Wall Project

2001, Paint on wall, marker
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I collaborated on this “Wall Project” with Top Changtrakul in 2001. The project consisted of two stages. In the first stage, I collected words related to my feeling of coming back to Seoul, Korea after five years of being abroad. I wrote these words twice on the gallery wall ─ first in Korean and the second time in English, or vice versa. Laying the two languages (Korean/ English) on top of each other created a semi-abstract look. In the second stage, I invited Top to come up to the gallery wall and do whatever he wanted without telling him the meaning of the words. Looking at the words’ semi-abstract designs and unclear meanings, he responded in every possible way, including rephrasing, reinterpreting or revising the words. The ambiguity of these words allowed for their apprehension, interpretation, and re-imagination by Top. These words thus became a medium of expression, memory, and imagination as well as mutual interaction.