almost something insider forum

scary

My daughters love dolls and they have quite a collection of them since they were in Seoul. One day, when I came back from giving them a ride to kindergarten in the morning, I found dolls lying with a pillow and a blanket, bottles in their mouth, in my bedroom, in my kitchen, on my sofa, etc. From then on, I often found these dolls sleeping in my house somewhere and I took photos of them. It was an interesting feeling of oxymoron - funny but scary at the same time - when I first saw it and I thought I should keep an archive of these pictures to see what I can do with them.

Daisuke Yamashiro’s work involves seeking out unexpected methods of communication. Yawn and see if anyone around you will yawn, for instance. Will someone nearby unconsciously reply? This piece tries to raise your sense of awareness without directing your attention to any particular object. Your participation in the work is more essential than your acknowledgment of it. Jayeon Kwon’s Sleeping Dolls are made with a similar underlying investment in the idea of being alert. The photographs depict staged compositions, but it is the artist’s daughters and not the artist who has composed them. The sleeping dolls are messages, essentially, that the two girls leave behind for their mother to discover and to interpret.

Robert McCarren, Reuben Lorch-Miller, Nick Normal, Jayeon Kwon

It's a basic attitude of semi-essentialism that the 'real stuff' is right there. Of course, this is nothing new in art. Works of art have long served to show us things or bring attention to phenomena that might otherwise have been missed. Or they show us things in a new way. Works of semi-essentialism are unique perhaps in the simple fact that they nestle so closely among the things that are already there. At the same time, a certain amount of work is required. It isn't the point, contra Fluxus, that art and life are simply one. It's that art can peek out from all kinds of places. One needs to cultivate, therefore, a knack for noticing things.

scary

Jayeon's excavation project at ISCP

I wandered into Jayeon's studio at ISCP to see a small picture on the far wall. Turns out that the picture was of a former tenant of this same studio. Puzzled, I looked around. Was this in construction? Had I wandered into the wrong space? Then I noticed thin white lines on the floor and scratched out "excavations". Jayeon had made a mapping of the traces of the former tenants of her space.

I wandered into Jayeon's studio at ISCP to see a small picture on the far wall. Turns out that the picture was of a former tenant of this same studio. Puzzled, I looked around. Was this in construction? Had I wandered into the wrong space? Then I noticed thin white lines on the floor and scratched out "excavations". Jayeon had made a mapping of the traces of the former tenants of her space. I had been walking on the "art" I was meant to see.