Everyone has experienced migration in some form. Moving to a new city or country gives you the opportunity to start a new life, but often, it eventually settles into just another ordinary day in a new place. New Land, Daily Life begins with a reflection on the shared memories of migration. As you follow your memories into reminiscence, observe your daily life, and consciously focus on the moments when your journey felt meaningful.
Travelling leads you toward an unknown future, one whose direction you cannot foresee. Ghost Leg (2020) is a series of ordinary iron ladders, like those found in daily life, with various props interestingly attached to wheels. Artist Dokyoung Kim layers the image of the "ghost leg" game over these portable ladders, creating a metaphor that suggests your fate can be shaped by your choices, while also highlighting the uncertainties of the future. Photographic slides on C Have Something (2008) and Step by Step (2009) are projected onto a wall. Slide film, a nostalgic device once widely used but now largely obsolete, evokes the artist’s old memories of London.
New Land, Daily Life encourages you to reflect on your daily life by bringing these memories to mind. Look back at your past and compare it with your current daily life after migration. Have you maintained a routine or habit despite the move? or has it changed?
❛Ghost leg is a lottery game common in Asia. It start with a number of vertical lines. Between the lines there are random horizontal connectors binding all lines into a connected diagramem, like the one above. It is known in Japanese as Amidakuji (阿弥陀籤, "Amida lottery"), in Korean as Sadaritagi (사다리타기, literally "ladder climbing") and in Chinese as Guijiaotu (Chinese: 鬼腳圖, literally "ghost leg diagram").
The general rule for playing this game is: choose a line on the top and follow this line downwards. When a horizontal line is encountered, follow it to get to another vertical line and continue downwards. Repeat this procedure until reaching the end of the vertical line.
