US2-migration

Solo exhibition at Soma museum of art, 2024

US2-Migration

I am really interested in the region, its appearance, and how it affects human life.
We used to think of ourselves as forging our own internal world through the process of life, but each individual’s life forms part of the gigantic external world we call the city or society. These two have an organic association. I find it interesting to look at such connections. Time, materials, and spaces are arranged in a haphazard manner, and experiences, meanings, and images that arise from them are collected. The collected objects are combined in a different way to create another world. This is also a way to draw the viewer or the observer into my work. The irregular arrangement of images transforms the viewer into one of the arranged images rather than a mere observer, offering a new interpretation woven into the space. I have consistently reinterpreted the organic association with the lives of local communities, tracing the passage of time across various locations—Eulsuk Island at the mouth of the Nakdong River, waterfalls in Ibaraki, Japan, and coal mining villages in northern France.

However, the interpretation of space and time has shifted to the virtual world after going through spatial relocation due to the pandemic. As a metaverse crosses the boundaries of reality, and the meaning of the physical world has become considerably blurred, the expansion of space and time including the virtual world has led to a transformation of form into works of art through the use of new media.

US2, which I embarked on in 2021, is a project that represents the process of redefining physical space and its various outcomes, subsequently rendering them significant through the incorporation of 'virtual' objects. It makes use of Google Maps and open-source data to analyze an area and creatively express each element, thereby creating organic forms. Position value, things discovered in the region, and water and air pollution figures are included. Objects created in this way are combined with each other, creating a new world in a virtual space through established coding. Thus, US2 features physical space and virtual space operating together. It's a project interconnected with and shaping one another's way of being.
US2-Migration on display at this exhibition is a work that taps into media and actual real-time weather data. The current weather has become a measure of our environment. I figured out the movement of virtual space previously constructed through US2 and visualized its form. This work is made up of continuous drawings. I try to turn it into a moving and reacting object by joining this drawing with a moving light. The image engendered by this moving light brings about its own rules and significance and creates a new order, repeating combination and dissolution like an organic life form on the virtual web.