This exhibition was a remake of Lee Kang-So’s 1970s works “Disappearance” combining with the artwork, Life Circle, I/O by Inter-Mission. The artists manipulated the sound effects according to the audience’s behavior while they projected some videos on three different screens. The small digital screen near the side showed some footage they took before in the gallery and some other places. The projector also showed some real-time video on the large stairs. And there was another large screen showing the mixture of these two videos.
For the first part of the art show, the artist changed the sound effect and walked around to get real-time video. And for the second part of the show, he wore a mask made of digital panels and walked around.
At first, I was confused about what the artist was doing and I was a little bit troubled by the constant noise sound. I’ve noticed the three videos around us, but I didn’t really understand what the artist tried to express. At the second part of the show when the artist was wearing the metal mask with two digital screens covering his eyes, I gradually felt that the artist would like to show the world around us was filled with different types of information and it may affect the way we see the world.
After the show, and after talking to the prof, I tried to search for some information about the show done by Lee in 1970. It is quite impressive that the props used in this show were very similar to the original scene. And after gaining the information for Lee’s art show, I have a deeper understanding of what the artist was trying to express. Lee’s original goal was to bring art into people’s everyday life. Based on that, the recreation uses videos taken in the gallery and outside the gallery to emphasize the idea that art can be around us in daily life, not only inside the gallery. And the noise sound they made might be a way to represent the inputs in life.
References:
https://www.nationalgallery.sg/blog/happenings-at-disappearance-bar-in-the-gallery
“Disappearance”: Lee Kang-So’s 1970s works at Gallery Hyundai, Seoul – original interview extract
