework of our virtual identities, as the maintainers of such accounts stay busy managing their own image as an avatar, much in the way EunSol manages the life of an avatar itself.

Wait for the Trust Together, single channel video, 11’4“, 2023, MoCA commissioned

(Sound_Dongyong Kim/ Translate_ Hyejin Ryu/ Proofreading_ Sunho Lee/ KIMMY Token Mitting_ Kimberlyz)

https://youtu.be/8FVLT2hGErQ

Wait for the Trust, single channel video, 6’12“, 2022, MoCA commissioned

(VFX_ Jamyu/ IIlustration_ Ryujub/ Sound ‘Optimist’_ Dongyong Kim/ Translate_ Hyejin Ryu/ Proofreading_ Michelle Vu/ Interview_ Daehyun Paik, Hyok Choi, Ryu.Free)

https://youtu.be/yT24sfFMX_g

Midnight Sun Daze, single channel video, 8’31“, 2022, LG Display OLED ART WAVE commissioned

(Graphic Design: Seunghyun Lee(y!)/ Sound: Dongyong Kim/ Aurora Sous Vide Machine: Kwangjin Electronics/ Translation: Dayun Ryu/ Vocal: Kontrajelly Yujeong Shin)

https://youtu.be/TENmrcM4mVc

Kimberly & Friends, single channel video, 9’30“, 2022, SeMA commissioned

(Song by Aggie Nam/ Logo monogram & Type design by Seunghyun Lee)

https://youtu.be/t4oF3RkiqAk

Gather cephalopod friends, VRChat performance, miner’s gems, 2021

(Performer_ Dongyong Kim x Skov)

https://youtu.be/y_gCNTsUT1I

Moon falls, single channel video, 6’, 2021, Typojanchi commissioned

(Sound by Ashley J. Quick 'Water fall'/ Logo monogram & Type design by Quicknap.zzz (Daehun Lee))

https://youtu.be/2sk6-f6alhs

Firefly, single channel video, 8’30“, 2021

(Sound by Ashley J. Quick (minence Grise, Acid Weather Report)/ Producing by Kim Dong Young

https://youtu.be/Dsb0PJslz3k

Popcorn Prophet_trailer, single channel video, 4’30“, 2020 (Sound byAshley.j.Quick)

https://youtu.be/q5uG68zmKM4

Education
M.A. Fine Art, Korea National University of Arts, Seoul, Korea
B.F.A. Video Art, Korea National University of Arts, Seoul, Korea

Solo Exhibitions
2021 Kimberly the Optimist, SPACE FOUR ONE THREE, Seoul
2021 Kimberly Extract, SeMA STORAGE, Seoul

Group Exhibitions
2022-2023 Post Modern Child, MCAB, Busan
2022 OLED ART WAVE: NEVER ALONE, Scene, Seoul
2022 Grid Island, Kimberly & Friends, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
2022 The Taming of The Shrew, Museum Head, Seoul
2021 The Pupil of Nathanael, White Noise, Seoul
2021 TYPOJANCHI 2021: A TURTLE AND A CRANE, Moon Tan Shop, Culture Station Seoul 284, Seoul
2020 Solicarity Spores, ACC (Asia Culture Center), Gwangju

Screenings
2022 𝕮𝖔𝖒𝖕𝖆𝖓𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖎𝖓𝖒𝖎𝖘𝖋𝖔𝖗𝖙𝖚𝖓𝖊𝖘, <Firefly>, de:Formal and LA Artcore

Online Exhibitions
2021, 2022 LIMITROPHY @ TheSpace.Gallery, Firefly, Moonfalls
www.foreignobjekt.com

Residencies
2023 Seoul Art Space Geumcheon
2022 SeMA NANJI Residency
2021 GSR (Game-Sandbox-Residency)

Awards & Nominations
2021 SeMA Emerging Artists & Curators 2022
2021 SFAC arts support program A track

Routes Guided via Constructed Interfaces

KIM Sung woo

Daum Kim's work is the constructed domain based on interfaces. An interface refers to a physical and virtual medium designed to enable interaction and communication between objects or between objects and humans at the boundaries between dissimilar sorts. In other words, the concept of the connection environment seems appropriate to explain his work. This is because the artist's work captures the pattern of life or the state of society created on top of diverse social networks in the form of art by constructing an interface that crosses boundaries or intersects separated relationships. He observes a variety of structures and systems from the physical space that he encounters around him to the online environment and their operation principles and adds another narrative to them. It crosses the private and public domains and evokes social, cultural, political, and historical contexts at the macroscopic level based on memories or experiences at the microscopic level. Daum Kim's interface, which is extremely private and expands into a universal context at the same time, establishes some sort of events or a situations in the gap of space and becomes visible as a place.

The sense of penetrating the interface presented by the artist is generally linear and is not an easily readable narrative. He sometimes deviates from explicit narrative threads through ambiguous intent or fragmented text and draws the audience to an inconclusive destination. He also induces a certain tension through a series of sliding images that abscond from the smooth progression of the video. In addition, the sound, which generates a unique sense of presence, is in discord with the situation or image that the audience encounters. Moreover, it even aggressively demands emotional intervention from its spectators. Utilizing reproduced and constructed spaces at the macroscopic level in this manner, the flip side of formally imaged phenomena, and our interest in the realm of life that we live in, Daum Kim's work encourages us to adapt and experience through abstract senses of daily life that are often scattered rather than through clear narratives.

Liminal,

multi-channel video and sound installation

(monitor, media player, fluorescent light, speakers, woofer),

dimensions variable (video duration: 14min 51sec),

2022

Specific spaces and contexts are important backgrounds for his work because he focuses on the environment created based on networks where individuals and societies and micros and macros come in contact. In other words, in order to depict a specific environment consisting of a network of relationships, it requires a specific body of densely intertwined individuals and societies and micros and macros that constitute it, such as a space or a situation as a phenomenon. Furthermore, Kim renews the concept of a place by granting a sort of narrative on top of a space and a system that operate under such particular rules and conditions. According to Yi-Fu Tuan, space and place are similar words but have different meanings. A space has more abstract characteristics than a place. A place begins as an unspecified space, but the space turns into a place with identity when meanings and values are applied. In this aspect, Kim treats everyday space as potentialities that he can apply interfaces that he constructs. He transforms them into a place where narratives and senses that have acquired reality come to life and creates a sense of emotion. As such, he extracts narratives floating in some kind of space or environment and adds new sensory elements, like images and sounds, and turns them into events so that we can newly experience the time and space here, where we are standing now.

The artist summons the exhibition (venue) as the interface in his early work Mutually Mediated (2013). Precisely, some sort of virtual space reconstructed using computer graphics covered in dry and cold skin without any human body heat coincides with the narrative commencing the exhibition and presumes the environment as an exhibition hall. First of all, the viewpoint in the video penetrates and enters the digital display and swims in the space at a slow speed. Also, narratives that recite the hierarchy of communication and creative possibilities inherent in the form of viewing are added. Then, a character encountered on social media is incorporated as a part of the narrative to discuss the possibility/impossibility of communication. The clamorous conversation noise of people that can be heard intermittently and the lethargic background sounds push you to be immersed deeper in the imaginary situation guided by the narrative in the expressionless digital space. Ultimately, narratives that end in the inability to fully understand each other's intentions are embroidered on the transparent background of infinite and vastly open graphic tools, creating interesting paradoxes in themselves. An exhibition hall filled with floating words and writing, in other words, the artist acknowledges the intentions that cannot be fully matched under the horizon of the senses and the exteriors of words and writings presented by the exhibition experience. At the same time, because adequate communication is impossible, he leads to a narrative of division and expansion in the sense of making it possible.

Walking Lullaby,

powder coat on bent steel, 5 channel speakers, artificial fur,

200x130x140(h)cm,

2021

The artist discusses the possibility/impossibility of each individual's full access and communication across virtual space, physical environment, and exhibition venues. Then, he continues to explore the boundaries of psychological alienation and isolation experienced by individuals on a more social level. To this end, the artist introduces the concept of ‘maengji’, which means landlocked property in Korean and can be literally translated into ‘blind land’. Landlocked property/blind land refers to land without a passage from the perspective of real estate and refers to a space surrounded by other lots that cannot be accessed by physical routes like roads. The artist extends this blind land through the concept of interfaces and explores the boundaries that arise within contemporary social and cultural contexts. First of all, in his work Blind Land (2016), which is named the same as the concept he utilized, the artist features three speakers who live in places with similar yet different historical and social backgrounds, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. They are those who bring others into their space, leave a specific space, or further face the space left behind. Through the narration, those who share their feelings about the space evoke the emotion of psychological density and depth inherent in the physical space that crosses the occupation and ownership of space and the psychological conflict that occurs there, the boundary between private and public spaces, and the narrative of memory. Furthermore, the three characters in the story have sentiments of personal experiences that filled up those spaces, relationships with others, and loss and memories. The story induces an emotional emptiness implied by a letter that does not reach its recipient and is not replied to, which ends by asking “How is it there?”However, sometimes the artist is determined to be the destination for connection himself as if he is actively trying to overcome the psychological boundaries that he faces and the emptiness that stems from them. For instance, in 24/7 Ambient Radio – Music To Space Out (2020), he eagerly attempts to penetrate other people's time and space utilizing an online platform. For the project, Daum Kim temporarily created a live radio station on YouTube and shared music from his computer in real-time. The establishment of the online network allows the audience to access through digital displays in two-dimensional planes from their respective time and place, beyond the boundaries of physical contact. Moreover, the continuously played sound spreads from the artist's space to the space of others, promoting a sense of commonality. The interface is no longer a gap that cannot be filled but extends to the sentiment of solidarity stemming from hospitality.

On the other hand, the construction of the artist's interface encompasses the macroscopic context and is also visualized in a way that generates emotion. For example, in Three Suns (2018), which is based on a specific place, Daum Kim deals with today's conflict over the historical meaning of Gwangju against the backdrop of the architectural structure and purpose of the Asia Plaza, the wide open space in front of the Asia Culture Center (ACC) in Gwangju. Unlike the public building style that can generally be seen, the structure of the ACC is dug down from the ground level and the Asia Plaza located in the middle has the character of an open public area like a yard. The artist focuses on the nature of the space, thus its openness. He understands it as a structure that cannot easily accumulate common memories or experiences because of the constantly intersecting movements of people entering the area and also due to the views colliding from various heights. Furthermore, he introduces the Asia Plaza as a place without location-specific properties and provides an experience that overwhelms space through his luminous sound video work splitting from two colors, red and blue to white and black. The endlessly bifurcating video limited to the two-color axes recalls a dichotomous way of thinking and logic and he makes you sense the history of past conflicts, today's repeated divisions, and the signs of events that have been forgotten once again or have not yet occurred beforehand.

Blind land,

4 channel video, 8 channel sound,

dimensions variable (video duration: 9min.)

