작업 소개

57STUDIO는 국립현대미술관의 전시 프로그램인 ‘젊은모색2019’ 전시의 미디어 콘텐츠로 아티스트 인터뷰 시리즈를 기획 및 제작하였습니다. 이번 전시의 부제인 ‘액체 유리 바다’는 서로 다른 주제와 매체를 각자의 개성으로 다루는 참여 작가 9명에게서 발견한 공통의 키워드에서 출발하였습니다. 인터뷰 시리즈는 각 작가의 작품 세계와 전시 취지를 효과적으로 전달하기 위해 제작되었으며, 작가들의 창작 과정, 작업에 대한 생각, 그리고 전시에 대한 개인적인 관점을 담아 관람객들이 전시에 대한 이해와 몰입도를 높일 수 있도록 구성되었습니다.

김지영 작가는 자신의 작품 속에서 사회적인 이슈를 다루는 작가입니다. 주로 다루는 매체는 회화이지만 사운드나 영상, 조각을 함께 다루고 있습니다. 김지영 작가 작품 속에서는 사회시스템의 붕괴로 인해 발생하는 재난과 그로 인한 희생자들을 계속해서 기억하게 만들고 우리의 눈앞으로 불러오게 하는 작가입니다.

– 최희승 큐레이터

57STUDIO planned and produced an artist interview series as part of the media content for the Young Korean Artists2019, a program by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. The exhibition’s subtitle, Liquid, Glass, Sea, was inspired by a common keyword discovered across the nine participating artists, who each approach different themes and media with their own unique perspectives. The interview series was created to effectively communicate each artist’s artistic world and the exhibition’s intent. It captures the artists’ creative processes, their thoughts on their work, and their personal views on the exhibition, helping viewers deepen their understanding and engagement with the exhibition.

Keem, Jiyoung is an artist who addresses social issues in her work. While she primarily works with painting, she also incorporates sound, video, and sculpture into her practice. Through her works, Kim Ji-young continuously reminds us of the disasters caused by the collapse of social systems and the victims affected by them, bringing these issues to the forefront of our consciousness.

– Choi Heeseung (Curator)

My name is Keem, Jiyoung. I’m interested in the structural problems that lie behind the seemingly accidental social events, and how relationships between the individual and such social events are formed through the way such events are highlighted.

The sound work Wind (2015/2019) transferred the wind speed at Paengmok Port in Jindo from April 2014 to March 2015 in bpm, turning the wind of that day into sound. With the sound in the gallery space, the time in the space is set to the time when MV Sewol sank. The visual counterpart in the space is Blue Series (2016-2018), which arranges incidents that occurred repeatedly throughout the modern history of Korea until the Sewol ferry disaster, due to the similar structural problem in the nation. The two works were put together in the space In the attempt to see the incidents in the layers of history in the light of the present.

Look at This Unbearable Darkness (2019), a work in progress in the space,is a visual rendering of the times of all those who struggled with reality in the tragic and cruel situation. It’s also declare that gestures in resistance to such reality is still going on, and that it must continue to go on.

I asked myself how I can look at the Sewol incident, and the reality today, after this incident. My work is an attempt or preparation for this question. Thus my priorities in working are that first, I shouldn’t fossilize the Sewol disaster, and that second, I should never give the impression that I’m suffering the most through my work I believe art shouldn’t detach itself from disasters or incidents, but bind itself with whatever that’s happened and operate as a way of bringing it into reality. Therefore, while this work also may seem to be thrown out there, I hope for it to be seen as a symbol of intently hoping for something.

And I think that should be the role of art. While I create a site that focuses on incidents of the past, I wished for them to be shown as incidents of present, rather than as events of the past, in order to emphasize their sense of ‘nowness’. Color has the power to deliver visual messages. For me, blue is a color that can reinforce the direction I’ve set in my mind. It’s said that blue flame is the hottest. And that reflects the kind of attitude we must have in confronting these issues.

‘See the structure with a cold mind, but deal with the incident with a warm heart.’ It’s not that just one view is right nor that the midpoint between the two is right. I believe that we can face such disasters of the world in the right way only when these two points are put together. The tragedy, brutality, and the gravity of this disaster, and the damage it’s all caused, makes this subject itself very heavy. I think that if we’re weighed down by such heaviness itself, we end up moving away from the subject altogether. As an artist, I believe that I must be able to bear that weight. Although I may not be deal with it all at once, I believe that I should bear in portions with every work, and record it all through art.

I was often asked why I talk about this subject through art, and why my art isn’t out on the streets but inside a space. I questioned why these works shouldn’t be shown inside an art space and why projects of social subject must always be shown on the streets. I believe that putting up boundaries around something only ends up reducing its meaning within the walls of such boundaries. Each individual life does not take place in this world independently. Rather, it takes place in history, made of individual lives put together into layers. I think it’s important to see how each individual thinks about the flow of history, and if they think about such things. And when such thoughts are combined, I believe that we can take a better directivity, even if it’s little by little.