Curator's Thoughts

EXPOSED: Black box & Crystal ball

'…any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.'

Arthur C. Clarke, Science Fiction Writer and Futurist

We live in the age of ubiquitous moving images. Of course moving images had their beginnings in the latter part of the twentieth century, and that they had enormous impact in the previous century. However, it is only in the last decade when moving images moved from cinemas and televisions to everyday surroundings. Still images which previously held dominance are being pushed aside to moving, interactive images, on walls, hand held books and mobile phones. Our memories, which have previously been stored and re-stored in physical still-images, are now seen in our mind as virtual moving-images. The age of crystal balls, mirror-on-the-wall and palantirs have truly come, brought about magic-like technology.

Black box in the subtitle of this project refers to the black-box principle widely used in technology development, and the Crystal Ball refers to viewing magic, that sees but distorts. The Black Box principle is simple, but has far-reaching consequences. It is a way of explaining a system not in terms of its internal workings, but in terms of its input and output. The actual internal workings of these black boxes are not of importance, rather, the way it effects the surrounding environment. Simple black boxes can be used to build more complex black boxes, which in turn can be used to more complex ones.

The result is that one can have a fiendishly complex black box which anybody can use, but nobody can fully understand. A good example is a TV screen; a tool which would have been virtually indistinguishable from magic to those even just a century ago ? a magical Crystal Ball for visual/verbal communication, and a perfect portal for reaching the general public.

It is through these screens, these magical crystal balls, placed at public sites in London i.e. Department stores, cafes, coffee shops that we will be showing the contemporary media art to the general public, thus ‘exposing' the contemporary video art to the world outside galleries, museum and exhibition halls.

Video art is an expression of this almost-magical ability of image manipulation that has been given to artists? not only static images, but also moving images, images created not only from real world but also from images created within the virtual world within our minds and technology. Since its introduction and adoption by artists, video has become arguably the one of the most versatile and important media for contemporary artists, allowing them to explore the notion and concept of time and narrative in a more flexible manner than they could with more traditional medium. Thus, video, in a relatively short time, became an important part of art history as well as art-making.

It is interesting to note how artists chose to use this newly-given power on the creation of works. Some, with excitement of a child with new toys, used it to create fantastical works. Some, relying on the narrative power on the moving images, used it to create documentary-like works tinted with socio-political ideology. And of course, everything in-between.

Twenty one invited artists are from Korea , China , Taiwan , Australia , UK , New Zealand , Estonia and Norway . In terms of cultural origins and artists various age, experience and recognition. They have been selected by the union of the surreal and magical characteristics of their works, particularly focusing on the two major concepts of self- performance/ and City experiences by the artists presented. They convert, distort and transfer the given context of reality into a different narrative in their imagination, providing newly improvised reality. Also with their examination of the living condition especially in city can be juxtaposed in the selection of the works.

Being exposed ...

Billboards have always been present in cities, with information on their sellable wares and services, or with the information on the latest news, law and other information. And these can almost be the most notable feature of the city. Large scale billboards in Times Square of New York and Piccadilly Circus in London can almost be said to be the most conspicuous features in their respective cityscape.

The ubiquitous nature of these billboards offer many opportunities for public art projects. In the ‘80s there were a project involving photographic works on the billboards, in addition to projection works on building walls. In the ‘90s Hans Ulrich Oblist presented moving media on large scale light boards installed on high-storey buildings in Seoul. Also, Nabi Center in Seoul also had a contemporary art exhibition using mobile phone screens, and more recently in a contemporary media show was held using the screens in Akihabara, a famous sprawling electronic market in Tokyo . There have also been media art shown on billboards of Times Square

Now, due to the rapid advent of screen and networking technology, we now have the opportunity to take the public art project more closer to the ground. The billboards made up of static pictures or neon signs are now being rapidly with screens which are able to show moving images. We now see more and more plasma screens on shop windows, and LCD screens on coffee shops and pubs. These content portals are used to bring more information and images closer to the people with more powerful visually memorable presentation. The added dimension of these screens is that they now have sound capability, allowing content which not holds visual, but audio elements. Thus, using these new screens, interspersed in the cityscape, gives new opportunities to the artists, as well as curators, to ‘expose' their work as public art, in a form that is more immediate and close to the people then what was available before. We are in fact taking a reversing a step from Malraux's musee imaginaire, where according to Krauss, art was taken from the site of origin and transplanted to museum, cutting all referentiality. This project takes art out of the museum, back to the place of context and reference i.e. in the city, amongst the people.

Thus the viewer experience for contemporary art works in ‘EXPOSED' project lies on the lines of public art. These screens used in this project were originally installed for commercial purposes and normally show adverts and film trailers. The contemporary media art works will be shown alongside film trailers and commercial advertisement. It is well known that there is a complex relationship between art and mass media, and this project will add to the current lively debate about the relationship between contemporary media art with film genre and commercial advertisement.

This ‘exposing' of contemporary video art work is challenging not only to the public but also to the artists themselves. Continuously compared to ads and film, there are artists and collectors who would rather keep the viewing of media art inside museums and galleries in order to draw a line between video art and commercial video. Here however, instead of showing video works on massive monolith ? like billboards here we show the works squarely in the public's playing field,with artists performing in close quarters amongst the public in the city, where they can be either be admired or ignored. Is there a parallel with impressionist artists who took the canvas out of the studio and into the public city-space, where they ‘performed' in front of the public?

Curator Jiyoon Lee

Jiyoon Lee is an independent curator, critic and lecturer based in London. Jiyoon Lee focuses on diverse cultural engagement between Asia and Europe. Her projects include ' London Underground' at Sungkok Art Museum (Seoul 2001) and the Taipei Fine Art Museum (2002); 'east of eden' in Victoria Miro Project Space (London 2003). Recently she co-curated ' Seoul Until Now' exhibition at Charlottenbourg Exhibition Hall (Copenhagen 2005). Her current projects include 'Tales of Two Cities' , co-curating for Busan Biennale 2006 and 'Through the Looking Glass' , the first Korean contemporary art exhibition in London commissioned by Asia House (November 2006).