As such, based on his interest in the interface of relationships, Daum Kim's work raises questions about the conventional relationship style on top of the designed and reproduced spaces at the macro level, and he guides us to some kind of narratives that is embedded deep inside under the epidermis. This begins with the exploration of the psychological blocking experienced by individuals under today's social and cultural backdrops, questions about the space that derives from them, and the creation of places to overcome them. The artist's work built on top of the sense of absence and loss produced by the superficial relationship in today's society encompasses one side of the aspects and reality of the relationship between individuals and extends to the construction of an interface for a pathway to imagining the possibility of a new contact. Thus, his work creates a sort of a place in an everyday space by intersecting micros and macros and penetrating the sense of absence and generation. The interface of the connection created by Daum Kim brings space to life as a place by imagining events that occur when individuals meet each other while evoking another reality through the nonlinear crossing of the past and present. Furthermore, it leads to a kind of future where imagination and reality are blended. This can also be said to be an access route through which multiple meanings can occur, breaking away from existing narratives, meanings, or images. Through this path, we can dream of escaping from the space and system of reality, break down the boundaries between ourselves and others to enable new connections, reverse the existing context, and face aspects of the relationship we have formed in a new way.

KIM Sung woo (curator)

KIM Sung woo is a curator and writer. He is interested in curatorial methodologies to produce/ pose questions based on time and space, and is considering how to achieve subjectivities of individuals in the form of exhibition. KIM directed the curatorial project/ exhibition and management of Amado Art Space, not-for-profit alternative space in Seoul (2015-2019). He was also appointed as a curatorial advisor for the Busan Biennale 2020, SongEun Art Space (2019), and was a curator for the 12th Gwangju Biennale (2018). He currently established a non-profit curatorial space ‘Primary Practice’, and at a same time, active as a member of curatorial collective ‘WESS’.

In between Swimming and Paddling

Mijung Kim

As an artist, Doyoung Kim works with various categories, such as project planning and space management. There is something in common with what he does because he finds points of heterogeneous collision within the world surrounding him and finds ways to reveal them by tackling them with his entire body. When he said that he considered a turning point in his work as an artist, I wanted to hear more about the multi-layered narratives accumulated in his work rather than writing something that defines or organizes his works. This interview is a compressed record of the artist's plans as he prepares to experiment and expand the subjects and methods of his work and observations on the issues that he is faced with.

Swimming,

Video 6min, HD, Color, Sound, Subtitle(FR, ENG, KR),

2021

Looking back on your activities so far, such as planning and projects, it seems that you put significance on continuously working together. What do you think is the reason or motivation behind repeatedly taking on community-based artistic activities and forms?
I once lived in a flophouse area. While working on the flophouse-related piece and listening to the stories of those living there, I thought becoming their neighbor and living with them and capturing it as a video, rather than a formative creation, would be the right thing to do. Such a method is similar to my work in action. I think an artist must raise awareness by continuously exposing stories that others might ignore. Of course, there is indeed a limitation to the art as a tool, and still, onsite experiences are important for me. This is because I am always concerned about the subjective interpretation of other people's narratives. So whenever there is a community or topic that needs work-related research, I always go there in person and listen to their stories.

Then, in connection to this, let us talk about your recent solo exhibition, Pray for a Good X (2022). On the surface, the exhibition seems to refer to an environmental crisis centered on water, but in reality, it was intended to emphasize that there are neglected individuals in the middle of crises, which you have been consistently stressing. However, it is regrettable that the multilateral tiers were not revealed much in terms of formality. I am curious about your explanation of the exhibition and your assessment.
I have been working on water-related pieces and Pray for a Good X is a story about the people who are suffering in the era of capitalism, industrialization, and environmental pollution. The exhibition focused on water pollution. There was a time when the water supplied to the studio was not drinkable and could not even be used for brushing teeth. I was not the only person using this water. The people living in the area and migrant workers also used the water. I am well aware of how poor their environment is. That is why, I added mouthwash to one of the exhibited pieces, Objects, Dead Waters, to display my hope for purifying the contaminated water at the time which was not even suitable for brushing teeth with. The exhibition was prepared based on the data that were mainly researched and collected from polluted rivers, water sources, valleys, lakes, and seas for a year. Power units that are affected by temperature and humidity were placed in a metal tank for Hole: Leftover, and the piece was about global temperature, polluted water, and daily life affected by them. Although the theme of the exhibition was about the environment, I have been continuously working on water-related pieces so they were connected, and at the same time, I wanted to make people aware of those who have no choice but to live in such an environment. So, the theme was not actually about environmental issues. It was rather closer to wanting to talk about the people who were actually affected by them.

Hole: Leftover,

Mixed Installation,

Water and collected object operation in a steel circular tank. Steel Circular tank, Temperature and humidity sensor, electric motor, Gathering, Object, Water (2200t), Software: This Artwork controlled by Aduino control system and controls the operation of electric motor with temperature and humidity sensor,

1600x1600x1800mm,

2022

Swimming (2021), which is known as a turning point in your work, unfolds somewhat differently from your previous video works. Water Reverberation (2021) and Thirsty Land II (2021) present images and narratives in succession, centered on the questions in text format. You never learned how to swim, however, you repeatedly paddle away in the water and return to the shore in Swimming. As the will to cross certain boundaries and the difficulties intersect, you examine how the points you are currently contemplating about as an artist are linked to your body swimming. Meanwhile, the juxtaposed scene of refugees traveling to and from the strait at the beginning of the video seems to need an explanation. How can the refugees swimming or paddling be linked to your swimming?
The water that I look into is a mirror that projects the world and a space that metaphors human society. I cannot swim. Then, I thought about why I did not learn how to swim. Due to various personal situations that I had endured, this question became “Why did I not put in the effort?” In the past few years, I have been in many activities closer to social movements than work, and it was disappointing and felt flustered because they were not proceeding into my work. I thought maybe I was contented with the situation I was in, and as the number of showcasing new pieces and participating in exhibitions decreased, I told myself not to be lost in thoughts and to do something, so I started working on Swimming. However, when I went to Haeundae and swam the fear I felt was overwhelming. Still, when I actually did it, it was really refreshing. I realized that it was very important to unfold my story as a piece of work. Since this is not something that is only applicable to me, I want to share the stories of diverse characters. Regarding the refugees you asked about, I wanted to encompass commonality at the point of action rather than incidents. I wanted to talk about these acts of survival, such as flapping arms and kicking legs, as all the people in the modern world and as our common perspective instead of as an individual's narrative. The juxtaposed scenes should be seen as a kind of caption displayed as images. It would be better if you could sense it as modern people rather than as a person or an incident. As you have mentioned, it is a story about today's lives with repeated attempts to cross certain boundaries and frustrations. Just as I cannot survive without struggling in a human society, which is like the ocean, I think it would be the same for them as well. I want to look into their survival and their act of emitting signals.

Untitled (Series 'The House of Colonial Period'),

Mixed Installation/Polytunnel (Wood, Plastic Wrap), Video 12'00"

(1) 02'15" (2) Sound 02'30", Sound and Vibration Dynamic multi-system, Archive Photography,

2020

At this year's open studio, the materials related to refugees stood out. I wondered how your interest in displaced beings, including refugees, would be reflected in your future work. I heard that you are going to Spain soon, so I would like to hear what kind of plans you have for the future as an artist.
I plan on meeting various people in the process of traveling along the route of refugees entering Europe from Africa. I am also going to visit Southern Morocco on the route of African refugees entering the Canary Islands, which is believed today to be where the ancient city of Atlanta was, and the point leading to Western Sahara. I think I will encounter people and legends in places that are connected to our modern-day lives and discover stories of people in person. I plan to work for two to three months in Spain and Africa traveling back and forth, and I think I am going to compile my stories for a solo exhibition in a year or two. I want to focus only on this swimming project this year, but I wonder if it will turn out well.

Mijung Kim (Arko Art Center curator)
She majored in painting and arts. Her curated projects include mis–play (co-curated, Insa Art Space, 2014) and Today, Nobody Was There (Art Space Pool, 2018) and MEDIA PUNK: Belief, Hope & Love (2019), Hong Lee, Hyun-sook Solo Exhibition: Swoosh, Tsu-pu! (2021), and To You: Move Toward Where You Are (2022) at Arko Art Center and the Monthly IAS (2022) series at the Insa Art Space. She was selected as the curator of the 2017 Arts Council Korea's creative academy and took part in the Collective Z-A, discussions on sustainability, with artists Woojin Kim and Bo-kyung Jun from 2018 to 2019. She also joined the MMCA Residency Changdong in the second half of 2018 as a project team. She is interested in works and exhibitions that contain scenes of slipping and crashing languages that are widely accepted in social structures and institutions.

The Neverending Story

Jihan Jang

An exhibition is a place where works with autonomous senses are displayed, but it is also a space where events of creation, extinction, or construction and dismantlement take place. Perhaps this is largely the perspective of artists. For the artist ahead of an exhibition, this venue is also a place of internal challenge to go towards the opposite side of the familiar senses, but at the same time, it is also a physical arena that needs to be filled with something. Changing the quality of space is an obligation included in the contract that an artist signs with someone. For the implementation of the contract, the space must be filled and pieces need to be produced. The labor required for the production of sensory things, whether it is a matter or non-material, is actually impossible to calculate. However, there is a practice of writing contracts, and there are side agreements that are not specified in the contract. The venue must be emptied at the end of an exhibition for other works. Works must be produced, but they are stored somewhere at the same time. In most cases, the fate of the pieces after the exhibition is not included in the contract. Of course, the fate of contemporary artworks ends up in destinations unexpected in the past centuries. In our era, they become data through smartphones and are stored in the cloud. What if the journey's end of artworks after exhibitions is not storage where they are stacked against each other, but an archive of vast images of viewers' bodies and private memories intertwined with them? Should we say that they gained eternal life or disappeared into the deep darkness that will never see the light again?

Untitled (yesterday tomorrow),

animation, 1 min (loop),

2022

Artist Siwon Kim defines these overall prerequisites that support the exhibition as conditions or situations. In fact, in most cases, the physical conditions of exhibition lose their priorities against autonomous senses and are often hidden behind perceptions. The moment when Kim says conditions or situations, he is revealing the various aspects of contracts that are understood but could be pretended to be unknown, through critical consciousness. In other words, he can no longer concentrate only on creating an autonomous sense in space. If the perception of the condition or situation surrounding exhibitions precedes the reproduction by playing with matters or images, he must start working elsewhere.

This does not mean that the artist completely rejects the situation given to him and is immersed in uncovering the truth of the situation. In other words, his critical consciousness surrounding the dynamics of exhibitions does not criticize the system. The conditions of exhibitions cannot be accepted nonchalantly, but they are not subject to criticism and dissolution. In the process of accepting the conditions, Kim intends to establish his own unique place of creation. The condition of the exhibition, which must be denied by the artist, paradoxically seems to be another condition of creation itself.

