"BANDI WALK: One Step Closer to Our Earth" Preview
2022 ACC Media Facade Collection
Summary
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- Festival
- #art
- #exhibition
- #art
When the last days of summer pass and the cool winds start to come around, why not take a walk with the sound of chirping crickets and media art? The 2022 ACC Media Facade Collection, “BANDI WALK: One Step Closer to Our Earth,” is an event you can enjoy while taking a walk with family and friends; it will be held at the Asia Culture Center (ACC).
“BANDI,” in this case, comes from the Korean word for fireflies, which can only survive in unspoiled nature, as a reminder of the importance of the environment. Indeed, in this “Anthropocene age,” which denotes the period when human beings began to impact the Earth’s system, fireflies are in danger of dying out and, thus, have great meaning for us.
From global warming to catastrophic weather events and the destruction of the ecosystem, environmental issues are no longer something we can afford to put off. How, then, do contemporary artists share this consciousness in crisis, and how are they looking at environmental issues? This exhibition sheds light on the past, present, and future of the Anthropocene age.
The “BANDI WALK” preview is a program that will be held from August 11 to 31 (19:00–22:00) at the ACC’s Media Wall as a glimpse into the eight works of media artists taking part in the main exhibition.
The works screened will feature artists active in Singapore, China, and Seoul, who are notable for bringing media artworks to the area that one would not see so often in Gwangju. Here, we offer a preview of the eight works that will feature in the “BANDI WALK” preview.
# Sungsil Hwarang, “Endangered animals graphic archives: Intro”
“Endangered animals graphic archives: Intro” is a work that captures the portraits of endangered animals, just as humans take portraits of their lives before their deaths, as a way to show their “existence” and "loss." This graphic design project overlaps 100 portraits of endangered animals with graphics and combines them with repeated sounds. The sign on the upper left side of the image shows the level of the endangered animal in question. As an archive of the things that are disappearing, these images remind us of how environmental destruction and contamination affect animals and invite us to revisit the relationship between humans and nature.
Artist Introduction
Sungsil Hwarang (formed in 2012, a graphic designer brand, active in Seoul) is an illustration-based graphic designer brand launched in Seoul in 2012. Under the theme of “ Remember: Protect the Disappearing Things ,” the group continues to engage with various design activities dedicated to endangered animals and nature through products, corporate partnerships, and exhibitions.# Charles Lim Yi Yong, “A Lonely Concert for What Was There”
“A Lonely Concert for What Was There” is set against Mata Ikan, Charles Lim Yi Yong’s hometown. The residents of this coastal village were all relocated to state housing projects after the village was torn down in the 1980s. Lim returns to the village ruins and thinks back to times when the village was sprayed with pesticides against mosquitos, climbs the sand dune, and holds a concert as a rock guitarist. Through that, he examines the other side of what is commonly understood as “development.”
Artist Introduction
Charles Lim Yi Yong (born in Singapore, 1973) majored in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design, London, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in 2001. Lim’s works are rooted in the interaction between man-made systems and nature. He uses field survey techniques, experiments, drawing, photography, and digital videos to connect the two worlds. His “SEA STATE” project, in particular, which began in 2005, uses the visible and invisible lenses inherent in the sea to present a political and biophysical outline of Singapore.# Haejung Jung, “World of a Half of a Half of a Half”
“World of a Half of a Half of a Half” resembles objects floating on the screen and captures the journey of microscopic and invisible units beyond human awareness as they move and are destroyed. It is a combination of films taken by the artist across the world, drawings that act as reinterpretations of said films, and 3D modeling animations, showing the lax connection of one world to another.
Through this work, Jung seeks to dismantle the binary perception of humans and nature, subject and object, and reflects upon relationships of mutual connection between various existence and objects.
Artist Introduction
Jung Haejung (born in 1986 in Seoul, active in Seoul) encompasses keywords such as coexistence with other organisms on the Earth, veganism, and eco-feminism in her work and, at the same time, crosses hitherto separated concepts such as nature and media, human and nonhuman, and organic and inorganic to investigate the interactions that connect various worlds in perpetual change. Through that, Jung seeks to connect the fluid and boundary-crossing agents through the method of speculative fabulation. Through various mediums, such as drawing, video, installation, and intervention in situations, Jung has sought to shake boundaries and find fissures and cleavages. Recently, Jung has begun focusing on 3D computer graphic technologies and virtual reality (VR).# AABB, “BABEL × BABEL II“
The web-based participatory digital art project “BABEL × BABEL II” is a work that reveals our attitudes against the environmental crisis. From the waste we generate in our daily lives to industrial waste, vehicle emissions, food waste, excess products, and meaningless images produced and reproduced endlessly through our smartphones, the new Tower of Babel rises to the skies with each new piece of waste added by the audience.
This work invites us to realize that each action we take in today’s world makes an impact—big or small—on the environment and warns against the attitudes that the people of today have against nature.
