Working Process: Placing paper on the Myung-il Market street
"THE SERIES OF COMPOSITIONS IS AN EXPERIMENT IN CAPTURING THE CITY STREETS IN THE MOST AUTHENTIC METHOD AND AN INVESTIGATION OF THE TRUTHFULNESS OF PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES."
A photographic print, while accurately portraying the objective image, can often fail to convey the distinct mood and smell of the scene. The grittiness of a busy New York sidewalk can easily be lost amidst the transition from real life to film to the fine print. I attempted to solve this problem by elimination the complicated process of film development and directly employing the street debris as source material. I strategically laid out the paper on busy sidewalks. The public involuntarily stepped on the paper to create a rugged layer of dust from which the objective image of the exact scene was then erased from. The history and origin of the material compensates for the lack of image detail. And the result is more genuine than a photographic print.
A photographic print, while accurately portraying the objective image, can often fail to convey the distinct mood and smell of the scene. The grittiness of a busy New York sidewalk can easily be lost amidst the transition from real life to film to the fine print. I attempted to solve this problem by elimination the complicated process of film development and directly employing the street debris as source material. I strategically laid out the paper on busy sidewalks. The public involuntarily stepped on the paper to create a rugged layer of dust from which the objective image of the exact scene was then erased from. The history and origin of the material compensates for the lack of image detail. And the result is more genuine than a photographic print.
Working Process: People randomly stepped on the paper at W 43rd st.
Working Process: Placing paper on the Hwang-Hak dong street
강상훈 “사실+사실=허구”
강상훈 작가의 작품을 처음 본 것은 2009년 개인전 <Dirtograph>에서이다.
Dirtograph는 먼지(Dirt)와 사진(Photograph)을 합성하여 만들어낸 단어라고 한다.
이 시리즈에서 작가는 과거와 현재를 한 화면에서 공존시키는 매개체를 가치의 생성과 소멸을 경험한 먼지에서 찾았는데 현재 오염물로 치부되는 먼지도 어느시대 어느순간, 누군가 또는 무언가의 일부였을 것이라는 시간적 추론의 출발점에서 이 작업은 시작되었다. 90년대 이후 역사적인 소재를 보여주는 젊은 작가는 드물었다. 때문에 당시 강상훈의 개인전은 비평가들에게 큰 인상을 남겼다. 작업방식은 길거리에 나가 종이를 바닥에 붙여두고 4~5일에서 길게는 일주일에서 열흘 이상 현장을 담아내고 가져와 수많은 흔적과 기록들이 층층이 쌓인 종이가 겪었던 불필요한 기억들을 부분적으로 지워감으로써 이미지를 완성해 나간다.
‘밟는 행위’와 ‘지우는 행위’의 반복은 마치 권력이 역전되고 다시 재역전 되는, 공식적인 역사기록의 신뢰성에 대한 회의를 나타내는 것 같다. 작품의 이미지 또한 처음에는 아무런 의심이 들지 않는다. 1960년 아이젠하워의 방한과 한국전쟁으로 폐허가 된 명동성당 근처. 61년 박정희의 제3공화국의 출범과 중앙청. 하지만 자세히 보면 서로 시공간이 일치하지 않는 세계에 살고 있다. 그들이 공존하고 있다. 어차피 우리는 종래의 기호와 의미가 정확하게 일치하지 않는 세계에 살고 있다. 그리고 역사라는 것도 반드시 정통성에 근거하여 질서정연하게 발전해 가는 것이 아니라 소설적으로 서술되는 허구의 기록일지 모른다. Dirtograph시리즈는 집단적 역사의 흐름 속에서 기억의 역사 이면의 망각의 역사, 조작의 역사까지 동시에 보여주고 있으며, 정치사회적 상황을 재현하는 방식에 있어 민감한 소재들과 그 소재들 사이의 간극에서 보여지는 작가의 우발적인 개입에 대한 또 다른 해석을 현재의 우리가 할 수 있게 한다.
근 3년 만에 보여지는 신작 Glitch Mega-Zion은 매체의 치명적인 힘은 사실은 실존하지 않는다는 애기를 하고 있다. 우리가 보는 잡지의 정보들은 광범위해 보이지만 내가 가지고 있는 것과는 무관하게 피상적인 비전을 제시하거나 일방적인 커뮤니케이션을 한다. 그러나 우리는 이런 편협한 저널리즘을 경계하는데 무감각하다. 여기서 시온(Zion)은 극단적으로 신봉하고 몰입한 나머지 우리의 메시아가 되어버린 미디어를 뜻한다. 작품의 재료가 되는 잡지와 작업 결과물은 모두 같은 질량이다. 아날로그 종이 잡지에서는 볼 수 없는 디지털 에러, 불완전함과 모순을 분쇄된 잡지를 마치 픽셀처럼 한줄 한줄 손으로 이어 붙이며 이미 없어진 잡지표지를 재현한다. 이 과정에서 강상훈 작가는 인간이기에 완벽할 수 없는 수공예적 재현이 작업에 나이브하게 스며들고 궁극적으로 이 행위를 통해 시온이라는 세상의 불완전함과 모순을 드러내고 있다.