Untitled (yesterday tomorrow),

performance, video, 1 min (loop),

2022

Regarding the 2008 exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), the artist wrote, "After a long contemplation, I decided to participate.” His hesitation was due to poor support and insufficient time. The museum only provided partition walls, pedestals, lighting, painting, and transportation, and he had a little over two months of time. The condition given to the artist was for autonomous pieces, but he accepted the arrangement for other “works.” For the installation Untitled (Sleeping Time Box), the artist recorded and arranged the sleep time for 34 days from the day he decided to work on the project to the day before the transportation of his pieces. Recording and organizing are more of an act that stands on the opposite side of the autonomous senses, that is, “works” faithful to the schedule rather than an amusement that crosses boundaries. Also, the time of the night he recorded is not darkness and silence for the depth of creation, but nights for resting opposite to the days for working. Like this, the act of replacing creation and autonomy with daily life and rules would be a denial of the conditions given to the artist. He writes about this negative space in the form of instruction and writes the promise that he wants to keep on paper, instead of the contract usually agreed upon between the artist and the institution.

However, the denial of a given condition paradoxically becomes the prerequisite for the forms that fill the exhibition space to be created. Kim wants to transfer the record of sleep time to a three-dimensional space. In this process, following the instructions written by the artist himself is a denial of the condition as it is. Performing the directive does not just end as a work of recording and organizing, but the record is transformed into preconditions for the form of squares through mathematical calculations. The series of events of recording, organizing, calculating, and producing move toward the opposite direction of the incident that the given condition expects. The contract conditions of providing pedestals and transportation of works are not simply preparing a place for an autonomous piece and transporting it. It only leaves the white boxes produced as a result of the calculation in place.

Untitled,

3 channel video, 24 hours,

2022

Nevertheless, we cannot say that Untitled (Sleeping Time Box) is the practice of idleness. We encounter his works, such as Kim actually rows but a boat hovers in the same spot ((Untitled (Explorer)), the practice of continued act of crumpling the same sheets of paper once a day for a year (Untitled (One Day One Year Lifetime)), and the walking without quitting that has the purpose in walking itself ((Untitled (Walking)). However, from his purposelessness and his space of recording and organizing against aesthetics, we witness the time of existence at the same time. Of course, the white boxes freely placed in his Untitled (Sleeping Time Box) might be pedestals without a sculpture or a special object as Donald Judd defines. Considering that the viewers could freely walk around the boxes, touch them, and sit on them to rest as intended by Kim, it is also a space of relationship. However, the denial of this condition, which leads to the production of phenomenological experiences and relationships, is also an existential diagram materialized in the space that can be seen from a distance. The different heights of the boxes provide a place of experience for the visitors, but they are also a record of sleeplessness for the artist. He overlapped his existence in the space of idleness, in which the positions of aesthetics are deleted through the denial of conditions. He also brings in 34 days of time into the presence that physically invites spectators in. The surface of each box is a comfortable space for relaxation, but the collection of the boxes is a record of anxious nights. Through the denial of the conditions, Kim tried to reveal the traces of time that bind his spirit and the condition itself that regulates the body, not the irrationality and dynamics of power in the contract. He wrote about this work as "paying back through the exhibition,” returning his concerns. Of course, rather than a meticulous strategy, it should be said that his body is finally lifted without himself knowing it in the practice of idleness. This return of favors is going to be repeated indefinitely. This is not because the artist's instructions are a score that can be played indefinitely. This is because other conditions and situations will continue to bring him back to his original place.

Jihan Jang (Critic)
He graduated from the Department of Art Theory at the Korea National University of Arts and a doctoral candidate in art history at The State University of New York at Binghamton. He is the author of That There Then: Kim Beom and Chung Seoyoung’s Writing and Drawing.

Unable to Succeed and be Sufficient

Hyukgue Kwon

You will encounter a multi-colored spectrum that delicately oscillates within a canvas, an image that seems to be flowing along the surface of air or liquid. When a viewer's shadow overcasts over the surface of the painting that does not indicate a specific figure, the image flutters with the shadow. As the observer converges one's gaze and concentration into the canvas, he/she may feel an unspecific emotional level, temperature, and touch, or the magnetic field of the view may leave behind remnants of some sort.

The motive for Keem Jiyoung's recent work, Glowing Hour, is found in a specific target called candles. However, the series of works does not reproduce the object. They are on the same line as Blue Series (2018), which specifically revealed sinking ships or collapsing cement buildings and such, and the candle sculpture of praying hands displaying a charred black wick, Look at This Unbearable Darkness (2019) but are presented in a different form. Their appearances are also distinguishable from Sleep (2015), which attempted to recreate the motif of death and sacrifice by overlapping it with a sleeping face. Glowing Hour does not depend on the imitative depiction of the object. These paintings do not show what is commonly referred to as conceptual or concrete figures. However, they manifest the image of fire, a mere lambent of a certain state. Just as the cropped and enlarged image of an object becomes distant and abstracted from its origin, the painting in front of you appears as a visual image that eliminates the explanatory elements of the object called a candle.

Installation view of Scattering Breath, P21, 2022

However, Keem's works are often described as the logic of reproduction. The reason may be that her works have been continuously recalling the incident of April 16, 2014, and in the case of Glowing Hour, it might be because they are visualization of the object, candlelight. For the same reason, it is said that Keem's pieces recreate something in an allusive and indirect way. Is reproduction an actual method utilized for the Glowing Hour series? These paintings simply display large red-colored surfaces, right? What do we see from them? They continually evoke tragedy and disaster, but they never directly present tragic and disastrous scenes. Maybe we need to accept the fact that these ambiguous and blurred beautiful paintings would never take a form of recreation.

Peter Osborne reexamines the critical discussions that stirred over Gerhard Richter's abstract and aesthetic paintings introduced in the late 80s in his writing titled Abstract Images: Sign, Image, and Aesthetic in Gerhard Richter's Painting (1998). He explains that in Richter's photo paintings, photographic characteristics function as an index rather than the figurative likeness of a certain object. Furthermore, he said that the decision of smearing the image using a squeegee is the result of taking only the directive function without any iconic similarity. In other words, he is saying that they are not abstract images with iconic resemblances and that they are simply generating symbols, meanings, and observations through directives. Perhaps Keem's paintings found themselves in a predicament that was not much different from what Richter's abstract paintings had to deal with in the 1980s. The point is that even the remembrance of April 16, 2014, incident is considered abstract and overly aesthetic which can be seen as formalism. However, Keem's recent pieces act as directive symbols that evoke meanings even though they do not appeal to specific iconic resemblances, despite being aesthetic and abstract. They are activated while overcoming the media conditions of the time, including photos and videos, without prompting metaphors and symbols.

Glowing Hour,

oil on canvas, 405×194cm,

2022

On this premise, the relationship between the artist's past works and the series of Glowing Hour can be examined. Based on her past works, including the reproduction of visible objects, and the reproducible functions of contemporary media, photos, videos, and text that were part of the past works, we can infer whether the recent pieces are seeking to represent something other than an iconic resemblance. For example, we see Paengmok Harbor in her video work Glow Breath Warmth (2020). Since 2014, Paengmok Harbor and the nearby sea have had a special meaning for the temporary community that can be referred to as us. It embraces the unclarified tragedy, Sewol Ferry victims, inadequately concluded condolences, and those who paid their condolences, and it ceaselessly calls for an ethical responsibility to remember a certain issue. The indicative state of the video is clearly quite influential in viewing her paintings. Nevertheless, to be exact, the abstract paintings are drifting away from the actual tragic scene. Thus, the gap between the video and the paintings, between the indicative symbols and the physical traces, and between the expanding meanings and the meaninglessness can be confirmed. Such opaque images continue to create cruxes between symbols, meanings, and the possibility and impossibility of reproduction. The images of the color surface, which their meanings cannot be hastily anchored and only unknown and heavy emotions are presumed, are continuously pushing us to verify something.

The series of Glowing Hour, which would be better to be said abstract, nevertheless engages in the tragedy of that day, forming candles and several semantic networks surrounding them. To be exact, Keem's paintings are attempted in the position of those bereaved of the victims, in other words, those grieving. Therefore, the artist does not choose to reproduce the tragic disaster, but the method of mourning is embodied while the indicative state is planted inside the images. The abstract paintings in which nothing is apparent are related to mourning, although they could be understood as evoking candles or the sea where the tragedy transpired.

Installation view of Scattering Breath, P21, 2022

Judith Butler wrote, “I am not sure I know when mourning is successful, or when one has fully mourned another human being.” (Butler, J. [2006]. Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. [p.20]. Verso.) This sentence does not mean that we should continue our condolences forever, or that we should abandon the enigma in an enigmatic state eternally. Instead, we need to sincerely advocate to face the state of mysteriousness itself, which can never be successful unless we busily promise to do so. Keem's paintings might be taking part in this baffling state of grief and bereavement. The images that the artist is presenting are standing where those bereaved and those mourning are, those who can grasp the desperate efforts and pain of the victims only in their own grief. The artist understands the sorrow that captivates and dominates us and the opacity of unfinished condolences as a property of an image.

As an audience, all we see are abstract paintings as simple facts, and traces of brushwork that follow color and light. As such, the series Glowing Hour does not easily allow the visible image to instantly adhere to a specific meaning. I hesitate to explain the artist's recent pieces in any other connotation that candles symbolically embrace or refract. The brush strokes as traces of some sort of a mind, time, and action are significant enough without specific declarations and instructions of figures. Keem's paintings leave an opacity as a purely visual state through aesthetic convention. In other words, the emerging method of an image in a painting is to make the impossibility of internal clarification a kind of essential condition. Keem Jiyoung's works embrace the inexplicable sorrow brought by the loss and embody the situation that is incomprehensible as how it is. By doing so, they compel the tragedy to not become something that could be simply remembered or disregarded. The abstraction and opacity of the paintings/images make us face mourning, which Butler says cannot be successful or be fulfilled, as something internal and present. As such, her works tell us not to be swept away by the unclarified ambiguous facts and sentimental metaphors but to face the loss that is already originated in the paintings or us. Maybe we can compare all these processes to the procedure of grieving that encounters unfathomable loss. The mourning attempted here is to repeatedly confirm the fact that not only some entity's life has come to an end but also that the world and others are gone (those out there are already within me).

Hyukgue Kwon (Curator)

He mostly curates exhibitions and writes. As the chief curator of Museumhead, he has curated exhibitions including NAME (2020) and Injury Time (2021). He participated in various programs, such as SeMA Nanji Residency (2019), the International Studio & Curatorial Program (2016), the Cultural Affairs Committee, Denmark Curator Research (2015), and the Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course (2014).

