Jane Hwang MATEJ MLAKAR ANGELA KINCAID SETH SEXTON JOYCE CAMILLERI NIKO KAPA KATIE HALLAM KIM ESHELMAN KRISTA GURCKA JANE HWANG ART LandEscape A r t R e v i e w Anniversary Edition C o n t e m p o r a r y
SUMMARY Kim Eshelman USA C o n t e m p o r a r y A r t R e v i e w USA Joyce Camilleri As an artist teacher, my work aims at exploring the experiential value of drawing as a form of critical enquiry characterised by a timeless state of incompleteness recalling mankind’s continuous journey of becoming on paper and beyond its linear boundaries. Theory and practice meet in the drawing process as a visually poetic praxis, nourishing one’s intrinsic sense of wonder for the unknown and bringing about instances of meaningmaking and learning compelled by the artistic process itself. Such applied enquiry is drawn on a personal narrative of becoming both as an artist and researcher; a journey informed by theoretical and practical avenues of thought, which culminate in captivating visual forms that unite thought and action in the creative process. Special Issue Niko Kapa Greece / United Kingdom Niko Kapa is an interdisciplinary artist, the essence of who’s work lies in experimentation, exploration of emotion and the projection of identity in space. Guided by his architectural background, he considers that environment is not something static, but is constantly reconfigured through its intercorrelation with people. He is concerned with the expressive and associative potential of art, perceiving artworks as fundamental spatial explorations, capable of describing experiences while manifesting their interrelationship to life. In his practice, object is treated as a metaphor of the human being, by linking place and its constituents directly to behaviour and activity. Using observation of surroundings, Niko seeks to discover and create new possible worlds and surprising multisensory occurrences. Malta / Canada Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Katie Hallam United Kingdom Technology can create visual problems. It is hard to see, it is difficult to understand the scale of or imagine as a physical infrastructure. It is also problematic to fully understand the environmental issues it can create beyond our personal devices. Technology is hidden in code, buried in tubes, stored in data centers and the ‘cloud’. As a visual artist and photographer, I am exploring ways of how to bring the digital into physical spaces through sculptural objects and site-specific landscapes, visualising how the technological sublime will disguise itself or fossilise within the Earth’s strata millions of years in the future. My practice began creating work with new media technologies through the construction and deconstruction of digital imagery, coding and unintentional errors that occur in our technological experiences. Seth is a Seattle based multimedia artist whose current work emphasizes large scale painting choreographies. Raised on a farm in Chimacum, Washington, he spent his childhood summers alternately mowing fields, stacking hay bails and studying ballet. He left dance to pursue an education in biochemistry at the University of Washington and later went on to receive a BFA in painting. He began a successful collaboration with metal artist Cathy McClure called SID INC. This collaboration focused on multi-media installations and led to subsequent collaborations with artists internationally. Seth moved to Panajachel, Guatemala and spent 3 years studying Tzu'tu'jil and the indigenous arts and rituals of the Mayan people of the Atitlan region. Painting is a meditation that allows me to focus and become still, leaving the world outside and entering a place where I can fully express myself. Translating the beauty of nature around me into paintings has been incredibly healing for me. I believe the subjective lens though which we all view the world is a common thread between us. We have different stories but they’re all human stories intertwined with love, loss, pain, and joy. As with everyone, my experiences have shaped my reality both figuratively and visually. Painting has become the intimate bridge between my inner life and the outside world. What began as an intense desire to express myself has evolved into an aspiration to evoke emotions and a feeling of human connection in others. Seth Sexton Anna Fine Foer My art comes simply from inner necessity to create. I usually get inspiration while I am outdoors immersed with nature. Sometimes when I see something interesting that start running my neurons I just take a shot with my cell phone and use a picture as a starting reference. The finished painting is usually quite different as I imagine it at the beginning. I usually need some starting point but then I expressionistically go with the flow. Sometimes I finish my painting in one go but other times I might fight with it many many times and even left it for a while. Some are also overpainted later or recycled. I am expressionist by my heart although I’ve been painting also realism and much more impressionism in the near past. Matej Mlakar Slovenia
