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# Investigation into human dignity

My visit to 2022 ACC×GB Gwangju - Asia “Sweet Sorrow”

In the ACC Creation Space 6, one can find a rather amusing poster. It is the poster for the 2022 ACC×GB Gwangju - Asia Exhibition, “Sweet Sorrow,” which juxtaposes two contrasting words: “sweet” and “sorrow.” The centerpiece of the poster is a ring donut with a chunk bitten off, a fitting imagery as we mostly conceive of donuts as being sweet. As I looked at the poster, I found myself wondering about what this exhibition could be about.

2022 ACC×GB Gwangju - Asia “Sweet Sorrow” poster

Without any knowledge of the exhibition, I thought that “Sweet Sorrow” might perhaps be talking about food. Well, I now realize that the imagery of the donut and the text “Sweet Sorrow” had lulled me into a sense of complacency in my search for meaning.

I then decided to look at the exhibition guide to see what the exhibition “Sweet Sorrow” could be about.

“Sweet Sorrow” attempts to take the idea of human dignity from its numbness within the abstract concepts of morality and ethics and re-examine the idea through visual language. The exhibition examines the idea of human dignity from the participating artists’ different perspectives and methods. “The artists examine the present through the past, discuss plurality, and search for methods of praxis.” “Through this exhibition, audience members can face the bitter aspect of our reality and examine the sweet values that these works protect.”

That is to say, focusing on the donut, chocolate, poster background or milk, and other things that symbolize sweetness made me fail to recognize how the cut area from the donut shows a human face. The idea that this exhibition speaks to is “reflecting sincerely” about the self-reflection we have lost without our knowledge, attitudes that describe differences as being wrong, and the attitudes that we must have to live with others in this world.

This “sincere reflection” formed an undercurrent that flowed through my visit. Let’s then examine the stories within the works and see how we have repeatedly made mistakes born out of ignorance and times of reflection.

The first work one meets at the entrance to the exhibition space is street artist Darbotz’s “More Human Than Human.”

Darbotz, “More Human Than Human”

What things come to your mind as you look at this work? Without knowing anything in advance, my mind focused on the mirror ball-like lighting of the work and the human expressions that seemed to show joy, humor, mischief, or treachery.

Now, let’s look at the artist’s story to see if this interpretation makes sense. Artist Darbotz lives in Jakarta, Indonesia. In the megacity’s chaos, he depicts the survival that people have to eke out against the complex society, poverty, and nonsystematic social structures as monsters. “To survive, one has to become a monster.“ That is to say, Darbotz is showing the monster within that everyone has to cultivate to survive in this difficult world.

Indeed. We all live with different personas. I also treat my family, friends, cohorts, and strangers differently. Sometimes lovely, sometimes friendly, other times coldly: I put different masks on as I face different situations and people.

But if I am not trying to trick people with these masks, the monster in me is not necessarily evil. The idea of “human dignity,” as Darbotz puts forward, is something that one has from birth, so no matter conscious or unconscious, the persona we show is all us. I could glean the diversity within me through this work.

The next works are Jeon Nahwan’s “The Q” series and “Queer Theory.”

Jeon Nahwan, “The Q”

When I faced the work for the first time, I had gleaned from the people within the work that they were different in gender, height, and appearance. They are all looking toward an unseen reality beyond the canvas—perhaps a sunrise, sunset, or even a scene from our daily lives, like a signal lamp.

Now, let’s face the artist’s story. Artist Jeon Nahwan’s “The Q” series (2018–2019) and “Queer Theory” (2019) are based on six-month in-depth interviews and photographic records made with queer and nonqueer individuals. “The Q,” which depicts characters facing one direction and marching, and “Queer Theory,” a collection of answers to the question “what is queer community and queerness,” brings us to face the diversity of “us,” who live together in a contemporary community.

After reading the artist’s description of the work, I then turned inward to face the message Jeon was trying to convey. The story of this work is a story of “us,” between “you” and “I” who all live under the same sky, on the same land, living life with the same passion. We sometimes describe different things as wrong. On the other hand, we sometimes speak of accepting things that are so self-evident as “recognition,” “acceptance,” or as acts of mercy.

These are not the attitudes that one should take facing a theme as human dignity. As I reflect on how I was with my life, I want to finish my review of this work by asking the readers to listen a bit closer to the words spoken by the interviewees in the “Queer Theory” piece.

The third work that I saw was a set from installation artist SungHong Min: the “Skin_Layer” series, “Exercise for Sensitivity,” and “Adaptation Attitude_Camouflage Net.”

SungHong Min, “Skin_Layer”

This piece was the most difficult work to grasp the symbolisms inherent in it. That is to say, in this form fashioned out of wire hangers, furniture legs, carpets, plastic sheets, and other materials with different forms and textures, I could only ask, “who are you?”

After listening to the artist’s interview and curator’s description, I looked into the work and finally recognized the idea of “human dignity” that the artist was trying to convey through this work. To assist you in your understanding, I would like to quote from the artist SungHong Min’s own words.

“As a creator, the concept of dignity in my work prioritizes an attitude with which we look at an object or a story about perspectives. Regarding a situation or a specific regulation, it is not about the ones within that framework (the definitions or meanings that are created within that regulated space) but about revealing the parts that have agency, individuality, and uniqueness. That is the interpretation of dignity that I can make as a creator.”

- Artist interview from an ACC video -

Through the process of collecting, changing, and re-combining the objects left behind, the artist creates a whole new form and, by doing so, demonstrates that the self is revealed not only through the completed forms like a chair, for instance, but that individual elements like a broken chair leg all have unique identities and uses.

