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Hidden World-Naked Spaces


The early works of young photographer One Joon Che were the pictures of unused and left alone spaces inside the riot police building like gymnasium or shooting gallery, ones he took when working as a photographer soldier, and the pictures of the grand courtroom of the Supreme Court and of a district court. It was pretty lucky for him to have taken pictures of these places which the general public couldn't even look into. Che who was once dreaming of studying abroad while learning cinema in a small private academy, had to give up this dream and join the military service when he was 24, the age when people can be absorbed in their own studies. However, it was the pictures he took peeping around some places as a photographer soldier in the riot police, not the ones he could have taken learning in a course of study in college that provided him with an opportunity to start his own photography work in earnest. The hidden spaces which obviously exist in the military and government-running organization but only the persons concerned could come in, and spaces secretly existing in the system of society have fascinated him.

One Joon Che's first solo exhibition held at doArt Gallery and Brain Factory at the same time is composed of this kind of works. Here, he presents three different series of works that he has been working on for the last two years after being discharged from military service. The spaces existing but concealed from the outside world which might have 'No Entry To Unauthorized Persons' sign and do not allow entrances of common people are exposed through 'Texas Project', 'Colatheque', and 'Underground' series. They are a brothel area which has been illegally persisted under the law of supply and demand, colatheques which once were devised for healthy entertainment culture for teenager, and subway, the modern transportation and symbol of metropolitan development. 'Underground', the title of the exhibition designates not only the subway but also all of these spaces hidden in the underground world.

In addition to the hidden-ness of all the spaces he took, the characteristic found in One Joon Che's pictures is his documentary-like recording of these spaces. He records the past and present of the spaces and shows the development of transformation in their aspects and functions. That is, he is capturing the features of spaces which change violating their first purposes and functions. In 'Texas Project', he shows the transformation of Texas, the most famous brothel area in Korea, by taking interior pictures. It has gone through changes for social and political reasons and is presented just as well-decorated pretty rooms, with hiding its own raison-d'etre, nostalgia of manhood for this place, and the crisis in existence it is facing now after the reform agenda of anti-prostitution act. It is disappearing little by little, sometimes even disguised as a store on the street corner. Colatheque, which was made under the name of making a teenager's healthy entertainment culture with free of alcohol in the first place about 10 years ago but to be changed into a dancing and playing place for the middle-aged, and it looks like an old roller-skating rink because of splendid artificial lightings and kitschy interior.

In One Joon Che's photographs, there are only empty spaces without people who should be there; women in brothel area waiting for customers, dancing couples committing adultery in colatheque, sweating laborers working hard in helmets, judicial officers processing trials offending and defending, or criminals. Che is not paying attention to the so-called 'persons concerned' who frequent these private and secret places, but he is trying to expose the beauty of structural form of these spaces themselves and special symbols immanent in them. Decorated with puerile pieces of drawing and wall paintings under splendidly shining lightings, dance halls of colatheque are worthy of watching as they are. Pictures of construction sites of the subway which remind us of movie sets feel rough, dark, and damp but beautiful with symmetrical compositions and depth in the sense of space by which we could almost feel pulled inside.

One Joon Che's three documentary photograph series presented at two different galleries, a commercial art gallery (doART Gallery) and a non-profit alternative exhibition space (Brain Factory), contain his consistent efforts to capture the features of spaces changing with times in the city with objective eyes. The works made through an amount of preparatory period show well-completed looks.


By Veronica Sohn / Director, doART Gallery




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