Special Issue Special thanks to Miya Ando, Juerg Luedi, Urte Beyer, Beth Krensky, Rudiger Fischer, Lisa Birke, Haylee Lenkey, Martin Gantman, Ariane Littman, Max Epstein, Nicolas Vionnet, Sapir Kesem Leary, Greg Condon, Jasper Van Loon, Alexandre Dang, Christian Gastaldi, Larry Cwik, Michael Nelson, Dana Taylor, Michael Sweeney, Colette Hosmer, Melissa Moffat, Marinda Scaramanga and Artemis Herber. SUMMARY Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Latvia / United Kingdom I explore boundaries. I observe dichotomous worlds prevalent in society and investigate their intersection, which has a unique and distinct character from both worlds. Through my interdisciplinary research into myths, religions, topography, and history, I uncover artifacts of the middle ground from various cultures. I materialize my research through multimedia video installations that feature images, sounds, and voices harvested from the endless circulation of time and space of human history. My work weaves through diverse subjects that examine life and death, time and space, fantasy and reality, nation and territory, and the self and the other. It questions and provokes skepticism about categorizations we have canonized over centuries and invites new discourses on categorical boundaries. Jane Hwang South Korea / USA Krista Gurcka is a London based visual photographer, whose work explores culture, landscape, environmental sustainability and community. Krista received a BA (Hons) in Photography graduating from Kingston School of Art, London, UK in (2018). The never ending change of landscapes is what draws Krista to travel, documenting its shift and impact on our communities while photographing the every day surrounding areas. This curiosity of movement has lead to an array of projects, that explore the human interaction with the natural while bringing in a new perspective of the environmental issues that may arise. Krista’s dynamic vision aims to highlight the strength and beauty of the land while displaying the negative and positive effect of the societies interactions upon the natural. 4 32 Katie Hallam lives and works in the United Kingdom Jane Hwang lives and works in New York City, USA Kim Eshelman lives and works in Battle Ground, WA, United States Joyce Camilleri lives and works in Malta Krista Gurcka lives and works in London, United Kingdom Niko Kapa lives and works in Dubai and London, UK Angela Kincaid lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland Seth Sexton lives and works in Seattle, WA, United States Matej Mlakar lives and works in Ljubljana, Slovenia 60 82 106 130 154 172 204 United Kingdom Angela Kincaid My process-led practice is based on my personal engagement with the natural environment. In particular I am fascinated by the geological history of the Scottish landscape, and the movement of the sky, land and sea. As a starting point, I use my surrounding environment to research and develop visual documentation through the use of photography, film and drawing which I see as a collaboration between myself and the landscape. This approach often develops into site specific installations, sculptures and paintings that could be seen as having a performative aspect to them. In all my work, I hope to bring about an awareness of location that facilitates not only the exploration of place, but the emotive feelings of tranquillity and solace that can be felt, when we allow ourselves to fully experience the elemental nature of the ever-changing landscape. Krista Gurcka
Hello Katie and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.thebeautifulerror.com in order to get a wide idea about your multifaceted artistic production, and we would start this Technology can create visual problems. It is hard to see, it is difficult to understand the scale of or imagine as a physical infrastructure. It is also problematic to fully understand the environmental issues it can create beyond our personal devices. Technology is hidden in code, buried in tubes, stored in data centers and the ‘cloud’. As a visual artist and photographer, I am exploring ways of how to bring the digital into physical spaces through sculptural objects and site-specific landscapes, visualising how the technological sublime will disguise itself or fossilise within the Earth’s strata millions of years in the future. My practice began creating work with new media technologies through the construction and deconstruction of digital imagery, coding and unintentional errors that occur in our technological experiences. I question the shape and form of digital culture and how this could be represented when it’s forced to slow down making us pause. I create work that goes against a logical order, that interprets the moments a ‘pure’ digital system can stretch, navigate and reveal its nonsense within a physical space even away from switched off devices. My research has developed through ongoing explorations connecting digital culture, ecology, geological deep time and the future use and sustainability of technology. Currently, I am exploring the concept of fossilised technology. Going beyond cause and effect, the material language I consider traces the digital and its geological constraints. I explore the idea of the legacy our digital culture will leave on the earth through combinations of experimentation creating hybrid manifestations through sculpture and digital materiality. Like alchemy, specific works connect new media technology with archaic power. These ‘digital-mineral hybrids’ are hypnotic works that sit against a background of open, natural and urban landscapes as I tease the question of a glitch in nature. My online archive is a way of visualising imperfection in digital culture and exploring technologically inspired sculpture. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Katie Hallam
interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid formal training: you hold a BA (hons) from Bishop Grosseteste University and an MA in Contemporary Art Practice, that you received from the University of Edinburgh: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum direct the trajectory of your current artistic research? Katie Hallam: Early artistic practice for me began learning about the fundamentals of photography and how to use a camera from my grandad who also lectured on the subject and was incredibly technical and knowledgeable in his approach. I then chose to study photography at university developing an instinctive drive and further passion for it which led to working as a photographer within the commercial sector and then pursuing a career as an art teacher. My interests and explorations developed in the darkroom using alternative processes and techniques working with various films, papers and chemicals and I soon became fascinated by the unpredictable nature of creating imagery in this way. I rarely take a logical approach in my practice; I’ve always taken risks when it comes to traditional practices and tried to avoid being overly formal or stylistic. Experimentation has therefore been my strength to understand the limitations in whatever I do. Having taught art and photography in secondary education for the past seven years, I have seen the phenomenal potential in the creative use of digital technologies and have certainly learnt a lot from the students being digital natives themselves! It’s been fascinating to see the increase in the use of technology to adapt the way we teach and learn about art to new generations. However, it has also highlighted both negative and positive effects on how we rely on technology and can become consumed with it. These personal experiences both in industry and through education continue to develop my practice; my work is always in a state of flux through continuous learning and response. In 2017 alongside teaching, I started ‘The Beautiful Error’, working mainly with photography and new media technologies creating aesthetically exciting works through the deliberate corruption and deconstruction of digital photographs. This was my way of visualising imperfection in digital culture and exposing it in every way possible, seeing beauty in images that are disrupted or frozen in a static space. In purposefully damaging and altering digital files I realised an important aspect of my process is that I could never recreate the same effect on an individual image, the results of my intentional experimentations were a surprise making each error unique Katie Hallam scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
and ‘beautiful’ in its own respect, similar to my explorations in the darkroom. Currently, my artistic research has dramatically transitioned through completing my recent MA at Edinburgh College of Art especially from a materiality point of view. I have begun looking at complex digital photographic collages and sculptural works which encourage dialogue between the connection of nature, technology and their future implications. For this special edition of LandEscape we have selected Powering the Cloud, a stimulating body of works that our readers have already had the chance to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your exploration of the concept of fossilised technology is the way it raises questions about the everchanging idea of materiality in our media driven society, unveiling points of convergence between the nature of the medium and the message that it conveys: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us something about the genesis of Powering the Cloud? Katie Hallam: The glitched photographic imagery I was creating during the MA reminded me of harsh and rugged landscapes and chaotic pixels that wanted to break out from liquid crystal displays. This led to question what ‘digital’, in scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
Katie Hallam scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
Katie Hallam scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land comparison to a photographic format, could look like in a physical space or as an object, using different materials and surfaces placed in illogical environments that allow the viewer to touch digital or have a sense of disorientation as to what they were looking at. The concept of ‘Powering the Cloud’ therefore evolved through these ongoing explorations and focused on the impact of digital culture on our physical environment. Our landscapes are changing as landfills are being created across the globe piled high of disused and redundant technological devices and so the infiltration of chemicals, metals and materials will inevitably seep back into the earth’s surface, turn to dust to re-enter the air we breathe or merge and crystalise within new stratum; these works explore this idea and manifest in various shapes and form. The collection shows pieces of coal I sourced just before first lockdown from what was the last remaining Scottish surface mine quarry in Ayrshire. Coal was an obvious raw material to begin working with as it is natural compressed energy that was once viewed as an affordable and reliable energy source powering society. The extraction and burning of coal has been a subject of controversy in the past but I am using the material for its aesthetic qualities and symbolism for generating power.
