Eyes of a Curator, Tips for Viewing the VR Exhibition (12) Curator Seoyoon Jung from the Kumho Museum of Art
2017-01-02 l Hit 1421
Eyes of a Curator, Tips for Viewing the VR Exhibition
(12) Curator Seoyoon Jung from the Kumho Museum of Art
 Captured image of artist JE_:/BAAK’s VR exhibition |
Artist JE_:/BAAK’s solo exhibition《Prologue》
The year has changed again. Some regret that the past year went by quickly and others are bored by the year lasting so long, but time is flowing fairly by for everyone. I am introducing the solo exhibition《Prologue》by artist JE_:/BAAK to have the opportunity to contemplate how time is flowing as it ushers in the new year.
JE_:/BAAK is an artist who questions and reinterprets values that modern people trust blindly by using various media such as video, photography, and installations. The artist questions diverse values like ‘time’, ‘money’, and even ‘masterpieces’. For example, his work "Petition Principii" uses the Mondrian paintings that we are familiar with. After taking pictures from various angles of Mondrian’s paintings, which are known as the essence of abstract modernism, he transforms the pieces according to his own and audiences’ viewpoints, thereby breaking down the symbolic status of the original work.
The work "Clock, Me & Time" questions another established subject. In this work, he turns the hands of a pocket watch manually and shows how the speed of time varies according to each individual. Through the work, he casts doubts on the concept of time as absolute.
Curator Seoyoon Jung from the Kumho Museum of Art, who planned the exhibition, commented (by) saying, "While the visual results of his work are diversely expressed, it is also possible to get a glimpse of the Buddhist concept of ‘emptiness’ throughout the artist’s work. The idea of 'emptiness' insists that there is no fixed entity in all things, and his work shows viewers the dissolution of absolute things and the loss of their functions."
Artist JE_:/BAAK worked with the Kumho Museum of Art in 2011 for the first time as he participated in the 7th Kumho Art Studio Residence Program as a resident. In 2012, he was selected as the 12th Kumho Young Artist, and hosted The Young Artist Solo Exhibition《Various》at the Kumho Museum of Art the following year in 2013. Curator Seoyoon Jung said that it was comparatively easy to organize the exhibition because she was well-acquainted with the artist.
The title of the exhibition,《Prologue》, was chosen to lend order to his previous work and to make a new leap forward. The exhibition was designed to show three of his representative pieces in each space. Among them, the work “The Structure of”, 5 video installations of spinning carnival rides without any exits, was displayed in font of the exhibition and made a strong impression.
 View of artist JE_:/BAAK’s VR exhibition. By placing video installations in octagon-shaped spaces, a sense of space was added to the work. |
It will be a VR (Virtual Reality) exhibition, which will be held online, so the exhibition has less of a three-dimensional feeling than an actual space. Nevertheless the curator tried to create a space that she would not normally dream of by discussing it with the artist, since she could create something physically impossible as a virtual exhibition. The curator created an exhibition hall with two octagonal spaces around the cube-shaped space and installed three video installations to add a three-dimensional effect, projecting videos and displaying photographs in the octagonal spaces to balance the exhibition space. Unfortunately, during this process, some of the work that the curator originally envisioned could not be included due to technical problems.
The curator commented, “Artist JE_:/BAAK uses various media and I regret that I could not show many pieces of his. If the technology develops further, I would like to plan for the following; the work and exhibition space that were difficult to incorporate due to technical limitations, a device that makes viewers instantly feel the scale of the work, and many other things. It is advantageous that viewers can access the online exhibition more easily than offline exhibitions. If there are people who are not able to come to actual exhibition halls, I would like them to have the opportunity to expand their interests to other pieces by artist JE_:/BAAK through experiencing his oeuvre in this VR exhibition.”
Meanwhile, the Kumho Museum of Art is holding an exhibition《Journey to a Fluid Island》, which includes 14 Korean artists aged in their thirties and forties, featuring Seoungeun Kang, Soonyoung Kwon, Jungwook Kim, and others until this coming February 12th. ![]()
(02)720-5114
2017.1. 11 ⓒKorean Artist Project
Text and images may not be reproduced, reprinted, or redistributed without express consent.
