Exhibition Date : 2020.7.9 - 8.23

Opening Performance : July 9 Thu, 18:00

Kim Hyojae, <Fetal Education (胎敎 : to the upcoming Z)>, 11min, 2020 (with influencer Nara and performer Yang Jin Gyeong)

*Online opening performance will be streamed via Instagram (@arko_art_center) Live.

Location : ARKO Art Center Exhibition Hall 1, 2

*Due to COVID19, The Schedule might be changed. Please Check ARKO Art Center website before visiting.

Related events : Instagram Live Performance, Artist's talk (more information below)

Participating Artists : Ko Ancheol, kdk, Kim Mooyoung, Kim Jinhyeon, Kim Hyojae, Noh Sangho, Sohn Younwon × Lana Murdochy, eobchae × Ryu Sungsil, Lee Meehye, Lee Woosung, Lee Yoonseo, Jeon Minje, Jeong Asaran, Critical Hit, Han Jaesuk, Hong Minki, Hong Chaeyeon

Organized by Arts Council Korea

Opening Hours: Tues–Sun, 11am–7pm

* Last entry 6:30pm

* Extended opening on the last Wednesday of each month until 9pm

* Free entry

The proposal of this exhibition was made upon the following interest – how can the communication tool of the everyday transform contemporary art? Artworks utilizing various aspects of social network service has become a new trend since the 2010s. Especially for artists who began their career based on post-alternative spaces newly created in the 2010s, social media has been served as a key platform to express their identities and communicate on their artworks, and has been expanded into a major platform of their work.

The exhibition shows artworks that utilize the communication channels from YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and such as a methodology by artists from the older generation and newer generation. In so doing, the exhibition aims to map a new status of art in a world where social media has become a part of our life. The exhibition interweaves wide-ranging facets of various artworks in forms of painting, photography, installation and video – those that intentionally utilize light attributes or technical algorithms of social media images; those dealing with desire and ideologies found in content on social media; and those that contemplate on a virtual identity formed on social media or utilize social media as a means of communication beyond cultural and geographical differences – in hopes of reflecting on our own circumstances as we live in the endlessly renewed feeds of social media.

We hope this exhibition – which originally begun as a co-research by three curators of the generation when alternative spaces emerged in Korea, and three art majors in their 20s and 30s who grew up in social media landscape – could be an opportunity for communication beyond the generational gaps of cultures through common interest in social media.

Instagram Live Performance

Kim Hyojae, Prenatal Care (Dear Z), 11min, 2020 (with influencer Nara and performer Yang Jin Gyeong)

A/V Operator: Kkeugo-Kigo

Space Feelux, ARKO Art Center, Instagram

*Online performance will be streamed via Instagram (@arko_art_center) Live.

July 9 Thu., 18:00

July 29 Wed., 18:00

* Artist's talk will be streamed after the 2nd Live

Jeju-Seoul Dual Instagram Live Streaming

Ko Ancheol,
Here, There & Everywhere, 2020

ARKO Art Center exhibition hall 1, Jeju island, @h_there_e @here_t_e

July 19 Sun., 11:00-19:00, ARKO Art Center exhibition hall 1 & Jeju island

Aug 2 Sun., 11:00-19:00, ARKO Art Center exhibition hall 1 & Seetangraum, Jeju island (Instagram live between a basalt in Seetangraum, Jeju and a basalt replica in the exhibition hall, Seoul)

Artists’ Talk

Aug., 5th wed., 16:00 Space Feelux, ARKO Art Center

Artists: kdk, Sohn Younwon, Lee Woosung, Critical Hit, Hong Minki Moderators: Geum Jiwon, Kim Yubin, Kim Haelee

*The talk will be streamed online.

*The schedule and form of the programs may be subject to change due to COVID-19.

Installation : 1st Foor

Kim Jinhyeon

It is the once widely popular Pink Muhly Grass on the social media that I photographed. It used to be self-grown in the U.S. with not many people recognizing it about five years ago, but it gained a rapid fame on the social media, and it is widespread throughout the nation. When the Pink Muhly Grass blossoms, it is so popular that people line up to take selfies. It is as if the grass carries on its
life by returning to the social media as if bee pollens are picked up by honeybees and brought back to the hive. The genuine habitat for the Pink Muhly Grass might be the social media. I expressed such attributes by repeatedly uploading its photos on Instagram, downloading the uploaded images and uploading them again.