I created various digital renders of proposed sculptures which combined the archaic power of coal and digital imagery of eroded and corrupted technology to not only to be seen but also touched by the viewer encouraging them to think about how our Katie Hallam scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
use of technology will eventually and literally become part of our future landscape. As part of my final master's project, I created the ‘Powering the Cloud’ publication that takes you through the research areas, development ideas and scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
methodologies to create large scale public sculptures together with photographic collections of digital collage and rendered print designs. The format and content in the book were created during lockdown and the location shots with sculptures in situ were taken in urban spaces in Edinburgh and local nature spots on my isolation walks. An important aspect of your artistic research is centered on the visualization of imperfection in digital culture, and we find it interesting as much in process as it is in subject. In a certain sense, glitches and imperfection trigger the viewers' imagination addressing them to elaborate personal interpretations. How important is for you to offer to your audience multiple interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood? Katie Hallam: I am fascinated with the complexity of a digital image and the Katie Hallam scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
unpredictable nature of how an image can be altered either intentionally or via the simple product of an error, a glitch. These errors in technology are normally fleeting moments or hiccups in transmission where screens freeze and break up the data. We scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
all find these errors a lot less tolerated and something that just shouldn’t happen as we continue to strive for perfection and instant results in our visual culture. My work therefore offers the viewer to interpret a ‘glitch’ or an ‘error’ in technological experiences. Is it about too many people using a search engine at once or simply a bird sat on your satellite causing the interference? Errors are rare and have a bad reputation, but I find there is something aesthetically beautiful about their brief appearances and invite the audience to look beyond the broken pixels. I myself have reflected on the fact that I cannot wait around to capture a glitch happening, so I force the interruption and flow of my own photographs into evolving works which consider the value and degradation of images in the first instance. Similar to technology, my works have a simultaneous duality in their form and in their intrinsic content. The ‘digital-mineral hybrids’ are hypnotic works that sit against a background of open, natural and urban landscapes as I tease the idea of a glitch in nature. By placing these digital manifestations into contemporary settings, I like the humor, oddity and unsettling feelings they may bring to potentially come across one of these objects in everyday life, making us consider our use of technology and the impact it has on our future ecologies. The work should evoke some familiarity with the digital colour palette and pixelated screens we consume everyday but by combining this aesthetic with natural materials creates a hybrid of uncertainty. The work goes against logic, intentionally capturing mistakes, interruptions and creating a physical example of how technology could be embedded into the Earth’s landscape. We have appreciated the way Powering the Cloud sheds a whole new light on the importance of the physical aspect of a work of Art, responding to Gerhard Richter's view about the emergence of meanings from the ''thing'' and its manifold significance: how do you consider the relation between the nature of the concepts that you explore in your artistic research and the physical aspect of your artworks? Katie Hallam: I appreciate nature, its textures, colours and changeable forms and I have always been drawn to the epic scale of impact of natural volcanic mountains, rough coastal lines that continue to be washed away to sea and even manmade formed landscapes such as quarries. We can take for granted the ground underneath us and the rich cultural history is holds in the many compressed layers of strata. When I pick up rocks, I find no matter what the scale, I am interested to notice the patterns and structure, how and where it was formed and what its journey has been; the Katie Hallam scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
relationship to nature in my work is paramount as I suggest that these objects and materials have long been before us and technology and will be around a long time after to show our imprint. I am currently working on projects to create large scale sculptural works in direct response to local geological and urban landscapes. Fossilisation takes on many forms and I interpret the subtle marks of glitches embedded, aged or uncovered within natural formations. The idea that these large digital fossils from the future that are placed deliberately in awkward and unhelpful situations means that the viewer is not only encouraged to notice them, touch them and to be seduced by the digital visuals but equally consider an awareness of the impact our technologies may have on the landscape and environment around us. Imagine on your walk that you came across one of these works hidden in a rock face, I believe that sculpturally the physical presence of these future fossils will create much more of a