(Overwhelmingly) Swollen Lo-fi Desire (too early) to be Dead: between raw objects and relief

Sungah Choo

Online streamer Cherry Jang, presidentDae Wang Lee,and Natasha, who has been handy for their businesses with her multifaceted talents, can be considered the three key figures of Sungsil Ryu's world. After Ryu intentionally killed Ms. Jang, whose business was flourishing and was highly regarded by a bunch of unspecific individuals, she carried out a live performance of Cherry's funeral (Goodbye Cherry Jang, 2020). However, she revived Cherry's act by having her enjoy greater glory in heaven and explicitly reveal her status. In addition, an ancestor's elevator pitch, which preaches that the ancestor is looking after his descendants and that they need to honor other ancestors with similar appearances as himself, highlights unceased endeavors of deceased individuals toward the next generations through the unique frivolous and resilient Confucian culture (Mr. Behind, 2022). In her recent piece on a companion dog's funeral, Ryu summons the subject of death once again against the backdrop of Dae Wang Lee and his entourage's growing ambition through the successful red ocean strategy of Lee's new business, Big King Pet Funeral Services. As such, the basic targets of the business operated by the main characters with secular desires are consumers that are not presented in the work, and at the same time, the targeted audience is ambiguous. As spectators of the piece, we are uncertain of their primary consumers. However, what is clear is that it penetrates human desires, which are based on somewhat comfort for emotionally unstable individuals and the nosiness of burning love. The by-products derived from the most common desires and anxiety and a form of desperation for one's passion would have business specificity inclined to unique bizarre creativity because they actually belong to surprisingly pure hearts.

BJ Cherry Jang 2018.9,

single channel video, 11 min,

2018

Ryu's work style of YouTube-style compact video composition and the interactive user interface format shifted to 8-bit video graphics (Never Ending Family, 2019) and rough low-resolution images, and relief layers (I'm Not Dead!, 2022) linked to and derived from her videos gradually began to cover them. Low-resolution images and crude relief coverings are the reminiscents of the K-consumption culture, like shallow on-the-spot signboards and careless layers of glossy veneer sheets covering previous signs. This would be portrayed as inaccurate errors of lo-fi, and at the same time, it would be considered as taking a more inclusive attitude toward the relationship with the general public, rather than interpreting the perfect value. As a result, it leaves possibilities in connection to being less complete, like the low-quality noise or statics of lo-fi with poor sound quality. Furthermore, flamboyant video images and surfaces and lumps of all sorts of harmful properties protruding from them became supporters of each other. The artificially colored urethane foam and pink insulation foam protruding through the gap like a group of individuals with the same overgrown ambition would turn a blind eye for each other, the artist's touch that weaved, molded, and painted the reproducible elements to materialize the texture of the object on the layers of surfaces is her sincerity that represents the desire of the majority. However, the physical shells and lumps that Ryu began to create reveal the existence of raw objects as heavy entities that hold on to gravity as seen above the institutional sphere, and they borrow Korean senses that rapidly volatilize and begin to expand to high-resolution relief screen pieces composed of lo-fi.

On the one hand, the growing mass of matter surrounding a flat and clear display serves as a device that holds the sensation which prevents it from melting over the flow of time. At this time, it plays like a purely compressive visual surplus within the segmented screens and the scenes where the roles of the characters are reproduced, rather than urgently exposing any deficiencies as if it needs to be filled with fiction. The artificial screen construction creates a strange tension between oddly disparate differences, and the boundary between image consumption and physical shells is expressed on the screen as compressed desires pretending to be relaxed. As this is supported by physical pillars of hopeful and tangible desires to be realized on top of reality, the possibility of will among high tensions is maximized. A sort of fusion of objects and data with relief shells attached in the front and back weaves socially activated functional aspects and commonly used and reemitted formats within flat screens into lump data, in other words, fragmented data. It also confirms that forms and textures are inseparable. This is the result of the artist's cynical view of the public toward the demands of viewers being reverted into physical properties such as lumps, structures, textures, and forms. If we look back, the continuous use of artificial wreaths from Ryu's earlier works, which were not intended as reliefs using the sculptural method, can be also considered as the starting point of the relief in her pieces. In particular, Ryu mentioned that an artificial wreath is, "an object that serves as a great shell.”Thus, it is flamboyant and cumbersome and a shallow object at the same time. It is a by-product emanating from innocence and earnestness.

Bigking Travel Ching Chen Tour - Mr. Kim's Revival 2019,

single channel video, 25 min,

2019

One of the unique flower businesses in Korean society, artificial wreaths are used for various occasions in Korea. The form consisting of multiple tiers and diverse shapes basically became unified into a universal design due to their specificity of transportation and installation requirements, and for a while, illegal reuse of them in order to maximize profits in the industry was a problematic issue. The intriguing point here is that a kitsch combination of the general form, color, and structure of wreaths used for events has become the most broadly accustomed norm for flower culture and that they are used for all death-related occasions. Ryu brought artificial wreaths to Cherry Jang's funeral and to the funeral of a dog named Princess and modified them. Through her nonchalant attitude toward the usage of seemingly insignificant objects that are merely just shells, she aims at bloated human desires which commercially tackled the most defenseless state of human beings facing death. In particular, the long wall (The Burning Love Song, 2022), which monumentally commemorates the dead entities to the extent that it is excessive, is like a portal on the border between this world and the underworld. The most practical and effective sheets are used to create realistic fake surfaces. How efficient is it? The ingenuity and frivolity devised in the funeral business with a high turnover rate are converted into efficiency, and you can get a glimpse of Ryu taking her absolute stance from the business owner's perspective. The unique one-time nature and lightness of imitations also emerged as the shell of Big King Travel, which proposes a filial piety package tour to Ching Chen. The sculpture of the Ching Chen landscape protruding (Ching-Chen, 2022) feels like a megalith vertical monument or a street sign for advertising.

I'm Not Dead!,

motor, mixed media, 150x200x280cm,

2019

Recent works that have absorbed raw objects and reliefs are equipped with materials themselves, printed glossy sheets, artificial grass, urethane foam, artificial wreaths, and lo-fi displays. Ryu's recent works are surprisingly blended in as a part of images on sheets. The scope has more skillfully expanded from images and video glitches to the physical properties of the medium. Her work style is extremely straightforward and brazen to grasp whether it is an error or not. Furthermore, just as the shameless attitude of Cherry Jang, Dae Wang Lee, and Natasha absorb the customer base, the K-consumption culture blew up, and the desires of both producers and consumers are represented by Ryu's physical gesture that seems to be able to embrace errors. The small desires longing for the days when all our small dreams would come true are gathered together and transformed into a massive snowball and became a part of an irreversible high-resolution image. It feels almost like a waste to kill the main characters just yet.

Sungah Choo (curator)

Sungah Choo is an independent curator, and she has directed many events and has been continuously writing. She has planned many exhibitions, including Taeyoon Choi's solo exhibition Garden.Local (Boan1942, 2022), Hyangro Yoon's solo exhibition Tagging (Cylinder/Hall1, 2022), Juree Kim's solo exhibitions 0Columns (TINC, 2022), The Prequelt (Platform-L, 2022), Ziggy Stardust (N/A, 2022), COLD PITCH (BB&M, 2022), Prime Monument (N/A, 2021), Bek Hyunjin: Public Hiding(隱身) (Royal X, 2021), The 8th Amado Planning Award Shadowland (Amado Art Space, 2021), The Snark: Suddenly Vanishing Away (Gallery2, 2021), The Whistler (Gallery ERD, 2020), Hyejin Jo's solo exhibition Shape, From the Side: Reading Documents (d/p,2019), Things: Sculptural Practice (Doosan Gallery, 2017), and Heejoon Lee's solo exhibition Interior nor Exterior: Prototype (KIGOJA, 2016). Furthermore, she was selected for Perigee Team Project 2022.

The Right to be Here, the Monument to Save Today

Woo Hyunjung

A monument is a public sculpture built to honor a person or event. Most of them are signs of the nation's historical achievements, but on the contrary, they are also used as an important symbol in the rituals of reflection on not repeating past mistakes or following great sacrifices. The lesson of the monument is significant when it rescues the present from failure or at least delaying the failure, regardless of the success or failure of the past it has endured. In other words, the monument presupposes failure. Then, what kind of present was Sunghyeop Seo's Monument built on top of?

Topological Sense,

plywood stained with ink, motor, wooden marbles, mixed media,

240x300x300cm (Engineering Design_ARSIO),

2020

Ink-painted plywood was used as the main material for the 250-centimeter-high sculpture and was constructed by connecting Doric columns, one of the Greek-Roman architectural styles, with tetrapods that can be easily found around the breakwater. Overall, it follows the form of a tetrapod, but the upper part of the Doric column is transformed at the tip of the four legs to make a passage for the sound to flow back and forth. The two objects that make up this monument are typical things selected by the artist, and the two are the representatives of two worlds with very different properties because they have no point of contact in their origin, characteristic, or purpose. The meeting of two different beings leads to misunderstanding, alienation, and disconnection, and this is the reality underneath Seo's Monument. The same goes for the low narration flowing around the Monument and the strange languages that are written on the top pillar of the tetrapod. The story that is written in Polish consists of the episodes of mistranslation that occur when different cultures collide and the loopholes in stereotypes. The slight conversations between the artist and those who are close to him are things that would make you giggle and smirk. However, minor events that will enrich someone's life begin to ask about the individual's position in the social class as they are ignited by words (narrations) and writings (texts) within the Monument.

Gosu Paravan,

plywood stained with ink, drum, motor, arduino, speaker,

120x60x49cm (Engineering Design_ARSIO),

2021

The Monument is a being that moves away from the two objects that gave birth to it and floats out of orbit while losing its function. It cannot support or block something while staying in a place that is not a temple or an ocean. Due to such placelessness, the Monument could be easily pushed out of society and is difficult to be recognized. We are ungenerous at giving complete space because we believe that the act of welcoming and embracing new human and non-human members is only natural. (Let us think about the difference between refugees and tourists. The alienation of radical figures or hybrid objects is also the same case.) How it is received in reality is still important, and recognizing others becomes the cornerstone of acquiring my space. In that sense, the unfamiliar appearance of the Monument and the out-of-the-way style of conversation are disturbing and dangerous. Something that cracks familiar landscapes cannot be welcomed easily. The courage of creating a new place while claiming the right to be here is a gesture that makes someone uncomfortable. The Monument is a device that prevents concepts, such as freedom, equality, and tolerance, from becoming abstracted and is an anchor that holds them in place so that they are not scattered in the air by false declarations. In order for the present to not fail, more objects like the Monument are needed. The Monument testifies through its existence that you should not become used to the language, power, relationship, and structure that support reality. What it insists is to be aware of the fact that someone's existence itself might be denied while you are paying close attention to someone's promise that your rights will be securely protected.

Monument,

plywood stained with ink, gold pigment, 250x245x275cm,

2022

The Monument says firmly, yet softly, “My place is here.” Even when you do not raise your voice or be upset, it shows its existence. In order to grasp the speech style of the Monument, I would like to look again into the two objects that gave birth to it. The columns and tetrapods have stable proportions, but they are rarely used alone. They are part of the whole, and what they have in common is that they require different beings. In order to function properly, they have to be shoulder-to-shoulder with their resemblances. This reveals the interdependence of objects that no being can be alone. This is the strategy of how Seo's Monument saves today differently from other monuments. It has to be the one that makes its place, and it looks around while letting others know that it does not need someone's approval. Sometimes, it reaches out to them while showing its inability. The union of western columns and tetrapods is a solidarity of those left alone and a welcoming greeting for a new existence.