Kim Jinhyeon, 〈Muhlenbergia capillaris〉, 2018/2020

Kim Hyojae

'Default' is the originally set values by a computer program, also referring to the user that 'defaults' its virtual identity subjectively in a world where everything is converted into data to denounce the truth. Nara (@naras._), a user-model in the universe of Default, estimates her 'default' based on the values of data collected on YouTube and Instagram, and creates a new reality beyond virtuality and reality - a world of new-modeling. Nara in the
world of new-modeling declares 'default' as B-cut photos towards a complete identity in Xeno-asian: YouTuber
Nara in SSUL is aware that T-shirts with her face printed
in select shops in Harajuku, Japan. Nara whose face has been unwantedly printed is aware that her 'default' floats beyond a national boundary and virtuality, and reveals as 'Harajuku T-shirt memes' on YouTube.

Kim Hyojae, 〈Default〉, 2018

Lee Meehye

#NationalMagazine #Instavibe_Icon #notforreading #shootingbuddies #shootingwhatever #shapingthevibes #ShabbyLifetoElegantLife #KinfolkMagic #hipsteritem #NoKinfolk #NoCafes # Kinfolk _ThePerfectiontoInteriors #HotellikeHome #CafelikeHome #ForeignlikeHome #isitreallife #or #isitstaged #pretentiousshot #Envying_is_Losing #ConsumptionMakesCommunication #CommunicationMakesConsumption #funshopping #funlesslifetho #gettingon #withwhatyouget #LikeCapitalism

Lee Meehye, 〈KINFOLK in August〉, 2017

Sohn Younwon × Lana Murdochy

〈Linking Scenery〉 is a sound work based on digital friendship. We, Kurdistan-Scottish lesbian Lana Murdochy and Korean heterosexual Younwon Sohn have a conversation online using various keywords such as identity, future, long-distance relationship. The conversation that began in Amsterdam where we shared a studio together carries on till now when we live in Seoul and Edinburgh, respectively. Our stories shared in broken English update the contemporary by connecting the surrounding sceneries.

Sohn Younwon × Lana Murdochy, 〈Linking Scenery〉, 2020

Critical Hit

YouTube helping to richly fill up slivers of time. Yet, if the 'richness' is directed to discriminate women and remove the status of minorities, there must be something done to it. I became a beauty YouTuber myself to transform what is not right in the world of YouTube. I video-recorded my make-up routine based on one or two themes a week. Make Up Dash series is an attempt to overturn 'femininity' with 'makeup' which the society refers to it as the most 'feminine' act.

Critical Hit, 〈Drag King Make up Dash!〉, 2017

Lee Woosung

I delved into ways to tidy up my memory by looking
at the vertically stored photos in the photobook in
my phone: a bygone memory on parting away along with memories on landmark events, deeply ingrained memories, in-the-closet memories which I rarely take
out, shameful memories which happened to pop up, hazy memories for which I had to think hard to get their outline, and trivial, repetitive and anonymous memories. Then I thought, 'What if I paint all of those times?' while looking at the photobook at dawn one day. I painted on a piece of square-shaped paper of 11 cm by looking at the past photos, and by groping for my memory if there was no relevant photo. As such, I created a series of timeline with the combination of the past and present. It is a piece of work of continuously painting moments of the past that is further away and of the present that is closer to now, through which I am making another timeline on the social media.

Lee Woosung, 〈Night, Walk, Memories〉, 2017-

Noh Sangho

I randomly collect low-quality stock images online every day. I copy them with 'carbon paper' over A4 paper. Throughout the course, I add small elements or montage other images, to make a story. I have called myself as a 'sensitive person' that immediately responds to the virtual online world and the pouring images in the reality. That is why I use the 'carbon paper.' 'I' exist - like a very thin piece of 'carbon paper' - between the materials of input and reproduced/re-arranged output. A chapbook is a cheap book which was widely popular in the U.K. in the 19th century. The Great Chapbook II is a cluster of images that are popping out from a quilt with unconnected background pieces attached together as if to show off, just like an easily read and thrown-away chapbook by passengers.

Noh Sangho, 〈The Great Chapbook Ⅱ〉, 2018

Jeon Minje

#food #foodporn. Photos on food are posted on Instagram with many related hashtags. If uploading food shots has become a cultural act, what would be
the driving force to sustain it? If the human greed is one of the forces, how can it be represented in what form? This question was the motif for my work. For me, images with food hashtags are greedy data in quantitative and qualitative forms. That is why I collected, deconstructed and analysed a massive amount of food data, and re-set them with visuals and sounds.

