A curly haired man with a bow tie sits on a toilet seat and slowly turns into a toilet seat. The same man approaches a turning fan and transforms into a fan and whirls around.
I have once imagined myself of becoming a bird and flying. Have you, the reader, ever imagined it before? If you agree to my assumption that you are familiar with this daydream, it would be safe to assume that this idea is common.
However, I have never imagined of becoming a toilet seat or a fan. Have you? If so, these thoughts are probably not common.
Seo-kyeong,Kang is perhaps the only person that would imagine such things—becoming a toilet seat or a fan. For that reason, Seo-kyeong,Kang’s pieces are an expression of “individual knowledge”, not at all common. If one is interested at all in Seo-kyeong,Kang’s imagination, he/she must find her only through Seo-kyeong herself or her work. Why? Because it is unique to Seo-kyeong,Kang only...
To satisfy my curiosity, Seo-kyeong,Kang sets up an Agency. And she becomes a guide to her own imagination.
Seo-kyeong,Kang’s source of imagination stems from her daily, so-called, “troubles.” To remedy these troubles Seo-kyeong,Kang opted for what she calls “travels” as her last resort. By her “travels” Seo-kyeong,Kang was able to solve many of her troubles and realized what special cure she had found, and wanted to share its fruit.
So, the Agency becomes a Travel agency.
Seo-kyeong,Kang’s Travel agency offers us her favorite method for travel. So called, “Becoming-an-object” imagination, as seen above, is a type of travel that relaxes your mind where you imagine yourself of becoming a toilet and flushing out any troubling thoughts through the toilet bowl therefore giving you a brief catharsis. (Believe it or not... try it yourself…another advantage of this trip may be that ‘costs nothing.’)
Seo-kyeong,Kang shares her own travel experiences through the flash animations.
“New York was a place that intensified the complexity of the mind. Diversity of the races, over towering skyscrapers, countless billboards, noisy cars; instead of refreshed mind, moments were screaming stop. I thought I’d rather be a billboard and rest than walking surrounded by the busy city.”
-From the artist’s notes.
Flash animation seems to be the right tool for describing this type of situation. Her method of scanning each of her drawing on Chinese paper (She studied Oriental Painting) to express her narrative is effective especially because her theme is travel. It would be difficult to attract customers only with a travel pamphlet, wouldn’t it?
Furthermore, Seo-kyeong,Kang stresses an individual trip for us. It would be much more desirable to have personally meaningful trips rather than seeing the same and experiencing the same. To help such travel experience, Seo-kyeong,Kang designed a device called, “picture box.” Similar to a magician’s box where a woman goes inside and a magician sticks knives into it, Seo-kyeong,Kang’s “picture box” functions like a magician’s box where an individual recreates his/her own box sticking in spaces from various places. From this concept, one can create a unique space combined from a scene from New York and a scene from Venice. Its only shortcoming may be that given scenes are limited if one must pinpoint to shortcomings.
So, this concludes brief explanations to items of Travel Agency Seo-kyeong,Kang offers.
If we follow these instructions, we will gain a novel guide to traveling. Particularly, “becoming-an-object” travel seems to have considerable merit in both expenses and time.
Although the method of presentation is a little unskilled (it is Seo-kyeong,Kang’s first time in using flash animation), that very awkwardness brings out amiability and conviction. Perhaps this quality brings out conviction of high expectations for the future.
In addition, this travel does not offer comfort and convenience for the traveler. The traveling requires a little bit of concentration and a little bit of thinking. If you only follow the comedic character’s travel with just the eye, there is good chance that you might lose sight of the open ideas that this travel requires. Perhaps it isn’t so terrible to lose sight… after all, traveling is for the satisfaction of the self…
Now, it is our task to create our own trip using Seo-kyeong,Kang’s travel guide as reference (it would never do to copy her). How about it? Are you ready?
By Seung-Kwon, Kim / Cais Gallery Director
