Choi Houngcheol

Seoul International Media Art Biennale Exhibition Manager

Seoul MOA Curator

 

Kim Heeseon who has spent much time in preparation and assiduity for her new work is finally debuting her first exhibition at HAN JI YUN Contemporary Space in Beijing. She has made unique experiments in her works through blending reality and fiction as well as amplifying mutual connection by bearing down boundaries between personal and others’ lives.  She is also presenting to the Chinese audience her <Crystalseeing> series of beautiful collection of glass capsules which has drawn much attention during 2008 Spring Seoul presentation, as well as her new piece <Streaming Scene>, a multi-channel video installation piece with sculptural object. She received education from famous art academies both in Korea and Germany, and also has received art awards from both countries.  After graduating at Hong-ik University, she continued her studies in Germany at the internationally recognized Duesseldorf Kunst Academie and Cologne Media Art Academy University and is continuously invited to exhibitions and art festivals in Europe to showcase her art work.

 

Kim Heeseon, who finds her source of creative inspiration from human phenomenon such as memory, is creating series of works which attempt at multi-faceted communication through the medium of records of traces and marks left by personal memories which cannot be but naturally bound to be modified and contorted. As our childhood play of attempting to communicate through a paper cup phone connected by a string, individual records and information floating in one’s mind is combined, distorted or embellished then portrayed in the form of memory. <Crystalseeing, 2008> represents the idea of bringing out “moments of happiness” from people’s valuable memories, portrayed through interview format videos inserted in crystal balls.  The next series <Crystalseeing II, 2008> focuses more on acoustic memory as an installation piece responding to the volume of sound by brightness of light.  As all surround sound of nature and the level of one’s memory meet, one sinks deeply into that space.

 

A tall pagoda stands in the center of the gallery as if a strong neck of a steed.  It is a part of Kim Heeseon’s new work <Streaming Scene, 2008>.  Despite being a man-made structure, the architecture which best harmonizes with nature is probably the pagoda.  <Streaming Scene>, a work of a 4.6 meter hexagonal pillared pagoda at the center surrounded by video installed four screens around the edges gives a four colored joy for audiences enjoying the work in all four dimensions.  Pagodas are usually erected at risky, high places near a creek, or a steep cliff allowing an open view of nature’s beauty.  It served as not only a resting place for a wanderer, but a place of play and amusement to poets for conversation, inspiration and composition of poetry.  Today, it is a space of sharing openness with anyone alike the free nature of today’s internet.

 

One of the traditional scenery frequently portrayed in East Asian culture is painting of a pagoda surrounded and circled by water.  However, in this gallery, instead of becoming the object of view inside the painting, the pagoda acts in the role of singular and third person by standing in the position of an audience.  The appearance of the pillar and ceiling without a wall, sprouting up from the ground is similar to that of the traditional pagoda described above; however, as the overall outer appearance is isolated, it suggests a lighthouse shining with a powerful light into the night sea.  A lighthouse is a symbol of solitude.  However, it also represents hope and salvation.  Today’s translation of a lighthouse is probably the antennae of communication as that of Namsan Seoul Tower.

 

The artist’s utopia presents itself where meets the glance of the audience when following the branches of light effused from the pavilion. <WuLingTaoYuan(武陵桃源)> was precedented by Tao Yenming(陶淵明)’s <TaoHuaYuanJi(桃花源記)>, as a utopian place of eternal life of health and happiness without labor.  Chosun Dynasty’s Ahn Pyoung royalty was awed by the spectacle of the utopia and recorded the scene through artist Ahn Kyun(安堅)’s <MengYouTaoYuanTu(夢遊桃源圖), 1447> on silk. Sometimes confused with Thomas Moore’s ‘Utopia’, it is an ideal reachable if by opportunity an entrance connected with the world of reality can be found.  An ideal utopia for those living in modernized and rapidly changing cosmopolitan cities such as Seoul, Beijing and New York, connoting specific images such as comfort of life, materialistic abundance, political power, is within the new city which is just across the river, not a vain quest.

 

<Streaming Scene, 2008> is a piece looking onto the carefree life of a modern day’s man who has incidentally walked into utopia like the Fisher of Utopia.  All scenes are inter-connected and are divided into distant, mid-distant, and close range views.  The distant view is everyday life’s backdrop of the view of the unmoving mountain spreading across the horizon.  These mountains are actual mountains surrounding Seoul which every Seoul citizen is accustomed to seeing everyday.  The imagery representing the city, such as high apartment compounds, factories, Parliament, 63 Building, etc float down as if peach flowers flowing along the creek’s current and layer by layer form this world’s features.  In between the other shore and the pagoda flow a large river’s currents penetrating and connecting all images.  This current not only divides the two worlds, but also suggests the different time flow of each world.

 

The close range view of the image’s lower half portraying the background of a far away city compact with tall buildings, is the most nearby view seen by the pagoda, and Kim Heeseon’s utopia of people escaping from the busy city.  Smile substituted an answer in Li Bai(&#63969;白)’s <ShanZhongWenDa(山中問答)> to those living in <ShanZhongWenDa (山中問答)> and paradoxically looking down at a river which cannot be crossed is not different then contemplation of desire.  Desire shines where it cannot be fulfilled and this “place” locates itself between “form(色)” and “emptiness(空)”, and between reality and ideality.  Therefore, the rolling river is desire.  However, even if we living in a world of idealistic freedom and peace, by any reckoning, it might only be people each drawing images we wish, naming it as we wish and being satisfied with it.  Kim Heeseon has drawn this Utopia as an isolated island as to not allow us to fall into the pitfall of nihilism, and encourages us to be free from the reality of fixed ideology.

 

金希宣

 

1986-1990   就读于弘益大学，韩国

"Internatioal Film Festival-Aubagne", Aubagne, France

 

Exhibition Period: 11.1 ~ 11.23.2008