Reference
Hyunkyung Kim, People, Place, Hospitality, Moonji Publishing, 2015
Hiroki Azuma (translated by Cheon An), Philosophy of the Tourist, Luciole, 2020

Woo Hyunjung(curator of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea)
She studied art and design theory at the Korea National University of Arts and Seoul National University. She curated a media art exhibition at the Art Center Nabi and worked as an art journalist for Space, a monthly publication. She was a senior researcher at the Korean Research Center for Arts, and since 2020, she has been working as a curator at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA). She co-translated Radical Museology (Hyunsil Books, 2016), and at MMCA, she curated Hwang Jai Hyoung: Restoration of Human Dignity (2021), MMCA Lee Kun-hee Collection: LEE JUNG SEOP (2022), and PROJECT HASHTAG 2022 (2022).

Space for the “Minority”

Seojin Yim

Hip-hop music, meme, and ASCII art are elements that have been closely analyzed in the writings about Kwanghwee Ahn's work. They are genres or forms that are popularly familiar and they appear as the fundamental part of the artist’s work. In the music video, the language and image linked to the rap recited by the artist are put together in a distinctive manner. While this method of editing follows a normalized way of constructing audiovisual objects in the Internet era, it also constitutes the unique facade of his works. At the end of some of his music videos, the sources of the beats, images, and GIFs are specified, indicating that the work is an outcome of remixing various existing materials.

Ahn's reuse of the beat using DJing, mashup, and sampling as a methodology feels like a natural choice, considering that hip hop music at its early stage had not faced too many restrictions in relation to the notion of the author and originality. The term ‘remix,’ which encompasses the aforementioned methodology, began to spread as it was widely used in the field of popular music, and it is also an early distinct feature of hip hop and Internet visual culture, which are two main subjects linked to the artist's works. Today, the meaning of ‘remix’ goes beyond the scope of a simple technical method and it has been extended to indicate ‘remix culture,’ which is a term associated with a series of social movements that supports free reading and processing of information. The implications of ‘remix culture’ now have become prevalent to the extent that it constitutes today’s way of life that, in turn, establishes a dominant aesthetic in almost all areas. Using emojis, memojis, and GIFs that move brilliantly in sync with the music, Ahn utilizes the visual materials that we frequently encounter in our day-to-day technological environments. These characteristics may be reduced to familiarity, but his work may be viewed as an unexaggerated diagnosis and reenactment of today's visual environment.

Lenticular,

Lenticular, 130x90cm,

2022

Culture is bound to be gradually institutionalized, and distortion of initial intentions occurs after the institutionalization. Nowadays, highly commercialized hip hop music and its culture are consumed as images of gangster black men or hypersexualized black women. The use of watermarks and paywalls is spreading in the Internet environment. These are systems that are devised to accelerate the money-making in virtual spaces and they are becoming more intricate day by day. We must remember the starting point of both hip hop music and the Internet, and the fact that they have expanded their influence by advocating unrestricted access and exchange of given resources. Procedures to limit these early ideals have become structural and institutional practices, and the respective culture in two areas, hip hop and the Internet, is also taking such steps. Then, why is the artist exploring the two realms as the main devices of his work?

The answer is in the question just asked. Hip hop culture functions as a metaphor for the ideal worldview that Ahn wishes to introduce. Among them, block parties, which the artist mainly mentions, are symbolic to provide the spatial context of hip hop culture. Block parties were held mainly in Harlem and the Bronx area, where African-American populations are concentrated, and they were festivals where neighbors of all ages could participate in. Hip hop music was first born in the form of live performances, such as gatherings in the streets or empty lots playing music on turntables and break dancing to the music. The scenery of a block party, which would have been full of people dancing and talking, was different from the image of a slum that we easily think of in connection with the Harlem area. Ahn's interest in block parties lies in the power of transforming a place from a space of poverty to a space of connection, and from a space of individual isolation to a space of community. Regarding the effect of the power, the artist has expressed that,“Black people in Harlem have become awakened as a political group.”This is an interpretation mindful of the institutional function and ideal possibility of a block party that could form communities and groups. With such a point of view, for the artist, each of his exhibitions has the same meaning as an invitation to a block party.

Infinite Tagging,

Single-channel video(color), Loop,

2022

In his work titled The Pathetic Studio of The Pathetic Label (2022) presented at the Seoul Art Space Geumcheon (SASG) Open Studio in 2022, Ahn introduces a new system. He adopts the system of a label studio like he did previously with that of a block party. The project is to create a studio or a hideout space of a label consisting of three virtual members. In this space, a computer station where you can enjoy Ahn's rap music, graffiti, lenticular goods printed with lyrics, and a large portrait of the three virtual members are displayed—some on the wall, some on the floor. Given that this office space constructed by the artist is a space that accommodates relatively homogeneous members, instead of randomly gathered people, the demographic of the potential invitees to this space is more specific and straightforward than block parties. In other words, the setting of the label studio is a condition that increases the specificity of the entity who may become a part of the community. These settings half close the space that was open indefinitely when the exhibition space was set as a space corresponding to a block party. This measure could also be interpreted as a minimum device to be able to call on the industry and the group that share similar tastes or interests in a more direct manner.

Considering the physical space of the SASG, instead of the virtual setting of the label studio, this is a space where only the art professionals such as artists, curators, critics, and administrators would gather with a high probability. Moreover, visitors during the open studio period may belong to a narrower demographic due to the additional filter of being an affiliate or an acquaintance of an affiliate. The artist's word that this narrower group of people may be called a “minority group” makes us look at the group from a completely different perspective. This is comparable to the implication about a smaller group that often paints a picture in our mind of a privileged group. Ahn wants to evoke a collective experience within this spatial bracket where you are viewing the exhibition and reading the text, even though he knows that the identity of an artist is a difficult condition to be bounded within a single scope.

Lenticular,

2-channel video projection (color, 5-channel sound), 2min 12sec,

2022

In addition to promoting collective awakenings, the block party played a role in liberating the individual from the tension that fills a racialized space. Then, could Ahn’s invitation of the “minority”—artists or art professionals—to the virtual studio space also lead to liberating a group of people? If so, what could they be liberated from? What could be possible beyond the sense of liberation and efficacy that result from occupying a space? In order to proceed to the next step, it is necessary to turn our attention to the lyrics of the music created by the artist. His music already exists in all public realms that he was able to find, including exhibitions, catalogues, and online platforms.

Seojin Yim (independent curator)
Seojin Yim is based in Seoul, and she curates and translates. She majored in art history at New York University (NYU) and earned a master's degree in art management at Seoul National University (SNU) with an art theory thesis that examines the change in the status of art museums as a public domain. She has experienced the art scene as she worked at the Arko Art Center, the Hyundai Motor Group's ZER01NE, and Lehman Maupin and curated the exhibition Public Vision (2021). Currently, she is investigating her interests in the way how visual and linguistic fragments travel across different cultures in the contemporary art field.

New Technology, New Listening, New Angel

Taehyun Kwon

An incomprehensible voice continues. Words continue to pour out without subtitles, which slide back and forth between words and sounds. Occasionally, understandable sentences pop up amid murmurs. When poetic words such as “alive paper” are heard for a moment, one can doubt one's ears about its unfamiliar beauty. The meaning of the symbols uttered in this manner remains in the well of abstract sound. However, we can certainly tell that they are someone's words. We can tell that someone is intentionally arranging symbols and spewing them out of his mouth. The problem is the murmur. The meanings of his words are overlapping, smashing, and blurring. They are waves of abstract sounds that we can briefly focus on their meanings but are soon dissipated.

Maybe, someone might have been able to create subtitles for the interview by thoroughly analyzing the meaning of the speaker's words. However, Minsu Oh never added subtitles to them even when he presented such pieces multiple times. The problem of such overlapping boundaries between words and sounds itself is an important element of his convention. New Technology consists of the sound of such words, the image and sound of the rotary press that prints out the newspaper, and sometimes the mechanical installation outside the screen. Machines and a human are taking turns making sounds, and it sounds like a sort of dialogue in a way. Of course, it is not understandable.

New Technology: Run Start Common Neutral Ground, full ver. 2022,

Refrigerator, washing machine, vacuum, Bible, arduino, mixed media, dimensions variable,

18min interworking with video and machine (Run Start Common Neutral Ground),

Supported by the team 'Crip, Cribton', 2022

Amid the interchanging images and sounds of machines and humans, the video captures a wide range of areas in the factory where newspapers are printed from diverse viewpoints. Here, new technologies and the novelty of newspapers work paradoxically in many ways. Above all, newspapers are the least newest technology. You can rarely see people grabbing newspapers for breaking stories nowadays. People look at the world in real-time through the phone in their hands. As we ride the timelines of social media that pour data faster than the rapidly running rotary press, novelty to us is very different from how it was in the era of newspapers. The oldest media paradox in the name of new. If you look at the word Shinmun (新聞), which means newspaper in Korean, it can be translated literally into“hear new things,”as “shin” means new and “mun” means hear. What if we read the newspaper as if we were listening to\ new things? The challenge is to listen to New Technology that twists the sound of humans (words), machine noises, and sound works as something new. Then again, it overlaps all over again.

Sound is not the only abstract thing in New Technology. The video also shows scenes in which the camera is shaken by a hand or are extremely close-up. When capturing a printed newspaper, it fills the screen with extreme details to the point where you can see the texture of thin paper or the layers of printed CMYK dots. In addition, a huge rotary press operation continues to appear on the screen, and you will see an abstract screen that runs in one direction even when the rotary press is rapidly running and the printed newspapers are filling up the screen. Paul Virilio said that speed changes the shape of the world. What he means is that speed affects objects' likelihood of appearing or their forms. His argument that the acceleration of the world influenced the abstract paintings of contemporary art is interesting. We think of abstractions as creations of overlapping things that are too fast, too close, or too different.

New Technology, video ver. 2022, single channel video, 16min 17sec,

Commissioned by 2022 Seo-Seoul Museum of Art

Pre-opening Public Program Exceptional Times, Uncertain Moves,

2022

In addition, the installation work, which functions with the video of New Technology, the Bible spread out in single pages is illuminated with lights. The version screened at the Seo-Seoul Museum of Art's pre-opening program Exceptional Times, Uncertain Moves, the images of Bible pages illuminated with lights were inserted in the video. When you shine light on a thin piece of Bible paper, printed letters on the back of the clearly readable printed text suddenly pop forward and overlap. Thus, the Bible becomes the unreadable text, the tangled letters of the apostles, and the overlapping and murmuring voice of God.