connection to the audience compared to printed works. I'm incredible proud of how my practice has developed from photographic into sculptural works and it comes at a poignant time relating to how we access and value public art, sculpture and monuments moving forward. We have been particularly fascinated by the aesthetic quality of the combination between the tactile feature of your works and its reminder to the digital realm, to capture "the real", then digest it through your unique process, giving life to such ambiguous images: how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination, playing within your artistic production? Katie Hallam: Technology can create visual problems. It is hard to see, and it is difficult to understand the scale of or imagine as a physical infrastructure. It is also problematic to fully understand the environmental issues it can create beyond our personal devices we use every day. Technology is presented in many forms constantly flowing and hidden in code, buried in tubes and cables, stored in gigantic data centers and the virtual ‘cloud’. As a visual artist and photographer, I play with the illusions that are created where melted pixels look like painted brush strokes or threads of material and where recongisable textures look like deep cavities and futuristic data landscapes; the abstract has a significant part to play in my practice. This is a great question as we have become saturated and so desensitised to visual culture in a way that we could be in a position to lose the sense of value and materiality of an image. I purposefully exaggerate the seductive quality of colour scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
in my work and when placed in opposition with a rough exterior of rock it creates a juxtaposition for the viewer to question what is real and what is digital. As there is no one format that digital technology presents itself to us in, the imagination is left to visualise a tactile version of moving pixels outside of a screen. New York City based sculptor and photographer Zoe Leonard remarked once that "the objects that we leave behind hold the marks and the sign of our use: like archeological findings, they reveal so much about us". As an artist particularly interested in the hybridization between sculpture and digital materiality, we’d love to ask you about the qualities of the materials that you include — or that you plan to include — in your artworks: in particular, do you plan to use found and recycled materials in your future projects? Katie Hallam: As well as using Photoshop and digital software programs to design and create printed compositions, I have considered the surface and presentation of many other formats to break down colour channels from my original glitched photographs. I have worked with building multiple layers and details through screen and riso printing for example and laser etching out digital designs into wood or perspex panels to them emboss and print with. I really enjoy the idea of over production using one work in multiple ways to transfer images over and over, the results degrade the quality of the original digital image so it is almost unrecognisable but familiar at the same time recycling works where possible. However, I am developing works that now move between spaces critically asking how the work operates on a sensory level with the audience. The work challenges tactile, sensory and visceral de-materialised 'space' of the digital predominantly in sculptural form. The processes involved in current projects aim to use large scale metal frames, cast rocks in bronze, resin, silicone and concrete combined with digital imagery printed, embossed, stretched and wedged between these forms. I use printed webbed and woven elastic straps as a material to suspend, touch and stretch manipulating the space and balance in comparison to cold, smooth concrete slabs or aluminum surfaces. This encourages bodily responses to either walk on, sit on, touch or simply look at the works and highlights some of the materials used in our own devices. Over the years you had you artworks featured in a number of group exhibitions around the United Kingdom, as well as your solo The Beautiful Error, at Gallery St. Martin, Lincoln: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your Katie Hallam scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
audience? By the way, as the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to online platforms — as Instagram https://www.instagram.com/the_beautiful_error — increases, how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
Katie Hallam: The way we access, buy and discuss art online has transformed dramatically and I have actively grown a broader network of support during my MA and in lockdown especially at a time when physical degree shows were taken to the scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Katie Hallam Land
