[Gallery Walk] In a Busy World... Following the Gazes of People, Objects, the Past, and Desires

Until October 22, 'Multiple Perspectives' Exhibition at Kumho Museum of Art, Jongno-gu, Seoul
Rider viewpoint tracking 'Interest Practice' · Discarded currency installation 'Network' etc.
Reflection on fiction, desire, and the nature of life in the digital world

The screen shows a view running on the road, and through this perspective, viewers soon realize that the owner of this gaze is a delivery rider. In Aram Jeong’s work, Practice of Attention: Shared Gaze (2022), the movements occurring while three riders complete a single delivery are tracked using wearable devices. The focus line that follows the rider’s gaze guides the viewer’s attention. Through this thin and faint line, viewers recognize the rider’s living bodily activity and simultaneously re-experience the invisible movements of labor.

Jung Aram 'Practice of Attention: Shared Gaze' (2022) [Photo courtesy of Kumho Museum of Art]

Thanks to advancing technology, modern life is becoming increasingly convenient, and people enjoy material abundance. The role of digital technology and the influence of media, which have permeated everyday life, expanded further due to COVID-19. Nowadays, people rely on non-face-to-face systems for many aspects of life. The expansion of social networks in contactless culture, rapid information sharing, and the blocking of direct interactions deepen individualism, causing feelings of disconnection, psychological anxiety, and chronic loneliness, as well as changes in perception. Kumho Museum of Art is hosting the curated exhibition Multiple Perspectives: A Glimpse of Our Time until October 22, exploring the sensibilities and emotions of our era through visual art by eight artists who focus on contemporary signs of modern civilization in our society amid these current trends.

The eight Korean artists participating in the exhibition?Hyesoo Park, Seungeun Song, Seungwon Yang, Yongseon Yoo, Jiyeon Lee, Goyona Jeong, Aram Jeong, and Mina Ham?keenly observe their surroundings in a rapidly changing world and reflect on the nature of individual and communal life in large cities. Each presents these insights to the audience through their unique visual language. For viewers living in the overheated, bustling, and ceaselessly flowing urban life, the exhibition offers time and space to reflect on the present and contemplate the contemporary era from diverse perspectives.

Yongseon Yoo’s work, which borrows logos and patterns from famous brands and applies them to various food products, daily necessities, and clothing with a lively style, suggests the endless human desire to possess more despite material abundance and the futility of unattainable ownership. The artist blends symbols of social authority and wealth?such as expensive watches, clothes, and cars?like ingredients in a dish within a single frame, expressing the complex psychology of individuals in modern society, including the alienation and unresolved desires triggered by current consumer culture.

Goyona Jeong focuses on the phenomenon of countless personal daily moments being continuously shared and observed on social media, presenting paintings based on private moments captured in collected photographs. In works such as Temperature of Emotion (2023) and Beautiful September (2022), the artist stages ‘selfies’ taken mostly by herself or ‘indirect selfies’ where the situation is deliberately concealed or staged. These photos do not simply reflect reality but portray the self-image one wishes to show others, illustrating the modern pattern of using photography to realize idealized images.

Multi-perspective Landscape Photo_Song Seung-eun. [Photo courtesy of Kumho Museum of Art]

Seungeun Song, who discusses the clash of alienated emotions and the anxiety and fear arising in everyday life through blurred boundaries and narrative structures lacking form and continuity, paints familiar objects such as televisions, tables, and teacups alongside human figures. Through loose and bold depictions with ambiguous outlines, the artist evokes tension within a dim background space.

Hyesoo Park, who has led her work based on a vast amount of data collected over a long period from anonymous public participants through open calls and surveys, has addressed the fading personal life domains and values within standardized social systems through the project Goodbye to Love (2013?2022), focusing on ‘love and heartbreak.’ In this exhibition, she particularly highlights the ‘reclusive loner’ who lives isolated and disconnected from the outside world, addressing the loneliness of modern people.

Lee Ji-yeon presents the installation work "Network" (2018, 2023), created using discarded currency materials provided with the cooperation of the Bank of Korea, in this exhibition.
[Photo by Kumho Museum of Art]

Jiyeon Lee, who focuses on revealing invisible rules and patterns underlying reality, presents the installation Network (2018, 2023), which uses discarded currency materials provided with cooperation from the Bank of Korea, showcasing the new artistic value of money that has lost its original function. In this work, which organically expresses the reductive nature common to capital and nature, the artist embodies the characteristics of capital?order and discipline?and vitality as potential for transformation. This suggests the fluid and cyclical value of capital that transcends virtual and real realms amid the current trend of money’s physical function being transformed into abstract value.

Mina Ham projects figures remaining in her memory into her work. Harrowing childhood events and experiences of abduction form the premise of her work. The strongly lingering childhood memories are expressed in works like Sleep Shadow (2023) as grayish cold-faced figures or children who do not awaken from sleep. The artist revisits latent trauma and, as an attempt to heal emotional wounds, proposes mutual solidarity through her work to overcome the emotional scars everyone may carry.

Yang Seung-won 'Overwrite' [Photo by Kumho Museum of Art]

Seungwon Yang, who crosses the boundary between reality and imitation, presents various images that twist our perception through digitally captured or manipulated images. His work questions the classical photographic function of realistically recording subjects while metaphorically revealing various fictional characteristics found in modern society. In the Overwrite (2022) series, images manipulated by overlaying photographs of various surfaces such as soil and cement onto virtual spaces constructed with 3D modeling software evoke scenes reminiscent of rocky mountains, planetary surfaces, or tidal flats?places seemingly familiar but nonexistent in reality. The artist questions the audience about the distortion of geographic environments and material essence in modern society, the coexistence of reality and fiction, and points for reconsideration.

In the hyperconnected era, contactless culture, the spread of social media, and intensified individualism, the overheated urban life urges the ceaseless busyness of individuals who cannot afford to relax even for a moment. This exhibition deeply portrays the contemporary landscape viewed from various perspectives while reflecting on our current selves.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.