Artist Introduction
Design group AABB (Seok Jaewon, Kim Min-jae, Ku Jaeun; active in Seoul) is a group that utilizes a variety of media, from traditional graphic design to videos, spaces, and sounds, with a deep interest in using graphic design as a catalyst between the public and art.# Jang Jongwan “The Day I Came Back, He Left”
“The Day I Came Back, He Left” is a surreal fable of a bear that gave everything to humans and became a myth. From bile and foot—used as food—to head and pelt—used for decoration—this work attempts to subvert the cruel and tragic situation caused by human greed into a comedic form.
Artist Introduction
Jang Jongwan (born in Busan, 1983; active in Seoul) is an artist who creates surreal sceneries and situations by collecting natural images through various media, recombining the images, and anthropomorphizing the combinations. Jang’s works intend to subvert the conventional standards of beauty and societal norms and, through a process of comedic metaphors, allude to the irrationality and anxiety of individuals within massive societies.# Kim Uljiro, “Gosari Walk”
The work “Gosari Walk” starts from the sense of awe toward ferns, which have replicated their histories, expanded their areas, and established themselves well before the dawn of history. In some ways, their correction of biological mechanisms in the face of the changing environment resembles that of some programs.
Kim began with a curiosity toward self-replication and asexual reproduction of bracken and incubated their formal characteristics in a 3D program’s virtual incubator, with the ultimate goal of growing the plant in the trajectories of the human body. Humans become fertile grounds for the spore, different species collide in different timelines, and a hybridized being eventually emerges. That is an experiment in the ever-fading boundaries of the species.
Artist Introduction
Kim Uljiro (born in Suwon, 1994; active in Seoul) was born in a generation where reality overturns science fiction seemingly every day. Kim’s work is an investigation into the logical methods of incubating the units and strata of the organs that make up an organism, reinterpreted in subjective logic. Kim focuses on how digital 3D videos serve as a medium of scientific verification, through which human organs and microorganisms can be observed. Through that, he investigates the anatomical and biological similarities between data and life. Kim is interested in how the material-immaterial of the real and virtual world function, and how they grow in different environment-interfaces; he also collects the sceneries of areas that seem to exist, yet are unreachable in this process.# Digital Serotonin, “New World? II”
“New World? II” is a work that covers the dark side of the non-fungible token (NFT), which uses blockchain technology to verify the ownership of a digital asset, and is rapidly becoming a new economic ecosystem in its own right. The artist focuses on the massive environmental problems generated by the maintenance of blockchain technology, such as a massive carbon footprint or electronic waste (e-waste).
“New World? II” uses real-time event data and computer component images from OpenSea, one of the largest NFT trading platforms in the world, to realize the image of a wave. This alludes to the economic and societal influence of blockchain technology and brings to mind the plastic waste that washes up onshore. Through that, the work taps into humanity’s anxieties between the media technologies of the emerging future and environmental issues.
Artist Introduction
Digital Serotonin (Caroline Reize and Serotonin Curves; active in Seoul) is a team of artists who investigate the development of media technology, the “experiential environment” of the contemporary public in media, and “changes in the relationship” between them. As an artist team in an age where there is no conclusive discourse on the media environment of the future, Digital Serotonin uses image and sound-based installations, performances, and other conventional media to present a new perspective on human emotions and reflections on the relationship between the new media environment that humanity will experience in the coming days and real life.# LayLay, “The Universe Cotton”
“The Universe Cotton” is an animated film that details the story of fantasy cotton farming. The protagonist waters the cotton with humans and music and harvests a quantity so massive that there is hardly any space where one can place the cotton, save for the sky itself. When cotton fall from the sky, they turn from clouds to cotton candy held by a child.
Artist Introduction
Artist, film director, and musician LayLay (born in 1985; active in Beijing) creates colorful and delicious handmade worlds that combine magic-like realism, science fiction, comic books, and video games. These worlds are innocent and hopeful, yet fleeting, chasing after the childish faith that everyone can be liberated through love. LayLay’s works examine the alienated, misunderstood, and forgotten with a loving gaze and resurrect them with new hopes, goals, and philanthropies.The abundant ecosystem of the past, existing in our memories, has now met a crisis. It is time for us to truly listen to the stories of the Earth and start taking the first steps toward reconciling with it. “BANDI WALK” is an attempt to do just that and an opportunity for us to reflect on our actions and search for ways to coexist with nature.
The artists who took part in the exhibition all have messages that they wish to send, either through new perspectives on humanity and nature, a warning of human greed and arrogance, or a reflection of humanity’s anxiety between the media and technologies of the emerging future and environmental issues.
The main exhibition will showcase 27 works of art by 16 artists at the ACC’s Fire Road, Hanul Madang Media Cube, Sangsang Madang, Yeolin Madang, Tree Shade Rest Area, Myrtle Crape stairs, and the Butterfly Garden Musical Fountain from September 1. Its opening ceremony, which takes place on August 31, will be accompanied by an international forum, “Imagining Beyond the Anthropocene with Art,” in conjunction with the main exhibition.
- by So Na-young
- nayeongso@daum.net
- Photography by
- ACC
