[Exhibitions of the Week] Mark Forbes Solo Exhibition 'Dejavu' · Park Bona 'Whistlers' Exhibition and More

Editor's NoteThis week's exhibitions introduce a variety of attractive shows from across the country that can be experienced over the course of one week.

▲Mark Forbes Solo Exhibition 'D?j? Vu' = Azulejo Gallery presents the first solo exhibition in Korea by Australian photographer Mark Forbes, titled 'D?j? Vu'. Mark Forbes is known for his documentary photography that captures street scenes, urban landscapes, and architecture in a contemplative and atmospheric manner.

Disconnected, Original medium format (6x6) film image made on Kodak Portra 400 film.
[Photo by Azuleju Gallery]

This exhibition is inspired by the artist's debut thesis, 'Collected Memories', and is designed as a journey to find faint fragments of memories that feel like they have been seen somewhere before. It is characterized by the diverse implementation of motifs that captivate audiences increasingly interested in interior design. The collaboration with AndersonC, which operates large stores in Gangnam and Seongsu-dong, and Conte de Tulear, a domestic brand popular for its nature-inspired diffusers, is also impressive.

From vintage interiors highlighting nostalgic everyday spaces to the romanticism of nature evoking travel nostalgia, visitors can experience a harmonious composition of carefully curated scenes through the works.

Splash, Original medium format (6x6) film image made on Kodak Portra 400 film.
[Photo by Azuleju Gallery]

"I like that photography can tell me a story. Especially when that story connects to the world we live in," says the artist. Over five years, he presents memories through images he has collected, prompting viewers to unconsciously consider how objects are remembered. The intricate photographs are the artist's collected memories but can be shared through the exhibition and remain in the audience's memory.

As time passes and details fade, photographs become the memory of the photographer. Ultimately, the artist explains through simple experience that when an image is created, whether explicitly or unconsciously, a decision is made about how objects will be remembered. The exhibition runs until August 23 at Azulejo Gallery, 149 Samseong-ro-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

????????????, oil on linen, 130.3 x 162.2cm, 2024. [Photo by Seochon TYA Gallery]

▲Kim Yunha Solo Exhibition 'Cloud Mushroom Love' = Seochon TYA Gallery hosts Kim Yunha's solo exhibition 'Cloud Mushroom Love'. Kim Yunha is the winner of TYA Gallery's 'First Exhibition Contest', and this is his first solo exhibition. The artist creates fictional stories based on discoveries in everyday life and records scenes within these narratives.

The exhibition features a total of 26 paintings, including oil paintings. The artist discusses faith inspired by the 'cloud' and introduces a character named Myomyo. Myomyo is a figure obsessed with flying after losing a loved one. She feels that the closer she gets to the sky during her time on the plane, the closer she becomes to that person, and this 'feeling' becomes her faith.

"If survival always requires relationships with other beings, survival inevitably is influenced by the uncertainty that arises in the process where oneself and others transform together." - Mushrooms at the End of the World (On the Possibility of Life in the Ruins of Capitalism), Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, p.66

??????, acrylic, glitter glue on wood panel, 14.0 x 18.0cm, 2023. [Photo by Seochon TYA Gallery]

The artist explores the relationship between survival and love, inspired by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing's book 'Mushrooms at the End of the World'. 'Mushrooms' symbolize the process of surviving through relationships with others, leading to works that explore the essence of love. The artist's work, which considers survival, love, and mushrooms in the same context, is an extension of a personal confession that "my adulthood is not clearly separated from childhood. It is a kind of regression," and reveals this courageous awareness unreservedly through fantastic paintings. The exhibition runs until August 11 at Seochon TYA Gallery, 5 Jahamun-ro-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

Bona Park, hwihwipapa phwee phwee fweet fweet, 22’52’’, 4K video with sound, 2024.
[Photo by Gallery Chosun]

▲Park Bona Solo Exhibition 'Whistlers' = Gallery Chosun presents Park Bona's solo exhibition 'Whistlers'. Writing and working at the boundary between art, life, and labor, Park Bona discusses female friendship in this exhibition. The friendship the artist refers to means mutual encouragement and support.

The exhibition began through the artist's connection with 'WING', an organization supporting women who have left the sex trade. Founded in 1953 to care for war orphans and widows, since 1996, WING has supported women who have left the sex trade and victims of violence. Park Bona started by reading an article about WING and writing about it, then continued the relationship by sharing meals and workshops with the women there. The artist says 'Whistlers' is not about an outside world separate from herself but about the outside that has become part of her?friendship with women.

The work titled 'Whistlers', sharing the exhibition's name, was created in a 2023 workshop with women from WING. It is a performance video of twelve women inhaling and exhaling in turn, passing the whistle to the next person. The spirit of supporting each other's breath becomes poetry, inscribed as 'How to Whistle' (2024) on T-shirts donated by the artist's acquaintances. 'Phwee Phwee Fweet Fweet' (2024) is a video work where two actors read six handwritten letters women wrote to their friends, whispering emotional intimacy beyond language and logic. This intimacy continues in 'Mountains' (2024), a painting from the 2023 WING workshop depicting the feeling of holding something one loves in their hand.

Park Bona, friendship, performance, 2024. [Photo by Gallery Chosun]

The artist critically examines social systems by overlapping the way images are created in art and the stories and labor of those who create them with the operation of economics and history outside art. Performances such as 'La bo?te en sac plastique' (2010), where the artist investigates the tastes of museum staff by shopping for dinner and having them carry the groceries at the opening, 'I Will Tell You What You Believe 1' (2013), where tap dance shoes are worn by museum guards to create sounds that crack the museum, and collaborations with poly artists producing images behind the camera blur the boundaries between art, life, and labor and pose uncomfortable questions about them.

While the artist's first solo exhibition in 2013, 'Friends', was about collaborators such as a piano-playing performer and a shoeshiner laborer, this exhibition discusses the trust, friendship, and intimacy that emerge during the process of collaboration taking root. The affectionate relationships the artist speaks of are not expressed in clear language but resonate through exchanged glances and voices, open forms and poetry, mutual understanding and consideration, and shared breaths. The exhibition runs until September 22 at Gallery Chosun, 5 Bukchon-ro-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

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