Mineral Mutations
April 6, 2022 – May 21, 2022
Seoul
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This exhibition presents what could be described as “Mineral Mutations”. A series of reconfigurations of works shown in the past, resurfacing once again as transmutated versions of themselves. Here, within the walls of this new gallery space, a process of mineralization has occurred.
On the entrance to the gallery, 5 door handles appear, made out of obsidian — a volcanic rock and natural glass formed during the rapid cooling of lava.
Iceman in Reality Park, another work in the exhibition, is an ice sculpture of a snowman that melts over the course of a few days. It leaves behind granites stones and branches that were once embedded in the ice. When the ice melts, molecules of geosmin, naturally produced by various algae and bacteria, diffuse a scent invisible to the naked eye but highly detectable by our human nose.
On a wall nearby is another mutation of a past work. Originally screened in 2001 with a projector and without a lens, Mount Analogue appears this time as a lamp affixed on a wall. Inspired by René Daumal’s mythical and unfinished novel, published posthumously in 1951, the work throbs with over 5000 colours, each one corresponding to a different word in the novel. The Mont Analogue is a book that shakes up and guides the existence of anyone who, by reading it, takes part in turn in the quest of Daumal. During an initiatory narrative, a group of adventurers set off in search for and then the ascension of a mountain of an immeasurable height, a passage joining heaven and earth: Mount Analogue. The narrator, a young mountain-climbing poet, leads this expedition towards the unknown summit. This place is also the link between our certitudes and what escapes us. The rule is simple: to see, you have to believe.
In the lower gallery, and also altered by this process of exhibition, is a Marquee — an ongoing series of works usually made out of acrylic glass. Here, sand, limestone and sodium carbonate, combining together as glass, have replaced a synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate.
Mineral Mutations everywhere creating a new space, a new gallery space. A mineral landscape of things that were once something else, existing anew in the air and solid.
This exhibition presents what could be described as “Mineral Mutations”. A series of reconfigurations of works shown in the past, resurfacing once again as transmutated versions of themselves. Here, within the walls of this new gallery space, a process of mineralization has occurred.
On the entrance to the gallery, 5 door handles appear, made out of obsidian — a volcanic rock and natural glass formed during the rapid cooling of lava.
Inside, a series of AC/DC Snakes have propagated and multiplied along the walls of the gallery. Originally assembled from adapters, plugs and nightlights, they appear this time as mutations made out of uranium glass — a type of glass containing a small quantity of uranium and known for its bright yellow or green color. Its radioactivity level is slightly higher than normal.
Iceman in Reality Park, another work in the exhibition, is an ice sculpture of a snowman that melts over the course of a few days. It leaves behind granites stones and branches that were once embedded in the ice. When the ice melts, molecules of geosmin, naturally produced by various algae and bacteria, diffuse a scent invisible to the naked eye but highly detectable by our human nose.
On a wall nearby is another mutation of a past work. Originally screened in 2001 with a projector and without a lens, Mount Analogue appears this time as a lamp affixed on a wall. Inspired by René Daumal’s mythical and unfinished novel, published posthumously in 1951, the work throbs with over 5000 colours, each one corresponding to a different word in the novel. The Mont Analogue is a book that shakes up and guides the existence of anyone who, by reading it, takes part in turn in the quest of Daumal. During an initiatory narrative, a group of adventurers set off in search for and then the ascension of a mountain of an immeasurable height, a passage joining heaven and earth: Mount Analogue. The narrator, a young mountain-climbing poet, leads this expedition towards the unknown summit. This place is also the link between our certitudes and what escapes us. The rule is simple: to see, you have to believe.
In the lower gallery, and also altered by this process of exhibition, is a Marquee — an ongoing series of works usually made out of acrylic glass. Here, sand, limestone and sodium carbonate, combining together as glass, have replaced a synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate.
Mineral Mutations everywhere creating a new space, a new gallery space. A mineral landscape of things that were once something else, existing anew in the air and solid.