Phantom Arm

Kang Jungsuck, Kim Donghee, Gim Jeongtae, Ram Han, Rahm Parc, CO/EX (Kim Juwon, An Chorong)

The exhibition titled Phantom Arm will be open at the Buk-Seoul Museum of Art from April 3 to July 8, 2018. It shows how approaches to image-consumption and image-representation are related to each other in the real world, seen from the viewpoint of virtual reality, which is one of the major media of contemporary artists. The format of the exhibition has been designated by time and space, through which we can illuminate the methods of image-consumption and representation from diverse points of view.

The digital environment has changed not only the definition of artist, the artists’ thinking processes and their ways of recognition, but also the space of our everyday lives. As Shim, Hea-Ryun has mentioned, as digital space has transformed into the “alternative space of our daily lives,” connected time has dramatically increased, and we can now handle almost every daily task on the web. This provides a very crucial ground, upon which we can understand the forms and processes of the works of artists who were born in the 1980s. They constitute a generation of artists that does not take a dichotomous approach to any media, as they make no division between analog and digital. The condition of their media and the changed technological environment blur the border between the virtual and real worlds, which have functioned as the basis of artistic practices. Such an ambiguity has entailed the annihilation of practical instruments and methods that had been required for the production of art (e.g. a studio or workshop, shipping, and storage for artwork etc.) and finally led us to re-interrogate the realization of art in the real world, including our understanding of the meaning of artwork, the process of art making, and the appreciation of art.

Phantom Arm illuminates the rapidly changing creative environment through the widely spread internet and other science technologies, thereby exploring the ways in which such changes influence the method of artistic representation and evoke new artistic senses and thoughts. The artists of this exhibition, who is essentially based on digital media or their artistic environment, present how specific settings such as “account setting,” “non-spatiality,” and “oblivion and augmentation of body” affect and embody the works of art. The title of the exhibition Phantom Arm stems from expressions such as “phantom limb” or “phantom phenomenon,” the vivid yet pseudo bodily sensation that a person feels when it seems like amputated body parts are still attached. This show focuses on how the artists’ creative environment expands beyond the computer monitor as well as on the invisible mediation between the factors that form the artwork e.g. the bodily synchronization between the inside and the outside, oblivion, and augmentation.

Likewise, Phantom Arm applies the changes in the creative conditions and environment as the underlying background knowledge, upon which we can interpret works of art. Henceforth, we hope to discuss “the imaginary mapping between virtual reality and reality” (Kang Jungsuck), “the player’s body in the VR and Reality” (Gim Jeongtae), “imaginary drawings through patterns and memories” (Rahm Parc), “Googling image-searches and errors” (CO/EX), “the privatization of memories in the age of digital media” (Ram Han), and “collaborations with a second account” (Kim Donghee). By doing so, we will be able to explore various approaches to the exhibition and embody changes in the artistic environment and conceptions/perceptions of art today. With this exhibition, the Buk Seoul Museum of Art will function as a test field in which the virtual world can encounter the real world and audiences can experience an improvisational embodiment of virtual reality.

Online Catalog 

Curated by Leeji Hong

Organized by SeMA, Seoul Museum of Art