P.S.1 — New York
The First Experience of Communication
In the forty-one-year trajectory of my artistic practice, there have been two decisive turning points.
One of them was my experience in New York through the P.S.1 program.
The contemporary art that I had come to understand through books and reflection clearly stood within the historical narratives of Western art. For me, the challenge had always been how to cross that gap and intervene within the discourse of contemporary art itself.
After more than a decade of persistent attempts, what I longed for most was an objective verification of my work.
My encounter with the New York art world through the P.S.1 program therefore carried both expectation and tension.
And finally I experienced the thrill of communication—something I had not felt even once since 1985.
It was the moment when I realized that my approach had indeed passed through the trajectory of contemporary art as a method, and this recognition became a powerful driving force for my later works.
Big mouth, 1996
single channel video & sound installation
This work was produced shortly before leaving for New York to participate in the P.S.1 program.
The work consists of a video projection of a mouth speaking and moving in exaggerated gestures.
The mouth appears enlarged within a dark space, transforming a simple bodily organ into a site of excessive expression.
The piece emerged partly as a response to a remark by a curator who once described me as “a painter who makes art through eloquent speech.”
The comment stemmed from rumors that I had led small-group movements during the 1980s by persuading fellow artists through rhetoric.In reality, the curator had never directly encountered my speech.
Big Mouth therefore became a work about the impossibility of speech and the excess of the speaking organ.The mouth appears enlarged, distorted, and disembodied, producing a strange tension between speech, authority, and silence.When the work was first presented in Korea, however, the response was rather indifferent.
McDonald's & Malboro lights
double channel video & sound instaiiation
While studying early low-tech video works from the 1970s, I produced my first work in New York, combining the cultural dissonance of the unfamiliar city with the shock I had once experienced when encountering Hustler magazine as a child.
The idea originated from observing someone who ate with unusually loud chewing sounds.
However, performing the action myself turned out to be more difficult than expected.
Because I could not easily borrow editing equipment, I connected the camcorder directly to a VHS deck and edited the footage in that way.
My initial plan was to synchronize the timing so that a mouth eating a hamburger and a mouth smoking a cigarette would face each other across time, but the conditions made this impossible.
Because the room could not be completely darkened, the projections ultimately appeared side by side on the same wall.
untitled 97-7, 1997
single channel video & sound installation
This was the second work produced in New York and was filmed in the restroom of P.S.1.
I purchased chicken blood from an Asian market and filmed the scene while pouring it myself, which caused several awkward situations.
The work staged an event that might occur within the enclosed space of a restroom and projected it onto the floor of the exhibition space—a public place.
After heightening tension through muted sound and slow motion, sound was inserted only at the moment of flushing to maximize the shock.
Some viewers reflexively stepped back to avoid the blood that seemed to surge toward their feet.
The sudden flushing sound and the image of blood rushing beneath them created a strong sense of disturbance.
The repositioning of viewing, which had begun with Hairlines of Control (1993), was becoming more radical.
Spitting, 1997
single channel video & sound installation
This was the first work produced after returning from P.S.1.
The work was filmed in a single 23-second take, transferred directly to tape in real time.
With baby powder covering my face, I moistened my lips and exposed their redness before performing the act of spitting toward the viewer.
In this work, the repositioning of viewing evolved further into a form of visual aggression directed at the audience.
Skin licks & Torn flesh, 1998
single channel video installation, no sound
single channel video installation, no sound
This work originated from the instinctive behavior of animals that lick their wounds in order to heal them.
Through performances of excessive self-absorption, narcissistic concentration, self-hatred, and self-abuse, the work produced a mirror of alterity.
The work also explored how time extended through slow-motion editing affects the psychological experience of viewers.