NOTE FOR AHN(安), GALLERY 175, SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, 2019
Exhibition Note for AHN (安) was a two-person exhibition I organized with Ahn Jaeyoung, which began from the question of whether an individual could escape from being possessed — one of the mysterious symptoms containing elements of superstition from Korea. The exhibition, tracks how images attained from one’s superstitious beliefs relate to mythical and religious images, then recombines and deconstructs them. Under our collaboration lies the hope to contact invisible but clearly existing sensual phenomena, and to together overcome anxieties, interpreting phenomena as the destiny of artist/mediator.
Paying attention to the number of tattoos on Ahn Jaeyoung‘s body (the Chinese character 安, a blue diamond, an arrow, a red-haired Anne, Piglet, Mickey Mouse, and an epitaph of Nikos Kazantzakis), I interpreted each image as a charm to ward off Ahn’s anxieties. I then, researched mythical and religious imagery in order to strengthen the shamanistic narrative. Observing that the number 12 frequently works as important motive in the myths of many different cultures, I set Ahn Jaeyoung‘s birthday, December 12, as a central axis and tried to discover the references to god-related signs from the number 12. Combining the symbolic world of the image, language, color, and numbers from ancient myths from twelve animals that guards tombs, I created a chart for a system of faith and proposed a psychological space for a praying man, just like the secret connotation of the ancient character, 安
NOTE FOR AHN(安), GALLERY 175, SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, 2019
Exhibition Note for AHN (安) was a two-person exhibition I organized with Ahn Jaeyoung, which began from the question of whether an individual could escape from being possessed — one of the mysterious symptoms containing elements of superstition from Korea. The exhibition, tracks how images attained from one’s superstitious beliefs relate to mythical and religious images, then recombines and deconstructs them. Under our collaboration lies the hope to contact invisible but clearly existing sensual phenomena, and to together overcome anxieties, interpreting phenomena as the destiny of artist/mediator.
Paying attention to the number of tattoos on Ahn Jaeyoung‘s body (the Chinese character 安, a blue diamond, an arrow, a red-haired Anne, Piglet, Mickey Mouse, and an epitaph of Nikos Kazantzakis), I interpreted each image as a charm to ward off Ahn’s anxieties. I then, researched mythical and religious imagery in order to strengthen the shamanistic narrative. Observing that the number 12 frequently works as important motive in the myths of many different cultures, I set Ahn Jaeyoung‘s birthday, December 12, as a central axis and tried to discover the references to god-related signs from the number 12. Combining the symbolic world of the image, language, color, and numbers from ancient myths from twelve animals that guards tombs, I created a chart for a system of faith and proposed a psychological space for a praying man, just like the secret connotation of the ancient character, 安
Installation view of Jan van eyck academie openstudios 2021 Still cut, The geometry of the hunter, Single channel video, 2021
The Porous Material Conversion: C-Flex Incubator, Gwangju, Korea, 2022
The Porous Material Conversion: C-Flex Incubator is an audiovisual installation work that investigates the relationship of the body with the research on the production, weathering, and preservation of plant-based biodegradable leather through the tea fermentation experiment. The artist reproduces the nameless, yet the very first organism, bacteria that had been exterminated by oxygen produced by cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) in the early oxygen-free earth 3.5 billion years ago. Wondering whether these bacteria ‘might have been the common ancestors of all living creatures on earth’, she reflects on the material’s chemical evolution and extinction through the sound, smell, shape, texture, and color observed during the fermentation process. The term C-Flex (Carbonii dioxidum Flexioni) in the title means the refraction of carbon dioxide and reflects the artist’s hope and belief that life will reemerge in a future environment of lower oxygen levels caused by CO₂ emissions. The water tank used in the project, which was inspired by the incubator for babies, serves not only as an experimental tool designed to measure the changes in oxygen, carbon dioxide, methane, temperature, and humidity levels that occur throughout the life cycle of bacteria but also as a miniature world that represents the changing global environment. Soh Boram’s reflection on the objectified animal body based on research on extinct deer and the leather trade extends to the material growing inside the water tank and repeats itself through the artificial plant-based body. Through the recording device attached to the water tank and the microscope connected to the screen, the work visualizes the growing process from bacteria to flesh and throughout the body, eventually offering a brief moment to breathe with C-Flex.
