L'Ecaille Naviguant sur l’eau
In his book ‘The Poetics of Space’, Gaston Bachelard uncovers an interesting image, Hieronymus Bosch's L'Ecaille Naviguant sur l'eau, in which people are having a chaotic banquet inside a clam shell on the surface of a surging sea. Is there an image that more aptly captures the essence of beings with fragile bodies navigating the vicissitudes of the world? The claustrophobic confines of the clamshell juxtaposed against the vast expanse of the sea symbolises the universal human experience of navigating our external world, despite our own physical fragility.
In a manner similar to Bosch, Kim Ka-yun and Bang Ye-eun explore the concept of ‘the body sailing with a shell, starting their artistic endeavours with their very own physiques. The artists explore the narrative of the space captured by their bodies over time, leaving visible traces of this process. However, these traces are not merely by-products of past movement; rather, they serve as indicators of the truth hidden beneath the layers of the space, akin to fossils underneath the strata. Space, as perceived in our consciousness, is layered one on top of the other, much like a skin or shell.
Centrifugal Force: Forming the Shell of the Body
The artistic oeuvre of Kim Ka-yun evokes the process by which mollusks tenaciously form a hard shell over their soft bodies. As a practitioner of pottery, she is acutely aware that the dimensions of the kiln invariably determine the maximum size of her work. Consequently, the movements she creates are perpetually confined within the invisible kiln. She commences her artistic endeavours in a crouched posture within a confined virtual space, striving to infuse her work with a maximum degree of movement. The traces of this struggle persist throughout the artistic process, manifesting as footprints on the work surface, the afterimage of arms oscillating back and forth, and even hands resembling tentacles extending outwards. Kim Ka-yun's artistic process entails the creation of the most intense movements within the confines of the available space. The clay, akin to the body fluids of mollusks, is gradually secreted and accumulated in accordance with the artist's movements, subsequently hardening through natural processes. The shell, crafted by her gestural movements, is then placed in a confined kiln and fired, thereby undergoing a process of rebirth as a unified entity. Once the gesture has been embodied, the exterior, adorned with a spectrum of colours, serves as a canvas for the representation of time and space, evoking the image of a spiral conch shell cast upon a beach, dispersing light. However, the interior of the shell remains unoccupied. As observers approach the hollow interior, they detect the faint echo of the sea. The traces on the shell and its sound serve as a reminder of the body of Kim Ka-yun that once existed within. Just as crustaceans experience their bodies most intensely just before they shed their shells, Kim Ka-yun's body feels itself most acutely at the moment when it is trapped in clay and longs to be reborn.
Centripetal Force: Cutting out the skin of the city.
Bang Ye-eun, by contrast, traverses the vastness of the city with her steps in a seemingly endless drift, whereas Kim Ka-yun explores the narrowness of the body, creating a rigid shell of movement. The 21st-century metropolis, characterised by the dominance of a transnational data-driven economy, is replete with soft inner skin layers. The contemporary metropolis is characterised by the prevalence of data exchange, with the urban landscape becoming increasingly saturated with information. This phenomenon carries profound implications for our experience of the city, as our perception is influenced by the network to which we are connected. The urban space, once defined by physical features, is now inundated with digital markers, such as “Google Map pins” and “Instagram likes”. This transformation has resulted in a more intricate and interconnected urban environment, yet it has also engendered a sense of alienation, akin to traversing an expansive ocean. This is the urban landscape of the 21st century. Bang Ye-eun navigates this vastness in solitude, seeking to regain a sense of spatial orientation that has been lost. As she traverses, she encounters various elements of the city, including buildings obstructing her path, pavements guiding her steps, fading shadows, fragrant flowers and trees that lean over the wind. In response, she seizes translucent fragments of the city's skin, delicately severing it from the corner she is standing on. By trespassing the innermost of the city with her steps, she captures moments of encounter that have already faded. The captured moments, now suspended in a state of transience, are meticulously arranged, creating a unique and immersive experience. It is your body, now navigating the gallery, that scatters the layers of the space, thereby transforming it into a dynamic and multifaceted domain.
Written by Eugene