Jeon Minje, 〈#shapeofgreed〉, 2019

Installation : 2nd Floor

Hong Minki

"A variety talk show unfolding in the state-of-the-art studio floating up in Seoul for the first time in Korea!" The first episode is based on a story of a neighbourhood by inviting residents of Mangwon-dong. It covers the modern history of the well-known area of 'Mangridan-gil' road, the current culture of consumption and the impact of the social media.

Hong Minki, 〈Real Survival Guide Gongjung Dosi〉, 2019

Kim Mooyoung

The video takes a close look at the life of a man who runs a YouTube channel on anti-communism. It focuses on the duality: his personal life versus life as a YouTuber, to explore an anti-communist emotional structure through his personal feelings. It shows the strong foundation of ideological

Kim Mooyoung, 〈유튜브 스타의 관점에서: 유튜브 버전〉, 2020

Lee Yoonseo

The artist’s desire to know everything about the visual information that is endlessly pouring in on social media. I swiftly record the afterimages of the images coming towards me, and keep on chasing after the forthcoming afterimages. The speed of the hand however cannot follow the speed of the restless heart not to miss out on anything. Among the various information, some are caught only partially, and some are erased or left undone by the speedy process of painting. The respective strong colors and strokes are collected to form an indistinct state where nothing seems particular. The images of my paintings which are formed through these repeated processes are about the balance of time that I am creating in the deep but shallow information.

Lee Yoonseo, 〈Plan B〉, 2018

Han Jaesuk

The social media is a utopian space for some, and a dystopian space for others. For me, the social media
is a third space and a space of possibilities. I love the vagueness of not belonging anywhere completely as a 'sandwiched' generation between the analogue and the digital worlds. 〈Live Feedback〉 embodies the analogue sentiment to be analogous to 'individuals' in the digitally representative world of Instagram. I wish that the audience within the system of this work could experience experimental aspects of the social media through mutual exchanges.

Han Jaesuk, 〈Live Feedback Ⅲ〉, 2020

eobchae × Ryu Sungsil

〈CHERRY BOMB〉 sought to imitate in low resolution a peculiar procedure where conspiracy and groundless rumors diffuse reflection via a virtual YouTuber named 'Cherry Jang,' rather ending up gaining trust. 'Cherry Chang' does a real-time relay with content on the nuclear crisis of North Korea – the imminent threat to South Koreans in April 2018 – based on the combination of the theory of fengshui(geomancy) and relevant international politics.

eobchae × Ryu Sungsil, 〈CHERRY BOMB〉, 2018

kdk

I think that we float around somewhere in the opposition or contrast of the following: exclusivity: infinite copying, material: non-material, offline: online, and analogue: digital. I photograph figurative scenes(corners of an airplane interior, sceneries and corners of an art museum, etc.) with a Polaroid camera and a Polaroid Lab to generate photos as materials, which I scan and upload on Instagram.

kdk, 〈instagram@kdkkdk_polaroid ver. 20191218_KE0865 ICN CAN〉, 2020

Jeong Asaran

〈Moment, Moment, Moment〉 is a work of repeatedly printing the information on the social media that is updated in real time by using the macro program set up in the laptop. The printed paper where the information generated in a moment when the audience witnessed is materialized is immediately discarded in the water tank placed below.

Jeong Asaran, 〈Moment, Moment, Moment〉, 2017

Ko Ancheol

I don't find Jeju particularly special because it is my hometown. 'Jeju' is like such a common basalt rock there. I took to Seoul the urethane model which I casted based on one of the nice-looking basalt rocks in my garden. I photographed the original basalt and the basalt-looking model, and suggested them as digital images in the social media.

Ko Ancheol, 〈Here, There & Everywhere〉, 2020

Hong Chaeyeon

The 'boundary' between square-shaped feeds and photos on Instagram are reflected as the space of images. A big world where images are clustered shows the art for images in the contemporary flow and the boundary of images for art. It is the world of boundaries substituting the real and virtual lives of people in the modern world.

Hong Chaeyeon, 〈Boundary Feed〉, 2020

Credits

Project Supervision by Lee Eunju


Curatorial Research by Kang Sung-eun, Geum Jiwon, Kim Yubin, Kim Haelee, Lee Kwan Hoon, Lee Eunju

Curated by Kang Sung-eun, Lee Eunju


Curatorial Advise by Lee Kwan Hoon


Curatorial Assistance by Geum Jiwon, Kim Yubin, Kim Haelee


Exhibition Design by Kiljong arcade

Graphic Design by waterain

Photo by Cho Youngha

Translated by Kate Choi, Geum Jiwon

Cooperated from ARKO Art Center: Noh Haena, Chae B.H. Jun, Oh Eunmi