In fact, texts are always written overlapped in such a manner. When we read a palimpsest over again, a reused parchment, we can always find a new constellation regardless of the linear time. The overlaps in the back of the text on the surface destroy both the texts on the front and the back, allowing them to be read new every time. Paul Klee's Angelus Novus, which Walter Benjamin introduces in his Theses on the Philosophy of History as he talks about the dialectical history that defies the progressing temporality, was created using a technique called the oil transfer method. When you apply oil paint on a sheet of paper placed on the floor and lay another sheet of paper on top of it and draw a picture on it, the oil is transferred to the back of the paper. Something overlaps once again in the transfer that goes back and forth on the paper. Paul Klee used this technique to portray an angel defying the progressing time with his back turned and looking back with his wings spread. It reminds us of something that the angel saves as he looks outside the picture plane and the power that stops the progressing world for a while as he spreads his wings.

Humans see light | 人は光を見る 2022 ver.2,

49 LCD monitor, motor, arduino, 20min interworking with video and machine,

Supported by the Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, 2022

We think about the strange symbiotic relationship between machines and humans that Minsu Oh points out in the world of overwhelmingly progressing new technologies. The world does not simply progress. We must focus our efforts on sensing machines and the invisible laborers that operate them. The problem is that we have to stop this ceaselessly moving world, but the point is that we can see and hear it. The constellation of overlaps created by Oh here meets the context outside his work. The Cargo Truckers Solidarity Union's strike is in full swing. In the chant of the union laborers, "Let's stop driving and change the world," we can think about the power of stopping again. It might be possible to overlap the declaration about the teleologically progressing time, instead of just the meaning of the strike. Furthermore, how does the newness of sporadic new technologies, new hearing, and new angels turn upside down? How does the back side come up forward? How does the oldest become the latest? What do we sense in the overlap between the audible and inaudible, readable and unreadable of New Technology? Would the paradox and abstraction rising from this dialectic be a kind of strike of aesthetic things?

Taehyun Kwon (art critic)
He writes and plans various projects. Even though he works in the art world, he is always interested more in things that are not easily considered art. He explores how things outside art can be considered as objects inside art. He continues his research with weight on the perspective of grasping political matters as issues of aesthetic.

Painting Contradicts Limits

Somi Sim

For Heejoon Lee, the conditions and limitations of painting are explored on the same level. In his paintings that have dealt with urban and architectural interests in the abstract language since 2016, the relationship between screen composition and quality has been maintained in an understated sense. The changes in such work style began with The Tourist in 2020 and were fully rendered in his solo exhibition Image Architect in 2021. On one hand, his former color plane abstract paintings have explored abstract languages with geometric compositions based on points, lines, and planes. Since then, his work has been pursued as a formal challenge within a frame by composing a pictorial plane in which images and paintings are juxtaposed through the photo collage method. The 2022 solo exhibition Heejoon Lee held in the following year expanded the formal experiments of painting to photography, sculpture, and spatial dimensions, including color plane abstractions, photo collages, and small three-dimensional pieces. Furthermore, the spatial installation work he introduced as the O.P.E.N. Project during the open studio of the Seoul Art Space Geumcheon (SASG) in 2022 has discovered the possibility of abstract language latent in material and space, reinterpreting the relationship between architectural elements and pictorial frames as a temporary variable space using felt cloth. His works, which span over various dimensions like the plane, three-dimension, and space, are basically based on the formal conditions of abstraction and aim to return the path to today's abstract thinking and practices to the frame of paintings. This writing attempts to approach the contemporary possibility of rediscovered abstraction by especially analyzing the recent full-fledged photo collage paintings, Image Architect series (2021-), from his plastic art experiments.

Salt, Palm, and Green, acrylic and photo-collage on canvas, 160x160cm, 2022

Reconstruction no.1-3, colored pencil and photo collage on paper, 15x15x15cm each, 2022

Unlike how contemporary paintings are seeking to break away from the canvas frame and make various formal variations, Lee has preferred to trap himself in the canvas's standardized frame. Moreover, the canvases that he usually uses are distinctively square and equally proportioned. These qualities delve into the conditions of flatness that deny the inflow of depth, perspective, and the illusion of the pictorial plane given by the vertically or horizontally long canvases. The square pictorial planes, which are usually 260×260cm, 160×160cm, or 45.5×45.5cm, are a basic framework reminiscent of the narrative and sense of absolute and intuitive abstraction contained in a square. The way he introduces images in the reductive frame of painting follows a formal experiment that gives fluidity and variability to the canvas by arranging thin two-dimensional planes of paper. If you take a closer look at his work, where acrylic paints and black-and-white photographs form one pictorial plane, you can see that the photographs are not attached as a single image and that they are actually filled with separate A4 paper. Depending on the size of the canvas, more than 100 sheets of A4 paper are attached, and this repeatedly aligned arrangement of black-and-white images is related to the process of reconstructing the frame of the images into the frame of the painting. This process of integrating canvas, paper, and ink leads to another support for painting that interacts with materials through the artist's physical intervention and repeated labor.

Mossy Terracotta,

acrylic and photo-collage on canvas, 100x100cm,

2022

Furthermore, when you take a close look at the relationship between the image formed on the pictorial plane and the painting, the printed photo images usually contain traces of the architecture photographed by the artist in his daily life. It focuses on the characteristics of the space left behind around the exhibition space that forms the art system or contains his delicate views on the form, shape, color, texture, and structure of buildings, such as the geometricality and the sensation of materials of common and ordinary architecture from his daily life as well as impressive architectures he came across during his travels. At this time, the totality of the black-and-white images printed section by section and attached is severely ruptured on the canvas, and the subtle error inside the image he intended in the arrangement is an element that breaks down the uniformity of form and perception. The pictorial traces on top of the piece created by the artist using a squeegee once again disrupt the illusion of a pixel-dominated space, evoking tension between imperfections and perfection on the pictorial plane while eliciting sensational order. In addition, the abstract language contained in points, lines, and planes causes the visual sense and memory dislocated from the image to form new information values. The composition and texture of architectural spaces and the cold nature of the digital image are converted into the experience of painting through the process of abstraction. At this time, the transition of experience is the process of experiencing the material dimension as the dimension of non-material (digital) images, then as the property of painting. The painting completed through this process inversely presents a path towards the experience of sensing three-dimensional space again from the strict frame conditions. The traces of the paintings formed in this manner not only intuitively adhere to the distant dimension's landscape of space on the pictorial plane, but also present the path of abstract language as a motivation to question the image recognition system familiar to contemporaries.

White Crema,

acrylic and photo-collage on canvas, 100x100cm,

2022

The transitions in Lee's recent paintings have been challenging the frame that previously defined painting through flexible channels such as the reinterpretation of image experiences through photo collages and a pictorial approach to decomposing digital images. Each time when he does, he questions the dominant order that established his paintings, and as a pictorial experiment that violates and contradicts them, he has actively introduced images, physical properties, and spatial elements as new materials. In his artist note he said,“I think in today's faster and clearer development, abstractions convey little information and unclear messages on the contrary.”The conditions of abstraction noted by the artist are attempted against the presence of excessive images, the specificity of flooding images, and the feed of unrecognizable image consumption in the digital society. His pictorial challenges, which exclusively possess the conditions of contemporary images, reconstruct the empirical dimensions of abstract language through the paradox inside the frame, while inheriting some of the solid formal conditions formed by the history of abstraction. Through such a series of processes of contrasting, dividing, and layering the dimensions of contemporary space and images, his paintings overcome the conditions and limits of the frame and open the door to the possibility and experience of abstraction attempted on the other side of the real-time image world.

Somi Sim (independent curator)
Somi Sim is an independent curator based in Seoul and Paris. She has dealt with a curatorial methodology that brings together research and practice in exhibitions, public interventions and publishing. She was awarded the 2021 Young Artist of the Year Award (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korea, 2021), the Hyundai Blue Prize Design 2021 and the Lee Dong Seok Curatorial Award (2018). She is an editorial board member of journal of cultural theories, ‘Culture/Science’ and also active in “Re-tracing Buro”, an urban research collective. Her recent publications include Curating the Pandemic and Drifting Nearby : transition of the public in a post-pandemic city.

Re-recognition of Frontality Recognizable within 0.3 Seconds: reinstalled/reset images from Hyelim Jun's work

Yuki Konno

What exactly is an image?
I received Hyelim Jun's work as images, and I contemplated how I would view them. As the artist said, paintings possess a frontality that can be recognized within 0.3 seconds. However, in this era, it is perfectly fine to use the term “images” interchangeably with “paintings.” Receiving records of exhibition overviews and individual photos of pieces as images and listening to explanations are not limited to Jun's works. In that case, can we consider Jun's attempt as a resistant attitude towards the fate called the image of painting? Can it be viewed as an attempt to oppose the pictorial conditions in the name of so-called sculptural painting or installation work? Several of Jun's pieces were spatially displayed at Index of six sides (Hapjungjigu, 2019) and The escape conditions of recursive maze (Post Territory Ujeongguk, 2020). Recently, she has attempted “plane-hedron,” not hexahedron. When you hear this, you might think that Jun pursues medium experiments between flat surfaces and three-dimensional structures through sculptural painting against the variable nature of images.

Before paying attention to media formats that conceptually seek trade-offs and extensions between flats and 3D, I would like to start from a more fundamental perspective. What kind of image was Jun's reproduction target? As she worked with materials, such as a scene from animation, landscapes, and images of paradise, how did she view them? The key point is that the frame defining the viewer's perspective or the image dismantles the connection between presented scenes and is reconstructed to show the emanated gap between them, instead of starting with images or data as visual information and pursuing physical properties/materialities. The aforementioned materials appear in a form of setup in the artist's series Shape of the gaze and Things, and the explanation can become simpler if we call them installation pieces because they can be considered as reinstallation attempts instead. They cannot be simply defined as data or image files. An ideal viewing condition is removed. The connection between the gaze of the steady perspective and the mobility that reduces the distance and presents them in front of our eyes, in other words, the connection between visual information and the viewer's position is detached.

Combined surfaces,

the picture of art space geumcheon open studio 6,

2022

Not an installation, but a reinstallation of perspectives and images
One step ahead of the media experiment that occurs in the process of moving from working on flat pieces to three-dimensional pieces, the artist already recognized distance, speed, and mobility in images. She had already found a clue to the frontality that can be recognized within 0.3 seconds from materials, such as views presented to you when you gaze at landscapes, a continuous and momentary scene from animation, and the beautiful and ideal paradise summoned in right front of your eyes. In order to contemplate this frontality, Jun reconstructs and dismantles the ideal view through her work. Her pieces can be considered as the result of capturing recognizable views as paintings even when they are separated or quickly passed by then re-presenting and reconstructing themselves in exhibition spaces. This is not the result of solving the conditions of painting with materials like thin and transparent cloth, the three-dimensional nature of the canvas, or human intervention. Reconstructing and dismantling the positions of images and viewers begins with the condition that the images already encompass the time and space differently and yet are in front of viewers' eyes. Paradises and landscapes have captured scenes that do not exist now or did not exist until now, and animations consist of countless drawn scenes.