–김가현-
Kang Sang-Hoon “Fact+Fact= Fiction”
I first saw Kang Sang-Hoon’s artwork at his solo exhibition Dirtograph in 2009. The word, dirtograph, is a compound word formed from dirt and photograph – an expression invented by the artist. In this series, Kang found that dust experienced the creation and extinction of value, and used it as a mediator allowing past and present to co-exist on one screen. He started this series by reasoning that dust - which is usually disregarded as a contaminant - was once part of certain moment and time. Kang’s solo exhibition left a strong impression on art critics in the 1990s, when it was rare to see young artists dealing with historical issues as subject matter. The process of work in the exhibition was such that he would go out, put paper on the street for 4-5 days or over 7-10 days, then bring these papers back which embedded traces and record of the streets. Finally, to complete the work he partially erased the dust that contained unnecessary memories of the stacked papers.
The repetition of the “act of stepping” and the “act of erasing,” as if power is reversed and re-revered, seems to show the skepticism towards the faith of the official record of history. Eisenhower’s Korea visit in 1960. Ruins near Myeongdong Cathedral by the Korean War. The launch of Park Chung Hee president in 1961 and the central authority of the Third Republic. At first, the images of work don’t give any doubt of the image itself, but if you look at the images closely, time and space do not match so much as they coexist. In this sense we are living in the world where meaning and sign do not completely synchronize.
History might also be a fictional record narrated as a novel rather than presented in an orderly manner on the basis of its legitimacy. The ‘Dirtograph’ series shows not only the history of memory, but also the history of forgetting and manipulation, within the flow of collective histories. The artist’s adventitious interventions on sensitive subject matters and the gap of each subject matter, in ways of representing socio-political situations, allows contemporary audiences to make different interpretations.
‘Glitch Mega-Zion,’ a new piece made in nearly three years, expresses that the deadly power of a medium doesn’t actually exist. Information from magazines seems extensive but only allows superficial visions and unreciprocated communication. However, we are numb from being cautious of this narrow-minded journalism. Here, ‘Zion’ means media which became the people’s Messiah - as we believe in and are immersed in it.
The material, magazines and the work, are same in mass. The artist presents lost magazine covers by putting the grounded magazines together line by line with his hands showing digital errors. This reveals incompleteness and paradox that are difficult to be seen in analog paper magazines. In this process, Kang has made representations based on handcraft. This process, guided by the human hand, is impossible to be perfect and he consciously lets this seemingly naïve technique soak into his work, thus revealing the incompleteness and paradox of the world of Zion.
Kim Ka-Hyun
Spring & Mercer 2009 / New York city dirt on paper / 110 x 77 cm / Attached Duration: 4 days
27th St. & Broadway 2002 / New York city dirt on paper / 110 x 77 cm / Attached Duration: 4 days
34th St. & Broadway 2007 / New York city dirt on paper / 57 x 75 cm / Attached Duration: 5 days
42nd St. & Broadway 2002 / New York city dirt on paper / 110 x 77 cm / Attached Duration: 3 days
September 11 Memorial II 2001 / People's hand writings on paper / 57 x 75 cm / Attached Duration: 2 days
September 11 Memorial III 2009 / New York city dirt on paper / 57 x 75 cm / Attached Duration: 2 days
Photo Images from Joe Woolhead
September 11 Memorial I 2001 / New York city dirt on paper / 57 x 75 cm / Attached Duration: 2 days
ART! 2002 / New York city dirt on paper / 57 x 75 cm / Attached Duration: 4 days
Dongdaemun Station 2009 / Seoul city dirt on paper / 57x 75m / Attached Duration: 16 days
Dongdaemun Stadium 2009 / Seoul city dirt on paper / 57 x 75 cm / Attached Duration: 8 days
Myongdong Cathedral 2009 / Seoul city dirt on paper / 98 x 148 cm / Attached Duration: 8 days
Academy Theatre 2009 / Seoul city dirt on paper / 108 x 148 cm / Attached Duration: 8 days
Hwang-Hak Dong II 2007 / Hwang-Hak Dong dirt on paper / 130 x 148 cm / Attached Duration: 11 days
Hwang-Hak Dong III 2007 / Hwang-Hak Dong dirt on paper / 75 x 57 cm / Attached Duration: 10 days
Hwang-Hak Dong IV 2007 / Hwang-Hak Dong dirt on paper / 73 x 130 cm / Attached Duration: 10 days
Hwang-Hak Dong V 2007 / Yang-pyung dirt on paper / 130 x 148 cm / Attached Duration: 14 days
Hwang-Hak Dong VII 2007 / Hwang-Hak Dong dirt on paper / 130 x 287 cm / Attached Duration: 14 days
Hwang-Hak Dong VI(Hyup-dong Bearing) 2008 / Hwang-Hak Dong dirt on paper / 57 x 75 cm
Attached Duration: 4 days
Hwang-Hak Dong VIII 2009 / Hwang-Hak Dong cit dirt on paper / 97 x 130 cm / Attached Duration: 14 days
Hwang-Hak Dong I 2007 / Hwang-Hak Dong dirt on paper / 162 x 128 cm / Attached Duration: 9 days
Myung-il Market 2007 / Myung-il Market dirt on paper / 75 x 57 cm / Attached Duration: 6 days
Yang-pyung town 2007 / Yang-pyung city dirt on paper / 75 x 57 cm / Attached Duration: 6 days
Isaac-toast I 2007 / Yang-pyung city dirt on paper / 57 x 75 cm / Attached Duration: 7 days
Isaac-toast II 2007 / Yang-pyung city dirt on paper / 75 x 57cm / Attached Duration: 7 days
The Bank of Korea 2009 / Seoul city dirt on paper / 57 x 75 cm / Attached Duration: 8 days
