Interlude
Pause: It’s time to…
Humans, situated between the earth and the sky, are finite beings; they are at some point destined to die. Death brings about certain changes for humans. To begin with, there comes a change in designation: from “human being” to “it.” Second, there is a change in location, as the body is buried in the ground. This is often referred to as “returning to dust” or “the law of nature.”
A person’s death marks the moment when both their existence and location are altered. The phrase “letting go” seems particularly fitting here. The earth, which embraces the “it” that has been laid down, takes on the imagery of descent because of this shift in human position (a downward movement). This is because the body goes into the earth, while the soul is believed to ascend to the sky. Meanwhile, another living person, a spiritual guide (a shaman) mediates this transition, assisting the soul in rising to the heavens. Reflecting on this process, We begun to wonder if these interpretations are perhaps biased, stemming from a human-centered perspective. With this in mind, we reconsider the attributes imposed on the earth that may not inherently belong to it.
We previously explored this theme of revisiting and redefining in the project “Three Elements: Back to Square One” (2022). The aim was to investigate how the three Eastern concepts of heaven (haneul), earth (ddang), and humankind (ingan) might be expressed in art, and how the participating artists’ works could be interpreted within such a framework. The project sought to explore the potential synergies and clashes between the artworks, or how they might come together as a single landscape.
If “Three Elements” touched on the concepts of heaven, earth, and humankind, then the 2024 Overlab ICC exhibition, “Interlude” (2024), marks the beginning of a re-examination of these elements through the works of five artists. In particular, it intends to focus on reinterpreting the imposed characteristics of “earth.” The goal is to deconstruct and reinterpret the attributes of the Three Elements. Two artists, Jo Eun-sol (visual arts) and Seo Yeoung-lee (literature) present new works in this show, their works may seem to be disassociated, but they can be combined to create different forms, meanings, and even that elusive “something” in their works – floating in space, and constantly spreading its existence and its sound. Within their works, there is a curator (might we say “shaman” because of the similarity between the two? Both are situated on a boundary, making links between unknown worlds and objects, leading and sending their charge to someplace or someone). The title of this exhibition, “Interlude,” generally means “a period of time between events and activities.” But here its boundaries have been expanded to include “intervene” and “traverse”; “curator” is thought of as a person who is at the border between artworks, intervening between works, finding hidden meanings in them, and then combining them to reach another level.
The process of deconstructing and reconstructing is meant to pause the constant upward look and instead look downward in an attempt to redefine what we see, what we think, and what we do. We may encounter something new – perhaps something that floats, as a byproduct or residue – while we pause, breathe, and repeat the cycle of stillness and movement.
Let us pause a moment from constantly looking only “upward.”
Let us look again; let us lend an ear and listen.
