Park Hye-soo is an artist who continues to present her own artistic analysis of the modern individual struggling to lead an average life in a fiercely competitive society, examining the psychological issues that arise from such a life and the broader social landscape of our generation. Through various projects, Park develops visual analyses by speculating on the disappearing values of individual lives under capitalism and exploring people’s thoughts on these changes. Her work, Project Dialogue-Archive (2009), marked the beginning of these interactive communications. It was designed to foster conversations in which professionals from different fields and the general public could share feedback in their own ways, resulting in a Conversation Scrapbook composed of overheard and collected dialogues. In this project, Park categorized the collected conversations and her own reflections into five themes—dreams, Botong*, love, money, and art—and conducted surveys for each theme as separate projects.
In the exhibition Now Here Is Nowhere, the artist presents recent works that expand upon her earlier research project, Project Dialogue Vol.2: Definition of Botong, shown at the 13th SongEun Art Award in 2013. The concept of ‘Botong,’ which has become a standard term, was examined as a possible reason for the loss of themes such as ‘dreams’ and ‘love’ in contemporary times. Park focused on the dual nature of ‘Botong’—as both a universal value to be pursued and a subjective standard for self-justification. She visualized the concept of ‘Botong’ based on her survey results since 2013 and her collaboration with psychiatrist Sung Yu-mi, prompting viewers to question their own understanding of ‘Botong.’
Park divided SongEun ArtSpace into three levels: “Reality – Bottom Life,” “Standardized Botong– Average Life,” and “Distorted Scenes of Botong.”
She placed text works, installations, and participatory pieces on each corresponding floor, comprising a total of 18 works.
World's Best, 2016, metal structure, stainless steel, flag, light, mirror, light, 600(w)x400(d)x820(h)cm
1F Reality Bottom Life
Gloomy Monday, 2015, clipping from the Monday edition of The Guardian(UK:Nov~Dec 2015) and Chosun Daily Newspaper(KR:Aug~Sep 2015), melody box, loudspeaker, variable dimensions, Collection Van Laethem-Croux (Hasselt, BE)
This work is the 2nd edition of the work 'Negative Song'(2015)
2F Standardized Botong-Average Life
The artist takes the ambiguous nature of the standard called “Average” and the standardized lives of modern day people trying to make it in a society where all things that lie outside conventional standards are cast out, and terms them together as the “Standardized Botong – Average Life”. The first room of the third floor presents A0 to A8 (2016), a stainless steel mirror work that has differing standardized paper sizes hangs from the ceiling to display only partial reflections of viewers or the space itself. Accompanying this piece is an installation and object works Untitled (2016) and My Confession (2016) that consist of ten abstract poems by the conceptual writer Taey Iohe – who was asked to base his poems on the open-ended survey responses of the 700-participant “Test for the Average” of 2013 along with Park’s own interpretations.
Park scatters excerpts of Iohe’s poems in inconspicuous locations around the gallery and stair well in an attempt to have the entire gallery space read as one giant text form.
A0 to A8, 2016, stainless steel mirror, variable dimensions
My Confession, 2016, Mayfly, pencil text, variable dimensions
Untitled, 2016, Mixed media, variable dimensions
Veriable Average Beam,2016, Metal structure, laser level, dimensions (SOMA Museum. Sep. 2016)
The “Distorted Scenes of Botong” laid out on the fourth floor brings into perspective the precarious people of a brutally competitive society who regard everyone who are not winners as failures and side-liners, using object d’art works.
City Poem, 2016, mixed media(found object from the streets in Korea, UK, photo, monitor, map, poem by Taey Iohe), variable dimensions
Walking in the exhibit space, audiences can see City Poem (2016) covering the entire right wall and corners with the comprising sub-works The Story inside the Pocket (2016), an array of worry-ridden objects of people gathered from the streets of Korea and the UK, and Following (2016), a project about roaming through the city by following random people going in front.
Collecting messages dropped in the street.
'Walking in the footsteps of the person in front of me. I think I feel the anxiety of the city.'
City Poem is made up the story inside pocket and Following. Park's making a film(video work) following in the footsteps of the person in front of me.
Part of Goodbye to Love is the Broken Heart Collection (2013), a gathering of objects and stories left behind by former lovers, which Park reinterprets through photography and installation works. For this exhibition, Park used one thousand folded paper cranes that she purchased on Auction (the Korean equivalent of eBay) from a woman selling her husband’s old love token—cranes he was never able to give (or throw away) to his ex-girlfriend. Park unfolded each crane and reassembled them into a single large paper composition. She also presents the story of a divorcee who has been unable to part with the empty wedding watch box of her ex-husband. Both the box and a reinterpreted photograph taken by Lim Hyung-tae are displayed alongside the story.
Goodbye to Lov Ⅱ, 2015, 1000 orgami cranes purchased from the auction (Korean ebay), 170x117cm (only paper), Art Bank Collection
H.E.L.P, 2018, 500 clock move, pillow cover, pillow, light, photo, trumpet, variable dimensions
Performer: Son Jim-in Music: Jung Seong-whan
* H.E.L.P. (2016~) installed in a sectioned off room uses Park’s own suffering of insomnia to show a portrait of the people of today living with psychological ailments resulting from their incessant worries of the future.
1,875 days of lonely home, 2016, mixed media, variable dimensions
Moving to the last space one will find 1875 Days of Lonely Home (2015) that epitomizes the loneliness endured by the so-called ghireohghi (seagull) dads of Korea who sacrifice themselves and live apart from wife and children for years-on-end for the sake of their children’s education abroad, along with Go, get it (2015) that speaks for of the “tiger moms” who adopt a strict and rigorous educational regime for their children to ensure their success.
World's Best Series
Game World's Best, 2016, wood block, trophy symbol, chess clock, monitor, variable dimensions. (player. Kim Tae-hui), MCAB Collection
At the very end visitors come to Game World’s Best (2016) a tower that falls just short of the ceiling, and appears to be the end of a two-person Jenga game* that has gone a few rounds using wooden block pieces with various trophy symbols attached to them. This piece can be paired with World’s Best installed in the Mezzanine area, both criticizing the characteristically Korean obsession of coming in first place born out of an excessively competitive ranking culture.
The work was builted in the style of a Jenga game within the exhibition hall. As the Jenga tower collapsed during the process, the pieces—each symbolizing a trophy—remained scattered on the floor. Throughout the exhibition, the tower occasionally fell due to vibrations caused by the audience, and the process of rebuilding it was repeated again and again.
Publication: series of Nowhere (2015~2016): logo, poster, book, catalog design by, Lee Dong-young
