Crack on the Wall #3

Hur Shan

150x60x12cm

plywood, timber, concrete, tea bowls

Hur Shan has worked on pillar installations since 2008 when he was studying at the Slade School of Fine Art’s graduate school. When seeing a damaged wall or pillar in the venue, the viewer plunges into confusion for a moment trying to figure out whether it’s real or fake. He converts a complete space into an incomplete space through this type of work, incarnating inequality within equality and contradictions in our society. Hur hopes his viewers could experience a diversity of imaginative narratives in a new space of illusions.

The Reenacted StageⅠ

Kim Hyosuk

2010

181x223cm

oil, acrylic on canvas

Kim Hyosuk has completed her works by capturing damaged construction sites in paintings after taking photographs of such sites. Kim’s work assumes a shape in which a myriad of fragments such as pipes found at a construction site and concrete with broken wire mesh move like an organism. These concrete structures that are fragmented and fluid stand for contemporary humans who are living unstable and spiritless lives in society. She also intends to represent modern and contemporary Korean history fraught with aftereffects caused by rapid modernization with a space packed with collapsed buildings and debris.

BJ Cherry Jang 2018. 04

Ryu Sungsil

2018

single channel video

Ryu Sungsil has worked in a wide variety of mediums from video and installation to an Internet application site based on her concerns for issues and phenomena arising from neoliberalism. BJ Cherry Jang 2018 4 and BJ Cherry Jang 2018 9 are Ryu’s early videos uploaded to YouTube in 2018. The artist herself appears in the videos as BJ Cherry Jang. Cherry Jang narrates fake news, pseudo information, and an aspect of a phony online marketing industry. It is hard to discern if this video is art or just some eccentric YouTube content. Assuming the format of B-rated black comedy, these videos unmask the circumstances of ordinary citizens who are seriously influenced by fake news and unidentified public opinions and the duplicity of the Internet, insightfully criticizing our present society with art and non-art.

Face of city_Gwangju (Archive)

Lee Jaehyung

2021

222x1038cm, 5m15s

single channel video

Face of City_Gwangju is a work in which texts found on social networking sites (SNS) and created in real-time in the Gwangju region on the themes of human rights, hope, and peace are analyzed by an artificial intelligence (AI) programmed to learn Gwangju citizens’ emotions and sentiments. For this, the artist made the AI learn a diversity of emotions any citizen regardless of age or sex feels at the web site the artist himself developed and applied its results to his work. One makes a happy face if the result analyzed by AI is positive but one makes a sad face if the result is negative. On show at this exhibition are a real-time version in which the monitor shows changes in facial expression and the main work in a facade form that captures and edits only smiling faces of many different people.

The value of labor

Yu Jiwon

2020

wasted paper, plastic bag, cart, mixed media, variable installation

Yu Jiwon has worked on the theme of A Reconstruction of Value, representing social value and elements shared by individuals and groups in sculpture, video, and installation. The Value of Labor, part of A Reconstruction of Value on display at the exhibition started with questioning if the value of labor is fairly and justly evaluated in our society. The Value of Labor consists of a video and installation. This video displays a senior citizen who collects wastepaper as well as the numerical value (hourly wage) converted from his working hours. These figures show that his earnings are lower than the minimum wage. Yu criticizes the value of labor in our society and social inequality through this work by showcasing superficial amount and weight of labor.

Our daily life that seems natural

Yoon Soyeon

2020

80.3x116.7cm

oil on canvas

Yoon Soyeon has worked on portraying spaces and things realistically and imparting her imagination to such elements. Our daily routines have undergone changes owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our external activity has been curbed, contactless activity has become part of our lives, and the arena of our living has been limited due to social distancing. Yoon has said social distancing has served as an opportunity to spend more time at home and reflect on her everyday life she has enjoyed so far. As she is at home, things such as a coffee cup, a delivery box, a shabby sofa and chair, a flowerpot, and a paper bag have come into sight. As she spends more time with her mother at home, Yoon has an opportunity to observe her mother and pay attention to the plants her mother has grown. The artist represents her life at home in a witty manner, depicting her daily routines realistically.

Tiptoes

Choi Sungim

2021

brass, stainless steel, acrylic beads, variable installation

Choi Sungim stages scenes by putting together a variety of materials commonly found in our surroundings, such as vinyl, thread, acrylic objects and onion nets. Choi has pursued a balance between two conflicting notions, such as the positive and negative, presence and absence, warmth and coldness, and nature and art, trying to associate life with art through her work. She intends to narrate the manner of our existence and life in her work Stand on Tiptoes. Standing on tiptoes is critical and precarious but retains one’s will to get over this precarious situation. Choi executed this work, thinking about the value of our everyday life and wishing those who have a hard time brought forth by COVID-19 can have hope in their lives. The Golden Blanket is a work made by weaving cable ties we call twist ties. The blankets she made are different from those we use in our daily life. Her blanket is hard and so inconvenient and uncomfortable. This work is a representation of contemporary people who live in comfort and discomfort at the same time.

Corona Camouflage - Mobile Connector (Document)

Choi Sun

2021

single channel video, 5m49s

Choi Sun began the project Butterflies in 2014. This project is completed not only by the artist but also by a host of ordinary citizens (migrant workers, little children over two, elementary schoolchildren, adults, senior citizens, and other citizens regardless of sex, religion, nationality and disability). They blow their breath on blue paint on a canvas: this project began and was completed by numerous people’s breath. Choi embarked on the project Corona Camouflage-Mobile Connector (Document) to call on viewers since a number of exhibitions have been cancelled and chances to meet viewers have dwindled due to social distancing brought forth by COVID-19. Choi puts the images of deformed spikes of the COVID-19 virus on her car and goes all over the country to meet viewers directly. Corona Camouflage-Mobile Connector (Document) on display at this exhibition is a video featuring all these processes. While Corona Camouflage-Mobile Connector (Document) is concerned with her journey to encounter viewers, Corona Camouflage-Mobile Connector is composed of images shot by the artist using VR headsets and goggles, traveling around the country, through which viewers are able to experience scenery across the nation. This work reflects her will to meet more viewers at this point in time when social distancing is seriously required.