Space One x TSA LA collaboration @Torrance Art Museums @Tiger Strikes Asteroid LosAngeles in California
Torrance Art Museum “CO/LAB 5: Los Angeles and The World”
Barrier Languages with artists Kyoco Taniyama, Sala de espera, Tijuana B.C. Mexico (Talia Pérez Gilbertf, Luis Alonso Sánchez), Rene C Hayashi, Ji hyung Song, InYoung Yeo
March 25- May 6, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 25, 6–9 PM
3320 Civic Center Drive, Torrance, CA 90503
Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles (TSALA)
The Most Winning Lottery Store curated by guest curator Jungmin Cho (WHITENPOISE director) with artists Da Soul Chung, Hyunjin Kim, Goyoson, SUJANGGO
March 24 - April 16, 2023
Opening Reception: Friday, Mar 24, 7-10 pm
The Bendix Building
1206 Maple Avenue, 5th floor, #523, Los Angeles CA 90015
for more info: https://www.tigerstrikesasteroid.com/tagged/themostwinninglotterystore
Panel Discussion:
DO IT OURSELVES: Alternative Art Spaces in South Korea and LA
Co-organized with GYOPO
Thursday, March 30, 2023 7–8:30 PM
for more info: https://gyopo.us/2023/03/08/do-it-ourselves-alternative-art-spaces-in-south-korea-and-los-angeles/
@Torrance Art Museum
Space One x Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles (TSALA)
Barrier Languages
The proponents and founders of Cinema Verite in the 60’s, in opposition and critique to the popular mode of documentary filmmaking of the time consisting of heavily edited footage, reenacted scenes, and voiceover interviews and narration, proposed and created a type of filmmaking that argued for a more truthful representation of reality. They tried to accomplish this heightened reality and objectivity with the use of handheld cameras, less editing, and by acknowledging the presence of the camera and the interviewer, and paradoxically their own subjectivity.
In the “white cube” of museum space, the art object has often been seen as an entity for reflection and contemplation within an autonomous context removed from the realities and challenges of the world at large. Such tendencies have existed at least since the late 19th century with the phrase “art for art’s sake” being touted as an aspirational benchmark. With the awareness of art’s role in gentrification, cultural hegemony and geopolitics, such ideals often seem risible from a historical perspective
When considering overlapping communities, consciously or unconsciously, deliberately or by accident, each community as a whole, and the individuals within that community bring with them the signifiers that demarcate their differences and/or similarities with the other. This can take the form of non-verbal language such as dress code, physical characteristics. mannerisms, walking traits, mode of transportation, accessories and living and working environments, and verbal language including dialects, accents, inflections, modalities, and slang,. These codes with or without the awareness of members of the communities contribute to the separation and unity of the said communities.
Also as artists, cultural producers and cultural promoters, we bring with ourselves these verbal and nonverbal constructs that have an effect on the communities that surround us, and these communities influence us both as individuals and creators as well. Like the Cinema Verite filmmakers of the past, the artists in this current exhibition make works that acknowledge their own presence within their surroundings. Although they come from disparate geographies (Mexico, Korea, Germany, Japan), and work in a variety of media without a unifying style or genre, they all approach their work with a sense of recognition of the role and responsibilities they have as artists working within a specific geographic, social and historical context. Instead of simply trying to document “truth” if such a thing were possible, these artists use their distinct processes to try to construct new realities that would hopefully direct us toward a better way of approaching our shared existence. Perhaps it is up to each individual of any given community to decide how successful each artist’s approach is, and only time will tell what lasting effect their efforts might have.
When significant components of reality become invisible in our world, art must make do with what is left. for an aesthetic presentation is all the more real the less it dispenses with reality outside the aesthetic sphere. - Siegfried Kracauer
-Ichiro Irie
InYoung Yeo
What’s left
With “What’s Left” (2023) InYoung Yeo revisits an earlier project called “A Three-way Dialogue” (2017) from the present position after the completion of the ‘Regeneration’ project in Sinheung Market HBC, Seoul. Yeo presents a newly edited video looking at both collectivity and dispersion; temporality and permanence of people, space and objects, asking the question “What's left?” She looks at the positioning of art or the artist in the process of gentrification across space and time, and how disparate communities find themselves caught inside a cycle of interdependencies, the satirical interplay of class division, and/or fabricated agendas unified by the illusion of 'whole'-ness. The theme-park-like aesthetics of the new rooftop that once promised more visits and likes have since failed, and memories have been nicely compressed into consumable goods. Yeo looks for empty and pausal moments as new development and real-estate schemes start again.