virtual realm; social media has played a huge and successful part in this and opened new opportunities for artists to consider alternative gallery spaces. My practice has been predominantly photography based showing works in art fairs and various exhibitions but during the last year the time in isolation allowed me to think differently and transform the way I create and promote my work. During lockdown I got involved in online artist residencies, artist features in magazines, livestream art events, I designed a virtual art exhibition and now sell work through various new online galleries and art initiatives such as the Artist Support Pledge. I have been impressed by the creativity, support and generosity shown through social media to support emerging artists and to keep the art economy going in these recent times. The emergence of NFT’s to promote digital art has also created a huge buzz in the artworld and as I read and research more about these new platforms, I continue to see where my work fits best. We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Katie. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Katie Hallam: I am currently directing time to settling into my new studio space whilst continuing to create a balance between my teaching and art practice. I have a few collaborative projects this year with local sculpture workshops and exchanges with an Indonesian artist organisation. There will be a new series of Powering the Cloud sculptures coming soon, and I am delighted to be planning a commission for a new bronze sculpture of a rock and embedded circuit board! I am most excited about working with artists collaboratively, finding ways to exhibit work locally and getting involved in open calls and opportunities to help develop the sculptural work. Having settled now in Scotland I am interested in finding locations that have a historic or geological interest where once there may have been a disused quarry, a commercial data factory, a prehistoric cave or an archaeological site. Derelict sites with remains of industry, especially related to technology, would be interesting to respond to creating installation work perhaps with sculpture, projection and sound work combined. scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected]
Hello Jane and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://janehwang.com in order to get a wide idea about your mulifaceted I explore boundaries. I observe dichotomous worlds prevalent in society and investigate their intersection, which has a unique and distinct character from both worlds. Through my interdisciplinary research into myths, religions, topography, and history, I uncover artifacts of the middle ground from various cultures. I materialize my research through multimedia video installations that feature images, sounds, and voices harvested from the endless circulation of time and space of human history. My work weaves through diverse subjects that examine life and death, time and space, fantasy and reality, nation and territory, and the self and the other. It questions and provokes skepticism about categorizations we have canonized over centuries and invites new discourses on categorical boundaries. Often, I float on a secluded island in the middle of the deep abyss, stand on it, and look at the land of ‘I’— an accumulation of time. The island, both utopian and dystopian, is riddled with desires and taboos, regardless of society and culture. I would find our island, record it, and collect forgotten pieces of artifacts from the bridle of life somewhere among an infinite repetition of cognition, experience, and memory. In this era, when people are dragged into the digital world and are demanded to embody their senses into this immaterial realm, my practice focuses on expanding territories of engagement between viewers and artwork. In this context, I analyze the inertia of perceptions and customs in our society, and pursue decolonization through my art. Korean society has developed rapidly with multi-layered narratives such as colonization and liberation, war and division, and dictatorship and democracy. During this reformation, only few traditions were valued and recognized; all others were deemed unimportant and branded public enemies that must be defeated. Through my work, I explore the memories, people, emotions, and values that have been forgotten from this gap in history. I want to fill the gaps in history that are taboo by giving them a narrative. This is to occupy the areas left blank in our memories with stories and reveal the lands of memories from our history to the public. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Jane Hwang
Cloudchoir for our Beloved (2020) Compact cassette, 20mins (Photo: Dongryoung Han)
artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training: you hold a B.F.A. in Painting, that you received from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, and you are currently nurturing your education with a Master of Arts in Art in Context, that you are currently pursuing at Berlin University of the Arts: how do your formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Jane Hwang: Hello. Thank you for having me. I am pleased to introduce my work to LandEscape readers. As you mentioned, I studied undergrad in Boston and am currently based in Berlin and Seoul. While studying at the Massachusetts College of Art, I constantly asked myself Jane Hwang scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Cloudchoir for our Beloved (2020) Compact cassette, 20mins (Photo: Dongryoung Han) Cloudchoir for our Beloved (2020) Compact cassette, 20mins (Photo: Dongryoung Han)
Cloudchoir for our Beloved (2020) Compact cassette, 20mins (Photo: Dongryoung Han)
