Ayoung Kim
20 Jan - 12 Feb 2012
AYOUNG KIM
PH Express
20 January - 12 February, 2012
The exhibition "PH Express" shown by Ayoung Kim focuses on the two-channel video projection "PH Express: Over Tranquil Waters". A selection of other printed and installation works is grouped around this projection. Kim's video is an excursion into the history of the colonial power Great Britain and its presence in Korea in the 1880s, constructed in the style of a theatre play with a satirical tendency: the feverish British efforts to extend their sphere of influence in the Pacific, so forestalling a possible Russian dominance resulted, among other things, in the occupation and fortification of the small Korean Pacific port, Port Hamilton. In her work Ayoung Kim discloses the wave of political and hectic diplomatic activities in the whole of Europe that followed this situation - while the British garrison in Port Hamilton, far away from those political events, was waiting in a state of quasi-exile and permanent boredom. By using exclusively authentic historical material as the basis for her script, and having characters from different social backgrounds discuss the events in various places, Kim shows the way in which news media functioned in those days and how, for example, a butterfly effect occurred. But the work can also be understood as a metaphorical commentary on news media in general, as well as suggesting new ways to interpret reporting in the border area between fact and fiction.
Ayoung Kim is a grantee of the Arts Council Korea, Seoul in the context of our International Studio Programme.
PH Express
20 January - 12 February, 2012
The exhibition "PH Express" shown by Ayoung Kim focuses on the two-channel video projection "PH Express: Over Tranquil Waters". A selection of other printed and installation works is grouped around this projection. Kim's video is an excursion into the history of the colonial power Great Britain and its presence in Korea in the 1880s, constructed in the style of a theatre play with a satirical tendency: the feverish British efforts to extend their sphere of influence in the Pacific, so forestalling a possible Russian dominance resulted, among other things, in the occupation and fortification of the small Korean Pacific port, Port Hamilton. In her work Ayoung Kim discloses the wave of political and hectic diplomatic activities in the whole of Europe that followed this situation - while the British garrison in Port Hamilton, far away from those political events, was waiting in a state of quasi-exile and permanent boredom. By using exclusively authentic historical material as the basis for her script, and having characters from different social backgrounds discuss the events in various places, Kim shows the way in which news media functioned in those days and how, for example, a butterfly effect occurred. But the work can also be understood as a metaphorical commentary on news media in general, as well as suggesting new ways to interpret reporting in the border area between fact and fiction.
Ayoung Kim is a grantee of the Arts Council Korea, Seoul in the context of our International Studio Programme.