- ProgramDOOSAN Yonkang Arts Awards
- Artist Jeamin Cha
hysterics
2014 HD video, color, sound 7min 6sec
Still cut
DOOSAN Gallery Seoul is pleased to present Jeamin Cha's first solo exhibition, hysterics, on view from October 15, 2014 to November 8, 2014. A recipient of the 4th DOOSAN Artist Award in 2013, Cha presents video works that symbolically unravel urban development, development sites, the desire and isolation of city dwellers, mass protests, suppression, and otheressential symptoms of contemporary society.
"Hysterics" is both the title of this exhibition and the title of one of the artworks in it, and the term refers to a state of temporary excitement resulting from psychological neurosis. However, Cha interprets the word "hysterics" to arise from the process in which a number of people consider an issue to be meaningless, but nevertheless attempt to search out its core meaning, as well as from the process of a person who endlessly questions it. The video work hysterics depicts images in which the camera moves on a track while liquid dripped onto white paper reacts to a black light. The black light, which is a forensic method used to investigate bloodstains, responds to the phosphorus found in bones and blood. As the black light passes over the white paper, nothing appears, but suddenly a certain trace appears on the paper, as if it were an answer to repeated questions.
In this manner, rather than directly explaining the significance of a certain subject matter or event, Jeamin Cha's video works choose the path of a metaphorical detour in order to avoid merely consuming such meaning with words. This exhibition attempts to examine the poetic visual language of the artist that grants these objects and events sufficient time to form meaning for themselves.
Jeamin Cha (b. 1986) received her B.F.A. in Visual Arts from Korea National University of Arts, Seoul, Korea, and her M.A. from Chelsea College of Design and Arts, London, U.K. She has participated in a number of group exhibitions and festivals, including those sponsored by Audio Visual Pavilion (2014, Seoul, Korea), Ilmin Museum (2014, Seoul, Korea), Kukje Gallery (2013, Seoul, Korea), and Culture Station Seoul 284 (2012, Seoul, Korea). She has also participated in numerous screening projects, including the Seoul Independent Documentary Film & Video Festival (2014, Seoul, Korea), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (2013, Berlin, Germany), Palais de Tokyo (2012, Paris, France), and Bluecoat (2011, Liverpool, UK).