Today is Boring..., 2005

Photo by Lee Jongmyeung
Installation view at Project Space Sarubia, Seoul
Mar. 2005
wood, paint, cuckoo clock, light, aluminum, adhesive film
Dimensions variable

Photo by Kim Youngchul, Dongwoo Film

The exhibition ‘Today is boring…’, an extension of a previous film project ‘Mind the Gap’ is an installation work making use of and playing with the film’s ‘set’.
Filmmaking is a process which has to deal with incorporating, at once, ‘material’ and ‘immaterial’ elements (factors/conditions). In comparison to other art forms, such as sculpture, the film medium in its completed state manifests an immaterial form, masking much of the enormous material components –e.g. human labour, equipment, etc—involved in its making. In this respect, the film ‘set’ can be seen as the core site wherein the battle with materiality is fought most fiercely.

The installation project influenced by and feeding on the ambiance of the set of the film ‘Mind the Gap’, however, holds (recalls) only a few factors of the actual film. For instance: the material, thus touchable space and immaterial, thus untouchable space, such as the makeshift walls, fluorescence lamps or cuckoo clock.

The wall colour, ‘brown’ which triggers associations with chocolate, earth, and rust, rather than a colour per se, may be taken as materiality or texture. Also it signifies ‘Beuys Snobbism’ (snobbism à la Beuys), a widely shared code in the visual (fine) arts and as such frames the work’s position in relation to Art History. The ‘cuckoo clock’ which was used as a method of irony in ‘Mind the Gap’, as a typical Chinese fakery is in itself an object of kitsch and irony. And as such in keeping with the film set’s fake nature it just about manages to function.

The installation title, ‘Today is boring…’ takes from the name of the TV programme within the film ‘Mind the Gap’. The title hinges on the TV programme protagonists’ contradictory characteristics and thus their human nature. Also ‘Today is boring’ is the name of an arty video rental store situated in Hoxton, a trendy area in East London habituated by the yuppies at a time when the city is enjoying an unprecedented economic boom.

http://www.aaa.org.hk/WorldEvents/Details/3527

영화는 물질성과 비물질성을 동시에 가지는 작업이다. 영화 세트는 이미지를 창조하는 과정에 있는 물질성(materiality)과의 전쟁과도 같다.

영화 `언문일치`의 촬영 세트에서 영향받고 공급받은 분위기를 보여주는 이 전시는 사실 `언문일치`의 작은 요소들만 기억하고 있다. 물질적이고 만질 수 있는 공간과 조명이 비추고 있는 만질 수 없는 공간, 가벽, 형광등 스탠드, 뻐꾸기 시계등이다.

벽색으로 선택된 흙, 초코렛, 녹 등을 연상시키는 갈색은 색이라기 보다 여기서는 물질성, 질감인 한편, 미술에서 흔한 보이스식 스노비즘이기도 하다.
이미 `언문일치`에서 아이로니의 방법으로 쓰인 뻐꾸기 시계는 키치하고 아이로니한 중국산 인데, 영화 세트 와 같이 겨우 기능한다.

설치제목인 `Today is boring...`은 `언문일치`에서 등장인물들의 모순된 모습, 그래서 인간적이라는 등장인의 실체를 밝히는 영화안의 티비 프로그램의 제목이다. 한편 현재 경제 호황중인 런던의 여피들 사이에서 인기있는 Hoxton 광장부근의 근사하고 예술적인 비디오 대여점의 상호에서 따왔다.

Installation in   progress
Mar. 2005