- ProgramDOOSAN Yonkang Arts Awards
- Artist Jungju An
Chain Letter
2015 79 pieces cards Dimensions Variable
Installation View
Opening Reception: October 14, Wednesday 6~8 pm
DOOSAN Gallery Seoul: 15, Jongno 33-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea
DOOSAN Gallery presents Chain Letter, a solo exhibition by Jungju An, from October 14th to November 14th, 2015. The recipient of 5th Doosan Artist Award in 2014 presents his video works which portray the ways meanings are produced through the integration, repetition and transformation of sound and image.
A 6-channel video work with 77 word cards, Chain Letter is made of video clips from the artist’s world travels in 2004. A chain Letter hypothetically brings good luck if it’s delivered to a number of people in a number of days, and brings bad luck if it isn’t. An took 77 chain letters, transformed them into 77 sound-images, and created his own language structure. Newly transcribed into sound-image, Chain Letter can only be interpreted through each of the images and their associated words printed on the word cards. As if to learn a new language, interpreting each of the sound-images comes with continuous misreading, but also suggests the ways in which An creates meanings between sound and image through his work.
Concerto for Saw and Drum and Marching are video works about concertos and variations. In the 2-channel video work Concerto for Saw and Drum, a saw player and a drummer each play their own part. Producing a loud roar trying to make a harp out of a log with his electric saw, the saw player has difficulty making a delicate instrument with a rough tool. On the other hand, the drummer’s emotions intensify during his performance, until he finally destroys the drums. Symbolically portraying the intensity of the artist’s artistic gestures, An intervenes in the two performances of musical and nonmusical elements in the video, composing a concerto which can only be possible in the work.
Marching is a 5-channel video of a marching band which plays the marching song ‘Face’ along a narrow road in the woods. Seemingly uniform at first, their performance gradually changes with the intervention of various elements from inside and outside the band. While the band seems to be performing ‘Face’ in all the projections, the viewer comes to feel the power of the sound beyond the visible image the moment the variation in their performance is recognized. An focuses on the meanings that are generated from the small gaps and ruptures in the infinitely repetitive time and everyday life, demonstrating how meanings are created through the coexistence of sound and image.
Jungju An (b. 1979) received his B.F.A. from Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea and an M.F.A. in Communication & Art from Yonsei University. He has held solo exhibitions at Makeshop Art Space (2014, Paju, Korea), Gallery Zandari (2013, Seoul, Korea), Project Space SARUBIA (2012, Seoul, Korea), Kunstlerhaus Bethanien (2009, Berlin, Germany), and Kumho Museum (2007, Seoul, Korea). His works have also included in group exhibitions at National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (2015, Seoul, Korea), Atelier Hermes (2015, Seoul, Korea), Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art (2014, Ansan, Korea), National Museum of Contemporary Art (2013, Bucharest, Romania), Chelsea Art Museum (2011, New York, NY, USA), and Fukuoka Asia Museum (2010, Fukuoka, Japan). Jungju An is a recipient of Doosan Artist Award in 2014.