Birth
1964, Chungju
Genre
Installation, Media
Homepage
Time Garden_curated by SUNG Min-A
‘Time Garden,’ a video installation by Aiyoung Yun, focuses on developing storytelling with regard to time as an absolute symbol, an instant shift from outside to inside, and an escape from the force of gravity. As if in a vacuum of time, Yun’s work is reminiscent of 'moist media' (as proposed by Roy Ascott); since we are living in times where everything vibrates, everything infiltrates, everything floats, and everything changes, one may interpret Yun's work as classical scenery. Beginning with her initial explorations of conventional painting, Yun has fiercely communed with life through diverse mediums, including print, installation, photography, and video. ‘Time Garden’ can be seen to be the very point where the flows of the artist's emotions have been implied and expounded. The exhibition space of Whanki Museum provides viewers with an opportunity to consider the freshness of Yun's art in a virtual world.
Divided into four sections, ‘Time Garden’ incorporates the entire space of the museum. The exhibition spaces have commonalities with regard to traffic flow, but their staircases are connected in a particularly organic circulatory structure, so as not to divert the flow between works (given that the themes of most of Yun's works focus on one absolute imaginary pivot, as was mentioned above). Within the darkened exhibition spaces, intense spot lighting focuses on the point of contact where two series meet on the slope of the first floor, highlighting this intersection as a symbol of space and time. The introduction to the exhibition takes shape in the eponymous “Time Garden.” Following a long, gently sloping circular staircase, visitors encounter stories of times reflected inside each of us?stories remembered or lost?as one walks along the rhythm composed by times impossible to visually count. The flow of lights, like fragments of countless time, leads to “Jardin Secret” on the lower floor. At the center of an expansive garden with marguerite flowers in full blossom stands a tree, forming the center of the artist’s imaginary world. Rather than leaves, the tree is covered with videos of a naked man who floats within the frames of screens which are hardly noticeable. As if traces of a vaguely lingering memory, as if images seen in dreams that cannot be grasped, Yun communicates a dialogue with herself about dreams, time, and existence, in allusion to ‘Dream of Butterfly’ by the Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zi. Her monologue becomes our monologue, and the stories that we have left behind become a conversation within the intersection of time and space. In the midst of this chaos, where time and space intersect and overlap infinitely, the artist evokes a sense that all those scenes are 'real.' "Although we cannot touch dreams, they are vivid experience,” she says. “I feel that I am living life in a different form, in another time. In my dream, I live in France but at the same time in Korea; I become a bird or fish; I feel my childhood and the present at the same time. In dreams, it is possible to experience multiple times and spaces all at once. I think this is another dimension of existence and reality. To me, life in dreams is life on another staircase."
A corner of this space?characterized by its ambience of meditation and vague, lingering tension?leads visitors to the ground floor, where “Unknown Space” is presented. The works featured in this section are of the simplest and most delicate forms, and are set up to be interactive with viewers. Since all the formative modules in this work are configured as buttons, the scenery changes depending on which buttons are pressed, and in which order.
"All and everything already exists in this world. It only appears differently depending on differences in quest, desire, and curiosity of individuals in search of something," says Yun. In the same spirit as this statement, “Unknown Space” shows different scenes depending on the wants and desires of visitors. “Unknown Space” is connected to a bright space created using spot lighting, leading to “Time Garden-Seaux” (another version of “Time Garden”), thereby serving as the final point of contact in Yun’s continuously circulating space. As one strolls through the symbolic time and space unfolded by Aiyoung Yun, where the dichotomy of dream and reality disappears, the experience is one of encountering the rhythm of breath inside of us rather than the inspiration or impression unique to the artist. What is special about the media art of Aiyoung Yun is the power that sustains the very emotion we feel as we are communing with it, as if repeatedly inhaling and exhaling.