questions about and perpetually interrogated which society I belong to. Since I was born in the U.S. and raised in South Korea, both countries could be my home, but I could also be a bit of a foreigner anywhere. During that time, my major concern was how to embed the perspective that I formed as an insider and as an outsider into my artistic production. After receiving my bachelor’s degree, I went back to Seoul immediately and got various jobs in the art field over several years. From a curator at commercial galleries, an artist’s assistant, a freelance illustrator to a virtual set designer at the broadcast system, I utilized my creative skills and knowledge as much as I could. Meanwhile, I could fully be immersed into the Korean society as a part of the system, experiencing the beauty and the ugliness of the art industry as a young female artist, including unstable employment, underpaid income, unpaid overwork, and gender stereotypes. Throughout that period of time, I became acutely aware of the perspective and lens that I want to witness the society through, and with whom I want to share myempathy. Ironically, this evolution as an artist arose at a time in which I was not producing any original artwork. For this special edition of LandEscape we have selected CloudChoir for our Beloved, a stimulating an online movement and performance project in which artists of various nationalities sing the song "The March for Beloved," a symbol of freedom struggle in Asian countries. What has at once scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Cloudchoir for our Beloved (2020) 1-ch. video installation, 4:45, HD
Jane Hwang scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land captured our attention of your project is the way it goes beyond any cultural and linguistical barrier, to convey a message of freedom, communicating at the same time a
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition sentiment of hope: when walking our readers through the genesis of CloudChoir for our Beloved would you tell us how did you develop the initial idea? island of is and yous (2019) Exhibition Documentation 5-ch. sound installation, 24:26 (Photo: Wan Ham)
Jane Hwang: 'CloudChoir for our Beloved (2020)’ is a collective audio project, composed of compact cassettes and a video. Last year, I had a chance to play a South Korean protest song, 'March for our Beloved' in front of the peer artists without explaining the lyrical context. Although most listeners didn't understand the original Korean lyrics, they could perceive the climate of the music and its urgency. We were able to resonate with the music immediately, almost instinctively. That moment catalyzed the development of this project. The original song was recorded under the military regime's radar in 1982. Singing and listening to this song was banned at that time; therefore, labor movements circulated the song by word of mouth. Considering its history, I couldn't think of a better format than collective work for this project. I gathered participants who could sing the song in one of the Asian languages and, more importantly, who support freedom and democracy in Asian countries. Through Facebook posts, group emails, and word of mouth, I posted a call for contributors. Finally, nine artists from different parts of the world were invited to collaborate. Despite the widespread accessibility of the song in the ‘80s and ‘90s throughout many Asian countries, currently, only a few translations are available online. Therefore, some artists worked on translation and confirmation of the lyrics in their chosen languages. Accordingly, the project could include Korean, Cantonese, Mandarin, Jane Hwang scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
island of is and yous - artist’s book (2019) 32 pages, riso print, 100 Edition (Photo: Dongryoung Han)
Japanese, Bahasa Indonesia, Telugu, and English, as well as instrumental languages. Solidarity was undoubtedly the core foundation of this project. scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Stone Stacking (2020) 1-ch. video installation, 4:09, loop, HD
CloudChoir for our Beloved is the result of the collaboration between a multicultural group of creative minds. It's no doubt that collaborations — especially between artists scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Jane Hwang Land Stone Stacking (2020) 1-ch. video installation, 4:09, loop, HD
Stone Stacking (2020) 1-ch. video installation, 4:09, loop, HD
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition from different backgrounds and culture — are today ever growing forces and that the most exciting things happen when creative minds meet and collaborate on a project: how do you consider the role of randomness and improvisation bound up to the large number of contributors? Jane Hwang: This collaboration taught me the importance of sharing the spirit and context of a project. As a matter of fact, it was explicitly open for the improvisation of participating artists. It was moreso a display of solidarity with freedom in Asian countries than a technical collaboration. Consequently, despite our work being virtually all remote, it was possible to allow each other flexibility throughout the production process. Artists chose in which language to sing, where to sing, the tempo, the pitch, and how to record. Moreover, one artist sent me an email that he wanted to participate with an instrument because it was his voice and didn't speak any Asian languages. I believe that this openness manifested itself in unique and compelling contrasts between pictures and audio in the final result of the project. When thinking of the collaboration in a larger sense, I hope this project will reach potential contributors in the future. Some artists showed interest but decided not to participate in this project, because singing for democracy in a public space could place
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Jane Hwang Land Water and Blood (2020), Exhibition Documentation 2-channel video installation, loop, HD
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Water and Blood (2020), Exhibition Documentation 2-channel video installation, loop, HD