{"id":4502,"date":"2021-03-16T11:40:40","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T02:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kiaf.org\/?post_type=insights&p=4502"},"modified":"2021-03-16T11:47:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T02:47:18","slug":"the-secret-life","status":"publish","type":"insights","link":"https:\/\/kiaf.org\/en\/insights\/4502","title":{"rendered":"The Secret Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

2021.3.9 – 4.9
\nJaye Rhee, Max Frisinger, Sejin Kim, Hans Op de Beeck, Mark Manders<\/p>\n

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Gallery Baton is pleased to present \u201cThe Secret Life\u201d from 9th March to 9th April in the Hannam-dong exhibition space, Seoul. Constructing sophisticatedly-crafted unique mise-en-sc\u00e8ne of an association of videos, sculptures and collages by five artists, the exhibition carefully portrays an undertone of \u2018the secret life\u2019 through their authentic narratives as though a collection of short tales unfolds distinctive separate storylines.<\/p>\n

Every artwork can finally be acknowledged and gain its influence and public value by going through a stage of \u2018being exposed\u2019 such as exhibitions. The phase lets the work eventually be a subject of critique and be categorized depending on its art-historical context. When dominant expression and style of a piece are accepted as an aspect of specific trends and groups, the work is perceived as \u2018an outcome derived from an existing mode\u2019 and it is often consumed or discussed within the framework of what the specific groups, trends and generations have consciously sought for.<\/p>\n

At the same time, what we should not overlook is that every single work conveys a statement of artists\u2019 life. It may not have a strict uniformity of WYSIWYG (an acronym for What You See Is What You Get)\u2014an editing-software allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance\u2014however, \u2018the second trait\u2019, artists\u2019 experiences and origins inevitably emphasized while encountering objects or events, is a fingerprint or historical data for an artwork which can be regarded as either a product or output. By sharing the perspective, the viewers will discover that each work of this exhibition not only is a result of representation but plays a role of a window giving a glimpse into parts of the artists\u2019 life. Thus, what the audience should not miss at this exhibition is the experience of looking at the sealed images while already indulging in thoughts rather than indulging in thoughts triggered by the images.<\/p>\n

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Once Called Future (2019, 3-channel video installation with sound) by Jaye Rhee subtly delivers inspiration and nostalgic sensitivity of poetic narratives instead of taking unidirectional attitude, flamboyance and swiftness which are typical representative characteristics of video works. Along with the monologue containing a love story an old man has experienced in his early days and his personal and profound contemplation he has realized throughout his entire life to this age, the video shows cross-edited photographs of the Saturn V rocket and Futuro House derelict on the outskirt of Texas under the hypothetical situation where a future blueprint of the past already has become the past. The old man\u2019s monologue, \u201cLikewise you give the flowers because you give the flowers, because you have the emotion that makes you give flowers and you will go on giving the flowers\u2026giving the flowers\u2026\u201d demonstrates the artist\u2019s kind attention to fragments of life not glamorous yet significant enough to each individual.<\/p>\n

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Sejin Kim\u2019s Messenger(s) (2019, 2-channel 3D motion graphic video on each OLED & LED Monitor, stereo sound, LED lights) was premiered at the 16th SongEun Art Award exhibition in 2019. The video depicts \u201cLaika\u201d\u2014a dog on board Sputnik 2 launched by the Soviet Union in 1975\u2014in an extremely detailed manner. With Laika\u2019s image realized by the 3D digital motion graphic repeatedly crossing over the right and left of the monitor, the lighting fixture and Nasa-recorded sound of the installation metaphorically suggest the hidden side of the early space exploration era more than half a century ago. Laika whose eyes and expression seem to show a premonition of his fate dauntlessly gazes into the distance in the spaceship without a promise of returning; the scene combined with the vividly directed landscape of outer-space consequently encourages the audience to reflect upon the Laika\u2019s fate and life for a moment.<\/p>\n

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Hans Op de Beeck, a Belgium contemporary artist, presents Dog (2019, polyester, coating) \u2014a life-sized sculpture in the shape of a dog taking a rest letting his stomach down on the floor. Having the meticulously represented silky hair which covers the entire body, the dog figure with eyes calmly closed looks like enjoying the comfortable moments but showing a sign of being tired at the same time. Especially, its grey tone similar to the colour of the exhibition space\u2019s achromatic floor generates the placid ambience and a sense of relief as if the long break the dog is taking would never end. This work successfully delivers the message of the artist who has been consistently exploring existential angst and stories of individuals who belong to the finite and complicated stage\u2014life.<\/p>\n

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Fragment of Forgetting (2019, patinated bronze, brass, wood) is a human-face-shaped sculpture by a Dutch artist, Mark Manders. On a delicately manufactured wooden shelf, the figure looks like being corroded by an external force and its remaining part above the lips leads the viewers to conjure up a gentle facial expression. In the case of sculptures containing figurative elements, their absent parts are not necessarily equivalent to a blank space of paintings since the sections are \u2018Spaces of Possibility\u2019 which can be once occupied or reasonably inferred from the rest within an imaginary realm. The presence of the work\u2019s vertical structure is more prominent on its sides and back because the figurative traces of the front disappear on the sections and these sides rather reveal rough features reminiscent of artefacts from the Bronze Age which have seemingly waited for being excavated for all those billions of years. The paradoxical coexistence of practical forms and a desire for decomposition in one sculpture consequently indicates seething energy underneath the peaceful surface.<\/p>\n

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Max Frisinger, a German artist, has shown two-dimensional installations whose titles are adopted from names of nebulae such as Volans (2015, polyethylen, wood, LED), Cygnus (2015), Leo (2015). The works which consist of found objects such as LED lightings or worn-out nets no longer used prove that the artist can recreate the aesthetic qualities of industrial products whose functional worth is already extinct by establishing a colony of light achieved by illuminating effects thoroughly directed depending on his intention. Frisinger\u2019s interests in the border between art and the ordinary and its expandability in terms of contemporary discourses are distinct in H.D.N.R.I.B.I.R. (2016, post cards and painting magnets), the series also displayed in the exhibition. This assemblage of a pair of a postcard and a magnetic which both are staple souvenirs of museums provides a motif for a new story and instant dynamics over the work as each independent work\u2019s image and narrative are connected with images of the other works.<\/p>\n

GALLERY BATON
\n116, Dokseodang-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Korea
\n+82 2 597 5701<\/p>\n

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