Ji hyung Song
Fieldworkspiel, I REALLY DO CARE, DO U?
The two works, “Fieldworkspiel” and “I REALLY DO CARE, DO U?” are interactive installations that encourage cultural and societal reflection among audiences.
“Fieldworkspiel” is a web-based participatory work that can be accessed at www.fieldworkspiel.com, where audiences can participate in an artist-created survey and view 12 related video works. One of these videos, filmed at the traditional Korean wash place ‘Ppallaeteo,’ inspired the artist to hold a solo exhibition in a Korean self-service laundry in 2022.
“I REALLY DO CARE, DO U?”, first presented in Cologne, Germany, is an installation consisting of cast soap objects that symbolize good luck in Korean tradition and a towel-embroidering task. During the exhibition, the soap objects were gifted to the audience, who could learn more about the meanings of the soap symbols through QR codes located in the exhibit. These works provide an exploration of cultural studies focused on reciprocity, hospitality, and the Korean culture of mutual care, giving audiences a deeper understanding of the artist's perspectives on these subjects.
Rene C Hayashi
“Territorial Unfolding of a Lost Cosmo-Topos” by Rene C Hayashi is a hypothetical deconstruction/reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, through an architectural relocation exercise. The title arises from two key concepts. The first concept “Territorial Unfoldings” refers to the psychological perception that migrants go through when moving from one place to another as these new territories become a reflection of the past in the present. The other central idea is that of Cosmo-topos: referring to the worldview that cultures have over the space that they inhabit. Beliefs are a central element of the transformation of the habitat. Under a system of beliefs and ideas, cultures build or destroy the ecosystem in which they are situated. Hayashi’s project consists of a series of floating models designed to propose, in some ways, a very old (predating Columbus), and in other ways, quite novel strategy towards conceptualizing the urban ecosystem as a network of floating habitats.
“A, Binbal (An endless and beginningless summer)” is a work of expanded cinema and an audio-visual collage that interweaves documentary, fiction and animation. The piece is constructed from an audiovisual workshop involving asylum seekers in the city of Tapachula. During the workshop, participants were asked to tell their stories as migrants and describe how and why they relocated from their countries of origin. Using the tools of filmmaking, a collective feature-length portrait of their personal histories of migration from the southern to northern Mexican border will be created. Hayashi will share a 15 minute synopsis/trailer for the TAM exhibition.
“Rhizomatic Codes (Izapa and the Extraterrestrial Mobile Ecosystems)” is an interactive publication inspired by Mayan codes found at Izapa, a large pre-Columbian archaeological site located in the Mexican state of Chiapas The piece functions as an interactive board game involving extraterrestrial microorganisms that are trying to invade and gentrify Soconusco, Chiapas’ ecosystem. To stop this from happening, the player must climb a volcano and seek help from the pre-Mayan steles (stone engravings).
Sala de espera, Tijuana B.C. Mexico (Talia Pérez Gilbertf, Luis Alonso Sánchez)
Sala de Espera is a multifaceted visual art space operated by its founding directors, Talia Pérez Gilbert Luis Alonso Sánchez. The project is conceived as a hybrid platform that would not only operate as a site for introducing innovative artistic proposals and new exhibition formats, but also to function as a vehicle for the exchange of dialogue and sharing of perspectives between artists and the public, through various explorations of the geopolitical-social positioning unique to Tijuana, the venue’s immediate location and surroundings, and the transnational and cross-cultural intersection of the city’s greater environment.
For Co/Lab 2023, Sala de Espera will present a virtual reality experience that fictionalizes the architecture that houses its space, a semi-abandoned hospital from the 60s, located in an old neighborhood of the city of Tijuana.
Kyoco Taniyama
Kyoco Taniyama was inspired to create “Disremembering” after witnessing Germany’s self-critical and official acknowledgement of its own history..
The images and locations in this film were taken from the No Man’s Land of the former Berlin Wall that is currently in the process of disappearing with urban development. The artist photographed the area between 2018-2019 while strolling through No Man’s Land from North to South. The photographic images were then erased by the Taniyama with detergent and water. While contemplating the Japanese proverb, “to throw something into the river (water)” which means the same as “let bygones be bygones,” the artist reflects upon the denial and erasure of history across nations including her native country of Japan, where certain historical events continue to be denied or severely underrecognized.
