YI KYUNG
CHO
I have always wondered why a
projected image is exhibited mostly in a dark room or black box. Why not in
a white cube? An image projected in a white cube, as opposed to a black box,
would be less clear and at times even invisible, disappearing completely.
Viewers see this ‘imperfect’ image in a white cube and experience something
different from what they generally see in a black box. In this setting,
viewers can perceive the image in a new form - one that stimulates a
different set of nerve responses - and thus potentially inhabit a new space
for reflection.
An important point regarding image projection is that the medium - the flow
of light transmitted from a projector - exists and yet the projected image
partially disappears to the naked eye. I see this situation as that of
viewers perceiving ‘no image’ despite the fact an image does exist. I call
this ‘de-creation.’ Recently I have attempted to make works that invite an
audience to come inside the work instead of just standing in front of the
work to observe it. This is meant to simulate how we really exist in the
world, i.e. not just standing in front of it. We don’t exist in front of a
painting but exist in the same space with the painting.
I am working on a new project that further explores this idea. It is a video
installation comprised of multiple projectors that are set in a space with
changing light. What interests me about a projected image is how its
reaction to light resembles the temporality of remembering. We recall what
we have seen or heard by chance or what we have experienced from the past,
but it soon disappears. The situation I am interested in creating - the
projected video in changing light conditions – is the raw experience of the
audience perceiving herself or himself within the time and space of the
exhibition room. In my work, the audience is active, becomes part of my
work, and thus comes to see her or his own self in this intermingling.
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