Project Dialogue Vol.3: Definition of Botong: Now Here is Nowhere (2016) - Project

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Now Here is Nowhere (2016)

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 Yumi Sung, 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

Of all the works presented, of special importance to Park are the following. In the mezzanine, the <World’s Best> installation criticizes Korean’s typical obsession over the first ranking. It is the artist’s intention the work is viewed differently from each floor reflecting various stages to achieve first place. In the first room <Reality – Bottom Life>, <Gloomy Monday> is made up of stitched-together clippings from several Monday newspapers in the UK and Korea in which all negative words were punched out to produce an otherwise beautifully sounding manual music box.

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)

Park punched out negative words and phrases from Monday newspapers of Korea and the UK for Gloomy Monday, and from newspapers of 15 countries in Negative Song thus, creating contrasting beautiful music for each music box. The more negative the article, the more complex and intricate the musical piece is played. For both works, each time the visitor plays the music box the music floods through the entire exhibit space by way of the loudspeakers on the third and fourth floors and the radio-shaped speaker of the gallery stairwell landing respectively.

Negative Song, 2015, Newspapers from 15 countries, melody box, variable dimensions, collection Hendricks-Mannaerts

The melody is constructed from the negative or sad words and sentences from the newspaper articles.

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)

In the opposite dark room, audiences can find Variable Average Beam (2016) where one can step on to a 10 meter long podium with a laser level to witness the vertical and horizontal baselines beamed on the wall become disrupted as a result, which is Park’s way of questioning the “average,” a standard that becomes the absolute by those who have chosen to live average lives.

3F-Distorted Scenes of Botong

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.

Series Goodbye to Love (since 2013)

In the opposite corner, Park showcases two representative pieces from Project Dialogue Vol. 3 – Goodbye to Love, a series that began alongside project Dialogue Vol. 3 – Definition of Botong in 2013.
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

Question. 2015, text puzzle, table, light, 120x60cm(each) text from the poem 'Question','Quest' by Anna Wickham (Collection Van Laethem-Croux(Hasselt, BE)

코리아나미술관_re_Sense_박혜수_퍼포먼스_02.jpg

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.

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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.

go get it 2.jpg

Go, get it, 2015, whips, tennis ball, text(by. Taey Iohe), 70x20x90(h)cm

"Am I an absolute necessity for my mum?”

World's Best Series

Game World's Best, 2016, wood block, trophy symbol, chess clock, monitor, variable dimensions. (player. Taehui, Kim), 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.

Park Hye-soo: Now Here Is Nowhere captures “the average-made life” found in our everyday moments and reinterprets findings visually using an artist’s perspective, forcing us to face and question the problems of modern society that we try so hard to ignore, and to reevaluate the lives of people today that is not normal but considered average.

*Botong

The Korean word ‘Botong’ has more than 20 possible meanings, including normal, average, general, ordinary, common, nothing, same, stereotype, typical, habitual, custom, and routine. The intended meaning of ‘botong’ is usually determined by the situation and context in which the word is used. However, because of its many meanings, this ambiguity can sometimes cause communication problems. Most Koreans understand ‘botong’ as either ‘average’ or ‘normality’—two interpretations that have become central concepts in the project <Project Dialogue - Archive>. Of these two meanings, the artist has primarily based the project on “the power of average,” an extremely influential force in Korean society.