The artist spatially re-created views. However, when the view is set or arranged through material compositions, it presents the frontality that can be recognized within 0.3 seconds. Moreover, it cracks spatiotemporal positions, which pull in viewers to be immersed in viewing. The crack was not created by contemplating the format or conditions of the medium for working on planar or solid pieces. It arose from questioning the form of painting that can be derived from dismantling and reconstructing the original time and space of the image that the artist worked with. We can change the artist's statement as follows; “A painting as a frontality in which images recognizable within 0.3 seconds can be returned.” Representing instantaneously appearing or have appeared images as paintings and breaking up that momentary appearances from the viewer's point of view form the basis of Jun's work. As a result, her pieces are spatial or three-dimensional, but they are different from media experiments that variably transform two-dimensional data into three-dimensional matters, and vice versa.

Combined surfaces,

the picture of art space geumcheon open studio 6,

2022

Hexahedron and plane-hedron: excess surface
We can fully review painting through the word hexahedron. Until now, painting experiments mentioned in art history have been sought toward the painting itself, such as the place of vanishing point that presents an illusory space, the space for self-criticizing flatness, and the space for an image where everything can be transferred to like the word “screen” suggests. Through the word, “hexahedron,” we can think about the relationship between the frame and the inner part of the painting. Paintings are not just simply flat and are not a space full of illusions. However, the word, “hexahedron,” leads to the conclusion that space also consists of surfaces when we look at them. The space in a painting, the space called painting, or where a painting is hung can only be seen as a surface to us, in other words, as an image. The attitude of only understanding that painting begins and ends on a surface or that a space is created only on a surface will end up in a vicious cycle of dimensions, so-called two-dimension and three-dimension.

Combined surfaces,

Canvas fabric on top of canvas frame, gesso, acrylic, Dimensions Variable,

2022

If Jun's past pieces have been emphasized by the nature of the motif itself, her new trials at “plane-hedron” focus more on the framework of paintings or so-called paintings. “Plane-hedron” is a result of the excessive surfaces of the word “hexahedron.” Until now, she has contemplated the painting's relationship between the flesh and the body, the part and the whole, the surface and the support, and the medium called painting through the surface, but now, she focuses more on the relationship with the foundation called painting, a body created by extra surfaces of plane-hedron. By drawing multiple supports, drawing on the back of the supports, or erecting crossed planes, what will the plane-hedron reveal? Starting from a plane, the “plane-hedron” reevaluates surfaces, bodies of paintings, supports, spaces in flat planes, and illusory places.

Yuki Konno (art critic)
A person who views exhibitions in Korea and Japan and writes. Curatedafter 10.12 (Audio Visual Pavilion 2018) and With Korean and Eastern painting (gallery TOWED, FINCH ARTS, Jungganjijeom II 2022).

The Juxtaposition Technique of Hacked Objects - according to Jihyun Jung's alien assembly/disassembly methods

Juri Cho

The shape of objects assembled by the artist Jihyun Jung feels somewhat genuine. Although none of the elements seems natural at all, the assembly method feels like it could be a valid way somewhere because the materials and parts seem to be procurable within a few days through the lowest price search and the impression that you are probably going to see them again somewhere when the exhibition is over. However, the reality is that they are montages of things that do not exist anywhere. The alien completeness of the pieces, which seems to have been carefully made by someone who has never learned how to assemble them, throws us into confusion. Furthermore, they make us forget how to appreciate the object we define as “works.” There is confusion as to whether to look at the series of works wandering between “object sculptures” and “sculptural objects”as formative attempts, interpret them as a kind of performance through a sculptural experiment, or just consider them as marvelous inventions. However, what is more urgent than clearly defining Jung's pieces is finding a clue to get closer to the origin of the work and the reason behind them that even the artist might not have realized. We need to find it from her early and representative pieces from 2022 and their descriptions.

Teletubbies Installation view, 2022

"Hack”, the word that first came to my mind in examining the attitude and way of creating pieces, is the key to opening up the work for me. When you look into Jung's work style before simply accepting her official explanation, it seems like she is hacking ordinary objects used in everyday life in her own way. The word hack has negative connotations, such as stealing or interfering, but its exemplary meaning is to understand the structure and operating principles by decomposing machine structures, objects, and systems, and creating new structures and usages. This would be the same as the DIY assembly method that combines new items that are difficult to grasp with just intuition but can be quite useful to some, including household furniture, exercise equipment, various stands, and illuminators that can be purchased in the form of off-the-shelf products. In general, open-source hackers gradually create new forms and functions through the process of focusing on the analysis and decomposition of their targets, and they finally implement their independent creations and developments according to their own aesthetic logic.

However, Jung's sculptural methodology of assembling off-the-shelf products as ready-made objects is not completely new. It is also the legacy of Dadaists and Surrealists that has continued since the early 20th century. If a juxtaposition technique such as the“Beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissection table,” a symbolic verse from the 19th-century poet Comte de Lautréamont's prose poem Les Chants de Maldoror, was the core methodology of literary aesthetics envisioned by Surrealists in the past, then we can say that today's artists are determined to go beyond the juxtaposition of objects that radiates“sporadic beauty” and reach post-artistic formation through active hacking and design combination of existence and objects. Although“coincidence of process” and“consequential beauty” are far from the goal of Jung's work, there is a distinct difference from classical formative work in that it does not presuppose transcendental values and the legitimacy of form from her formative practice and that it flattens the hierarchy between her pieces and objects with the same logic.

Mermaid,

Mixed media, 110x110x50cm,

2022

On the contrary, the series of works assembled and dismantled by Jung trigger an immediate psychological response. The sense of volume and structure of the device in contact with or connected to the body and the feeling of the foreign matter about the silhouette appear on various scales. Maybe it is a level of sensitivity difference that is intolerable to sensitive people's eyes, but acceptable in dull people's view. What is the reality of such uncomfortable emotions? Jung's works evoke the body. It is inevitable to not summon the classic Freud definition of“uncanny” in the face of the chilling sensation surrounding the place where someone lay in, sat on, draped on, leaned on, and gazed at. Things that have appeared at the wrong time and in the wrong place are bizarre. This is because they disturb the tranquility of real existence that is here now. They are large masses wrapped in black textiles, like shrouds, glistening with only their thin legs showing, and also iron equipment that cannot be distinguished between massage chairs, game chairs, or surgical chairs. They are in a state in which they are indistinguishable between lifelike or lifeless, main body or parts, and proliferated or concealed. Why did the artist become so immersed in making such uncanny masses?

Jung's work began with specific experiences and voluntary explorations of the relationship between digital devices and the body. As an artist that works with three-dimensional objects, she was interested in the sense of connection between smartphones, laptops, and various electronic devices, which are interfaces that directly come in contact with her body, and she focused on the unique formative and spatial gestalt generated between them. Like the artist's discovery, the body, digital devices, and peripherals that physically mediate between them connect like a single body and become an organic mass that transmits and receives data when power and Wi-Fi are secured. Otherwise, they are like senseless corpses like hosts that are blocked from each other. Considering the strong synchronization between analog bodies and digital content, such as eating while watching a mukbang and controlling the interval and breathing under the direction of running apps such as RunDay, we cannot disagree with the point. As a millennial artist, a generation that is physically and emotionally closely attached to electronic devices, the problematization process and formative response to this phenomenon have become the core of Jung's recently developed works. The hybrid combination method of diverse objects and everyday devices centered on various types of electrical and electronic equipment is a kind of an empty set to reveal the subjects' physical response and cognitive state in response to the designed space. Furthermore, it clearly shows the theatrical characteristics of sculptures. What are the senses and situations that people project into the sculptural space where the body has eluded? It might be an excessive dependence on electronic devices as the artist claims and its resulting sense of isolation, a different level of emotional attachment, or a sense of unconscious erotics and mutual amusement formed with machines. It depends on the psychological distance we have with her works and on the individual's experience and perception emanating from the pieces.

Training II,

Mixed media, 95x45x125cm,

2022

What was she trying to hack? Maybe it was the drowsy experience of unconsciously becoming one with all sorts of machinery devices, the moment of feeling fear and helplessness instead of feeling relieved being without electronics, or an indoor scene dominated by non-human objects and devices. While the landscape of things becomes our portrait, we attempt to erase the sense of familiarity one by one, overlap anxious things, and bond the starting points of objects and the tip of the body. In an ominous imagination, we try to hack into the external world and the inside of us, referring to Jihyun Jung's assembly and dismantling methods as guidelines.

Juri Cho (curator, art critic)
Cho studied psychology, art history, culture policy, and visual culture studies at under graduate, master’s and doctorate levels respectively, and has hands-on experience curating at a variety of culture and arts institutions from the mid-2000s. She has been an independent curator for the past ten years, and her main focus is on research-based projects centered on exhibition curation and critical writing. Cho is committed to creating artistic knowledge regarding ways for curating practices at an individual level to effectively manifest in the public sphere, and coming up with new ways to collaborate with artists and institutions. Cho’s major exhibitions include My Sleep(2022, Culture Station Seoul 284), Triple rings; Replicas from the Yesterday, Tomorrow (2021, Culture Station Seoul 284), Gihoek Festival (2020, Oil Tank Culture Park), WHITE RHAPSODY (2020, Wooran Foundation), Tenaciously, Tenacious (2019, d/p), Looms & Battles (2018, Total Museum of Contemporary Art), Mille-feuille de camélia (2016, Arko Art Center), and participated in curating numerous international exchange and public art projects.

Striking a Strike

Wonhwa Yoon

When everything is going to work out sounds like a lie, when we are desperate for sayings like “our efforts are going to pay off” or “tomorrow will be a better day” as if they were beleaguered unbeliever's prayers, when our feelings swell up narcissistically like a boast at a drinking party, when we cannot choose a path between unconditionally working hard and doing nothing, we go on a strike. In the summer of 2020, I was doing research on the history of art strikes. If it had been a better time, that research might have been another book in a set of books along with the book on art labor. However, I would not have done such research in the first place if the situation had been any different. The reason why I actually looked up past strike cases at the time was that I wanted to learn how to strike. In the poorly concluded paper, I wrote,“If a strike is to cease working in order to be able to work properly, it can be compared to getting off work or vacation rather than bankruptcy or retirement. Of course, a strike is not a holiday! If everything is still the same when you return from leaving work, then the pause is meaningless. The strike is defying the order that defines work and taking a determined action, redefining work by oneself. So a strike is not about not working. In other words, you cannot stop working even when you go on a strike.”

dream pop Logo, 2022

There is something dubious about the idea that a strike is a productive interruption of work. Who gave the order that you have to deliver results even when you are not working? However, being involved in art actually means doing something else during your work time for other tasks. Art, if there is such a thing, occupies your time and bends your path like protesters. It already is sort of a strike in that it stops for a while to change lives, and I had to stop working once again to think about how such a moment operates and serves us. Striking a strike is not just about lifting the occupation, it is about questioning the life in which a strike becomes a job. The reason for the lengthy explanation is that I thought that Cha Ji Ryang's work could be seen as a striking technique. In fact, in Strike, Sync, he defined the record of his time as a “strike resume” that continues to be updated. It was unclear whether art was a means, a target, or a goal of a strike. From time to time, he gathered people and organized a form of small strikes or slowdowns refusing to be swept away by trends. These gatherings were virtual lifeboats to avoid being swallowed by the waves, but at best, they were fragile eggs that revealed only some of the outline of the rock. Maybe he just wanted to build a theater in a slightly different form each time and want us to become actors, viewers, and directors of our situation on our own accord. This is a way of escaping. However, it requires some imagination to paint the theater as a place of strikes. Will we be able to strike in our dreams?