By showing how the original identity can change to a different one based on the situation and use, the artist invites us to think about how our own identities adjust to new environments. That is to say, it is not about devaluating our own deficiencies but rather adding our strengths as a collective, supplementing our shortcomings, and thus creating a new world together. At least, this is my added meaning-making from what the artist is trying to say.

The next works are by Cambodian performing artists Svay Sareth, “Wings of Throne,” and “Beyond Sunflower.” What do you associate with wings? Or with sunflowers? Let’s take a look at these works together.

Svay Sareth, “Wings of Throne”

The impression I first got was a heart (♡). It is a very subjective interpretation, but at a distance, I saw the wings and the form of the heart and immediately associated them with positive images like angels, hope, and love.

Of course, this interpretation differed from the artist’s intention, having failed to face the subject properly. Let’s hear from the artist. Born in the throes of civil war in the late 1960s, Svar Sareth projects his experience of growing up in political instability and oppression into his works. The meaning of “wings” here, in “Wings of Throne,” actually captured a rather dark side that I had not expected at all: Just as the word “throne” is associated with power and authority, the voice contained within the “wings” was not love.

There is another special exhibition here. The single-channel video work capturing Sareth’s performance, “Beyond Sunflower,” likewise requires some background knowledge of the work, the artist’s life, and Cambodia.

In the work, Sareth wears a sunflower mask and plays the Tro (traditional Khmer string instrument) in Angkor Wat. This performance may be seen as a noise or distraction for the people in the space. But Angkor Wat is a well-known tourist site. The sunflower symbol represents Cambodia’s international relations as predicated upon the neo-colonialist structures of today and relays a different message in Cambodia’s political and social situation.

The fifth work I saw was that of Vietnamese artist Tran Luong, “Lập Lòe.”When one steps into the darkening curtains within the exhibition space, one comes face-to-face with a video of a red scarf flying on the two large screens.

Tran Luong, “Lập Lòe”

Red scarves are often associated with the Air Force pilots in Korea, but internationally, red scarves and the color red are associated with Communist and Socialist countries (figures), like North Korea, China, and Cuba.

The video shows a red scarf flying alone, but at other times the scarf seems to be hitting one’s body. I wondered, focusing on the connection between the red scarf and the human body, “is it an allegory of how a system binds one’s body in control?”

After reading the artist’s description of the work, I then turned inward to face the message that Tran was trying to convey. “Lập Lòe” is a three-channel video installation based on Tran Luong’s 2007 performance “Welts.” In it, Tran projects the history of Vietnam, the experiences of division and war within, and Tran’s own experiences in growing up in the ‘60s and ‘70s, during the Vietnam War and the Cambodian–Vietnamese War.

In particular, the artist focuses on the wounds left by the ideology and transforms them into symbols of red welts and red scarves in the performing arts. Perhaps the idea of human dignity, expressed by Tran Luong here, speaks to the desire for freedom against the social and political heritage and policies that suppress individual expressions.

For the works of Svay Sareth and Tran Luong, “Wings of Throne,” “Beyond Sunflower,” and “Lập Lòe,” I recommend reading up on the lives of the artists and the history of Vietnam and Cambodia to truly face the ideas of human dignity that they speak of.

The last work I examined was Lee Maelee’s depiction of our stories as told by land, “Time of Earth’s Strata.”

Lee Maelee, “Time of Earth’s Strata”

How does artist Lee Maelee cover the topic of human dignity?

Without any prior knowledge, just as I had faced the five works earlier, I had focused on the words “strata” and the imagery of skulls and archaeological dig sites and thought, “is it a record of an archaeological finding?”

To face the artist’s story properly, I read the description within the brochure and faced the work again. This time, my eyes caught something: the English word “and.” Ah! Just as the time above the land has been connected until today and will continue to be connected in the future, this work is inviting us to reflect upon where we come from, how our time flows, and our history.

Artist Lee Maelee finds the source of human existence in the land. The land contains the epic history of the strata, from the pre-human eras to the birth of humanity and civilization, and the rise and fall of states, people, and empires. The land connects my past, present, and future. It is a repository of all memories contained within the history of humanity. Without the past, there would be no human existence today. The artist tracks the history of the land that runs parallel to the history of humanity, and by doing so, focuses on human existence.

Using materials from nature, like gold, silver, coal, or graphite, is likewise a means to express how we investigate the history of humanity, myself, and the roots that trace back to primordial times.

I had an opportunity to listen to the artist’s own description of the work on the site. It was a meaningful time for me to absorb how the artist is projecting the investigation of human dignity and existence, the passion she worked with to visualize them, and the work of love put into the work.

“The works of six participating artists start from personal experience and reflect upon ideology, refugees, queerness, the polarization of wealth, human existence, and social systems that create marginalization. By doing so, they expand our perspective of the surrounding areas and present universal human values.”

I personally think that the concept of human dignity is not a difficult one to grasp. The investigation of human dignity is nothing but thinking sincerely about “my character, reflection, recognition of differences, and what I should and can do for the world we live together in.”

The exhibition “Sweet Sorrow,” which investigates the idea of human dignity through contemporary art, constantly relays a message for us to face ourselves in truth and to find the time to think about “you, I, and us.”

It doesn’t take long for us to tour the exhibition. Even if you are in a hurry, if you find the poster for “Sweet Sorrow” and the two faces of humanity within the bite mark in the donut, come and face your outer and inner self, the “you” that is different from “I,” and “we” as connected by the donuts.

I hope the exhibition will give you an opportunity to think back on yourself and recognize how human dignity starts from recognizing oneself.

The exhibition “Sweet Sorrow” will continue until November 27. One can join a guided tour of the exhibition from its entrance, so if you want to take a step further toward the idea of human dignity and the artists’ investigations, make sure to sign up for the guided tour.

2022 ACC×GB Gwangju - Asia “Sweet Sorrow” DetailsClick to proceed to the webpage