BURN(Solo Exhibition)

회색 공원(A Grey Garden)-오세원 (Cr-Collective)

김시하 개인전, 《BURN》은 동시대인들이 겪고 있는 무력감과 함께 진보역사를 상실한, 내재된 분노가 반영된 “무대-시적 풍경”이다. 무채색의 풍경, 시 구절을 나지막이 읊조리는 목소리, 중앙에 다 타고 남은 잿빛 철판과 새까맣게 타버린 나무 그루터기, 깨져버린 유리와 잿더미를 뒤집어쓴 크리스마스트리, 그리고 가로등이 있는 텅 빈 공원풍경은 회색의 어둡고 쓸쓸하면서도 대립과 혼재의 묘한 긴장감을 불러일으킨다. 관람자들은 설치된 벤치에 앉아 검게 불탄 잔해를 바라보며, 시간을 거슬러 로마 시대 광란의 네로(Nero) 황제가 태워버린 고대도시를 떠올릴 수도, 영화 ‘버닝(burning)’의 마지막 장면을 떠올리며 휘몰아친 분노의 감정에 이입할지도 모른다. 역사적 사건이나, 영화의 한 장면처럼 상상 속 사건, 제3자의 이야기, 타자의 경험같이 나한테 벌어진 사태가 아님에 가슴을 쓸어내릴지 모른다.

하지만 이 사건이 내 의도와는 아무 상관 없을지라도 나에게 진짜로 일어난 일이라면? 나를 지켜주는 믿음의 마지막 보루가 사라져 억장이 무너져 내린, 허망하여 털썩 주저앉은, 그리고 목놓아 우는데 소리가 나지 않는 그런 슬픔을 경험하였다면? 항상 존재하던 일상이 사라져 마음대로 밖에 나가 숨도 제대로 못 쉬고 사랑하는 사람들과 만나지도, 외식, 여행, 수다를 떨 수도 없으며, 나조차도 믿을 수 없는 순간을 맞이한다면? 프로메테우스(Prometheus)의 불씨가 창조한 문명이 의심받고 무조건적 진보가 사라진 이 시대에, 공원에서 거대한 잿더미를 바라보는 일이란 그것의 카타르시스나 경외감이 아닌, 익숙하면서도 낯선 경험이자 심리적 균열이 불러오는 파장에 따라 상이한 사적 감정들이 섞이는 특별한 사건이 된다.

A Grey Public Park-Sewon, Oh (Cr-Collective)

In her work Siha Kim visualizes and narrates the gap between psychological anxiety and the division experienced by individuals in society. Her piece here, presents us with an image of grey ruins, specifically a burned-out house and timber, a scene which reflects the helplessness and anger of her contemporaries who have lost many of the prior gains made in their progressive history. In the artist’s words, the grey ruined space offers a form of “staged poetic scenery.” The gallery installation is here refigured into a achromatic landscape, marked audibly by a recorded low-pitched recital made by the artist. This fictional hollow park, defined by burnt-out grey iron plates, blackened tree stumps, broken glass and ash-covered Christmas trees, and the image of an empty neon lit park, evokes a greyish mysterious tension representing the dark and lonely aspects of contemporary confrontation and coexistence. In contrast to the ruinous spatial scene, the voice of the artist fills the exhibition hall with human warmth. This poetry reading, as well as the written text that is a part of the exhibition, are included to represent anyone’s voice, and offer a wistful presentation of individual feeling within this violent situation. The quiet of the installation is periodically shattered by the sudden turning on of a light within the space. Given its theatrical nature, Kim’s piece has a strong Brechtian quality, in that it does not permit any emotional immersion or escape from reality. In this regard, the introduction of the light serves to make the audience acutely aware of the present moment and space they occupy. Then the lights go out again, and the audience is sucked into a deconstructed epic drama.

The charred elements of the installation are reminiscent of an ancient city, raised to the ground or the last scene of the 2018 film Burning, and similarly stoke the raging emotions of anger. After seeing these remains, the audience might experience relief that they have not personally experienced something similar in reality, and may consider it a depiction of a historical event or a movie scene, something like an imaginary happening or a recreation of a third-person narrative. But then they may ask themselves, what if such an incident really happened to me even if it had nothing to do with my actions? What if all the things that I believed would protect me vanished, and I experienced heart-breaking sorrow and was unable even to cry out? What if my normal life disappeared, preventing me from going outside and breathing properly, meeting my loved ones, eating out, traveling, and talking, so I am forced to face this unbelievable moment in solitude? We live in a moment during which the promethean basis of civilization, and the common belief in unconditional progress has disappeared. In this context, looking at Kim’s vision of ashes does not compel any feeling of catharsis or awe within the viewer but becomes a strange incident, both familiar and unfamiliar, that mixes and triggers different personal emotions depending on the viewers own psychological fissures and weakness.