Surfing,

Video installation, Dimensions variable,

2022

Still, I think I have no choice but to quit this job if I do not want to work on Sundays. Strike becoming a job means that you are unable to set the boundary for your work. Watching a series of video works in which the artist speaks silently is not work, but also work at the same time. When you are tired of one life, you lose the ability to evacuate to another life. More precisely, you can not escape from the situation where you are constantly being thrown out elsewhere. This is not an exception in a world where creative destruction is almost providential. The book that I was slowly translating in the fall of 2012, which eventually went unpublished, begins as follows. “A retreat of meaning. The social situation in which collective life programs are dismantled without the time for mankind to devise new life programs. I put my feet on the ground.” The last sentence is an idiom meaning “worldly-wise,” which can be rewritten as “standing on the ground on two feet,” and some dictionaries explain it as “not having unrealistic ideas”. However, the author of the book has worked all his life to rewrite his world as a transparent dream. Of course, he did a lot of other things, but I think he was unable to get away from the front of his desk. Ten years ago, I thought it was a strange form of curse. Now, I take it as a way of life. If I was to document the time in between, I think a more suitable title on the first page would be “A History of New and Invisible Overwork,” rather than “A History of Strikes.”

Only people who decided to leave, can see everything: Stray Birds,

Pigment print, 124.5x70cm,

2021

Over the past few years, Cha has been experimenting with several ways to tie the knot with time. This does not carve out the past from the present or preserve every moment. It seems that even understanding and giving meaning to past actions were not the final purpose. In the winter of 2019, he reconstructed a collection of data containing memories until now into an airplane-type multimedia theater. Then came another winter when the plane could not fly and we could not continue what we were doing. During this unexpected strike, he updated his theater and added several audiovisual tracks to create “an album” called Only Those Who Want to Leave Can See Everything which still seemed like a transportation device borrowing the form of records. Where can this song take us? For a while, he passed out a track from the album to people as if he was asking a question. The track titled Surfing functions as an interlude between dark hard-to-see spaces and light-filled spaces within the album but does not draw clear arrows. In an acoustic landscape that seems to be a mixture of the white noise of the plane weighing on your ears and the careless rattling of the train, you can see traces of the past vibrate like a fly sitting on the tip of a turntable needle. It is an illusion, but it would no longer be an illusion if you actually start moving along with that vibration. You can walk out of the scene if you want. In the forest of frequencies, the song opens up such crossroads.

Wonhwa Yoon (art critic)

Wonhwa Yoon is an independent researcher, art writer, and translator based in Seoul. She is the author of The Story of Shells, or Fragments on the Incompleteness of Art (Mediabus, 2022), Picture, Window, Mirror: Photographs Seen in the Exhibition Space (Vostok Press, 2018) and On the Thousand and Second Night: Visual Arts in Seoul in the 2010s (Workroom Press, 2016), and translated Friedrich Kittler, Reza Negarestani, and others into Korean. She also co-curated Human Scale at the Ilmin Museum of Art and co-produced Soft Places for the Seoul Mediacity Biennale 2018.

An Image as a Structure

Soyeon Ahn

I should start this writing with All this way to meet you (2022). The form, which combines metal chains and plastic clay, has two secret spaces. There is an inner space for bonding with each other between chains that have their own structural forms and clay that exists as a material, and there is an outer space created by the single form of the two joined together. Therefore, the title of the work “All this way to meet you” can also be comprehended with two meanings. You and I in the sentence can be identified as the two components that form a single sculpture, and it also could be portraying the relationship of looking and being seen between the sculpture and the body facing it. Anyhow, the two spaces, the two comprehensions, and the two gazes are simultaneously working together as they display secrecy amid strange tensions.

The metal chains exist as objects that cannot stand vertically because of their weight in reality or at present toward gravity, along with their volumeless surfaces. The clay firmly upholds any shape from the floor based on its underlying cohesive and coagulable abilities. The metal chains penetrate through the form and determine the scale, and the clay defines the volume that allows random shapes to have a direction of movement, like the muscles attached to the bone. Thus, the conditions of a sculpture are fulfilled. The sculpture at this time repeats perpetual conflicts and reconciliation between the impulse to induce waves of particles and the obligation to force particles to freeze. For example, the relationship between the chains and clay defines the sculpture's interior and exterior and propels the general perception and awareness regarding the form. However, it could be a twist between the two. In the areas where the bones are clearly exposed, the clay is permeated into the gaps of the chains and is clinging on, evoking the image of a precarious transition between the interior and exterior. This spatial overturn brings the sculpture to be perceived as an indication of an ongoing transformation rather than an already complete form.

All this way to meet you,

steel chain, plastic clay, acrylic paint, 80x67x47cm,

2022

One of the pieces from the same period, I grow when you fall (2022), also shares a similar sense. The combination of metal rods and resins has a very close resemblance to the sense revealed by the union of metal chains and clay in All this way to meet you. Thus, the two or more spaces that the two form inside and outside, the dual relationship between you and I encompassed in the title of the piece, and the gaze or the movement of the gaze that changes according to the relationship are once again repeated in I grow when you fall.

I have seen at least two figures standing facing each other on a diagonal drawn from two corners in the same space sharing a flat floor, specifically All this way to meet you and I grow when you fall. In the two-person exhibition with Mark Yang, Inanimatefy (2022, VSF), Jungyoon Hyen depicted a scene as if the two pieces were exchanging their respective lines, "All this way to meet you” and “I grow when you fall.” At the site, I got over you (2022) and I got over you (almost) (2022) were hung side by side on the wall like reliefs. If they were placed on the floor, they would have given off different motility. However, as they were hanging on the wall, the two seemed as if they were trying to declare the classifications of their own forms from the wall toward the inner space, or vice versa, while strongly expressing a sort of instantaneous force of condensation. By doing so, Hyen's sculptures take in the physical condition of the form and the contour on the surface as borders and push hands/bodies to extend in pursuit of signs of transformation toward the outside and the inside.

I grow when you fall,

steel, resin, silicone, silicone pigment, 60x134x66cm

2022

**

Hyen jumps into the imagination of space in a sculptural manner. Just as Gilles Deleuze traced the power and movement that mediate a kind of transition through Bacon's pictorial senses, including the relationship between forms and spaces, in Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation (Francis Bacon: Logique de la Sensation, 1981), Hyen constantly recalls the spatial situation in which certain shapes emerge through sculptural senses. Regarding these figures, Deleuze said, “Thus isolated, the Figure becomes an Image” and described the appearance of the images in Bacon's paintings as such figures as “the figure, which would move along the armature together with the pedestal.”[1] Georges Didi-Huberman describes figures as a comprehensive image, and he explains images in relation to the ghostly remnant, like fireflies.[2] The figures that emerged from Deleuze and Didi-Huberman's observations and converted subtly through Hyen's sculptures are a sort of image that implies the possibility of expanding to spatial imagination and the sense of division and overlap of time.

This is an old theme that she has dealt with in the form of video and installation in her work even before she newly recognized the sculptural sense through sculptural mediums and techniques. At the time, she pursued a way that combined time and space that can re-mediate the reality/present like a montage. As mentioned earlier, her recent sculpture pieces have combined media, forms, and narrativity (without descriptions) to be able to determine the dual/multiple relationships between individual components. Thus, they directly remind us of the sculptural senses that constantly re-mediate the remnant figures/images around forms.

(Left) I got over you (almost), steel, silicone, silicone pigment, 37x58x16cm, 2022

(Right) I got over you, steel, silicone, silicone pigment, 34x38x14cm, 2022

Therefore, I think I should wrap up this writing with All this way to meet you. The sculpture created by combining metal chains and clay is a kind of image that personifies objects and materials. Furthermore, it induces instant imagination about the two and brings out human figures. Thus, it opens up the inner and outer space around the piece. The object and the material are combined to bring out the figure that faces oneself, and there are unintended traces of countless lines in space and the borders created by them. Through the process of attempting to create indestructible images at such borders, it allows us to imagine the newly overlapped physical and abstract time and space, in other words, sculptural time and space. Its faint clue can be found in the unfinished pencil drawing on the empty wall of Hyen's studio.

[1] Deleuze, G. Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation; Francis Bacon: Logique de la Sensation (1981)

[2] Didi-Huberman, G. [2018]. Survival of the Fireflies [Mitchell, L. S., Trans.]. University of Minnesota Press. [Original work published 2009]

Soyeon Ahn (art critic)
Soyeon Ahn is an art critic. She has been interested in image thinking through language and has tried various writings. Recently, through the critical language and the act of writing, she is looking for the value and practice of artistic life. She is also experimenting critical collaboration as a creation. As a critical speaking activity, she planned and conducted“Interview Project-Artist of Our Time” (2021), and is researching the conditions and processes of contemporary change in sculpture.

Im youngzoo

Omyo Cho

Juri Lee

Shin Mi jung

Yoon Miryu

Heemin Chung

Lee Eun-sol

[Daum Kim] Critical Essay / KIM Sung woo

Routes Guided via Constructed Interfaces

[Doyoung Kim] Critical Essay / Mijung Kim

In between Swimming and Paddling

[Siwon Kim] Critical Essay / Jihan Jang

The Neverending Story

[KEEM Jiyoung] Critical Essay / Hyukgue Kwon

[Sungsil Ryu] Critical Essay/ Sungah Choo

(Overwhelmingly) Swollen Lo-fi Desire (too early) to be Dead: between raw objects and relief

[Sunghyeop Seo] Critical Essay/ Woo Hyunjung

The Right to be Here, the Monument to Save Today

[Ahn Kwanghwee] Critical Essay/ Seojin Yim

Space for the “Minority”

[Minsu Oh] Critical Essay/ Taehyun Kwon

New Technology, New Listening, New Angel

[Heejoon Lee] Critical Essay/ Somi Sim

Painting Contradicts Limits

[Hyelim Jun] Critical Essay/ Yuki Konno

Re-recognition of Frontality Recognizable within 0.3 Seconds: reinstalled/reset images from Hyelim Jun's work

[Jihyun Jung] Critical Essay/ Juri Cho

The Juxtaposition Technique of Hacked Objects - according to Jihyun Jung's alien assembly/disassembly methods

[Cha Ji Ryang] Critical Essay/ Wonhwa Yoon

[Jungyoon Hyun] Critical Essay/ Soyeon Ahn

An Image as a Structure