Acceptance 수용, 2013_ Q&A

Questions;

1. 최근에 일련의 네온사인 작업을 하고 있습니다. 

라이트와 선전문구가 결합된 네온사인에 관심을 갇는 이유와 본인들 작업에서의 활용 사례에 대해 알고싶습니다.

2. 우리가 사는 현대사회 풍경을 "완벽함"이라는 다분히 양가적인 단어 하나로 함축한 이유가
궁금합니다.

3. 이번 전시에서 두분에게는 유리건물의 옥외공간이라는 매우 까다로운 전시공간이 주어졌습니다. 

단어, 빛, 흰색, 유리관 등의 요소들은 장소특정성을 최대한 반영한 것으로 여겨지는데요, 

한정된 장소조건을 어떻게 해석했는지 알려주십시오.


Answers;

NEON LIGHT/CONTEMPORARY ART:

Light is a medium widely used in contemporary art. We are inspired by the/stand of the shoulders of  works a giants like Jenny Holzer, Dan Flavin, Moholo-Nagy, Otto Piene, Piet Mondrian and many more.

Jenny Holzers unforgettable work: “Protect me from what I want” on Time Square,  Dan Flavins supprematist  influence light sculptures, Moholo-Nagy´s “Space Modulator”, Otto Piene´s “Light Ballet” and Mondrian´s “Broadway Boogie-Woogie”.

WHY PERFECT?

The letters forming the word P-E-R-F-E-C-T,  are a “perfect” choice, for a perfect, meaning in this case, suitable adaptation to the situation. We do not judge, we embrace the given circumstances and adapt to them.

This fluorescent light tube installation is the second one we did so far. The first one was “CONCEPTS IN REHAB” was presented at Daegu Photo Biennale 2012 (“Science of Photography”, curated by Young June Lee), for which we did exhibition design as KIM KIM GALLERY for the first time.

FLUORESCENT NEON TUBES:

Why does the good old-fashioned Neon Light appeal to us?

It is neutral and not neutral at all at the same time.

It represent an almost spiritual source of light, even if we are of quite unspiritual character, as well as a highly standardized, excessively connotated industrial product.

TITLES/SOME EXAMPLES:

We are intrigued by titles and use language in art carefully.

A title is also a work of Art and we give it special attention because for us it is a transfer of the artwork.

We are not at all interested in political statement, which is a strong political statement, what we mean is that we refuse the widely spread political paraphrase kitsch.

Our titles: let´s have a closer look at some of them:

“The early worm, catches the bird.” Derives for example from the

Genesis P-Orridges born Neil Andrew Megson first in his parents attic, recorded Album from 1968, entitled “Early Worm”,  which was called “the early worm”, but only one copy was ever produced. A second album, Catching the Bird, was recorded but never pressed. On of the themes driving the exhibition was “success”, and how it comes in many different shapes.

“Don´t Hassel the Hoff”, which was a show we showed in Switzerland and the title of an installation we showed at Agnes B. in Paris, driven by the observation of David Hasselhoff primarily as a neuralgic point in the field of global culture; he becomes worthy of sculpture not due to an act of condescension from the supposed heights of cultural commentators, who find the man cutely odd and thus in some way relevant for a current culture of cute oddness, but due to a different quality, his exquisite emptiness as a popular figure with at the same time an extremely exaggerated rhetoricism, his dependable quality as a walking mise-en-abyme effect. (please not that I am quoting shamelessly from “it all, indefinite article” by Clemens Kruemmel.)

The title “CONCEPTS IN REHAB” has a more personal origin and refers to a conversation between us and the curator Claudia Pestana about the works of Phillip K. Dick, which are a constant source of inspiration for us. Everything is a matter of perception. The ground is liable to shift under your feet. A protagonist may find himself living out another person's dream, or he may enter a drug-induced state that actually makes better sense than the real world, or he may cross into a different universe completely, hence the title.

LANDSCAPES:

Combining both their physical origins and the cultural overlay of human presence, often created over millennia, landscapes reflect the living synthesis of people and place vital to local and national identity.  Landscapes, their character and quality, help define the self image of a region, its sense of place that differentiates it from other regions. It is the dynamic backdrop to people’s lives. The writer Peter Handke uses the landscape images in his stories most widely to describe the characters of his figures.

PERFECT AGAIN:

 “PERFECT” refers to billboard and publicity being part of contemporary landscape almost everywhere.  and also to the disappearance of billboards due to media based PR. But it´s also an evaluation, in this case of perfection. “Perfection” is, broadly, a state of completeness and flawlessness. The term "perfection" is actually used to designate a range of diverse, if often kindred, concepts. These concepts have historically been addressed in a number of discrete disciplines, notably mathematics, physics, chemistry, ethics, aesthetics, (art), ontology, and theology.

The notion of perfection has given rise to a singular paradox: that the greatest perfection is imperfection. Imperfection is perfect in technology, in the sense that irregularity is useful. This almost perfect light emitter is a juncture between the material and immaterial world. We refer with “PERFECT” to an social landscape, the landscape of economy and consumerism, which is more dominant to the industrialized world than is the natural landscape, but note: we do not criticize it.

We construct a billboard-like structure with the word P-E-R-F-E-C-T written with fluorescent tubes of 2 different length constructing the letters. The structure itself is of metal tubes, to which the neon tubes are fixed. The power supplies are inside a watertight switch box, fixed to the structure. 

Sep. - Oct. 2012

Paldang