Installation view
of “ikkibawiKrrr: Rocks Living in Rewind”. Photo:
Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.Art Sonje Center presents a solo exhibition
“ikkibawiKrrr: Rocks Living in Rewind” by the visual research band ikkibawiKrrr
(Gyeol Ko, Jungwon Kim, and Jieun Cho), through January 26, next year.
The exhibition focuses on stones and places
that endure time while being covered by nature, protecting themselves. Among
these stones, many of these stones take the form of Maitreya, the Buddha
symbolizing the future. In the East Asian tradition, Maitreya is a bodhisattva
symbolizing the future. His presence established itself as part of the Korean
landscape through the influences of the Donghak, Buddhism, and Muism.
Over time, however, sculptures of Maitreya
were relegated to forgotten places on the margins of Buddhist temples or survived
only as abandoned stones at village entrances and in fields. ikkibawiKrrr
focuses on the reality surrounding these sculptures of Maitreya, presenting new
works across various media, including installation, two-dimensional art, and
video.
Installation view
of “ikkibawiKrrr: Rocks Living in Rewind”. Photo:
Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights
reserved.The Maitreyas found beside ruined sheds and
sunlit abandoned schools seem to emanate all the more vitality for no longer
being cared for. Taking note of this irony, ikkibawiKrrr focuses new attention
on Maitreya as “stone surviving the past” through the new film and sculpture
work Rocks Living in Rewind (2024), which is about the
landscapes where Maitreya is present and the landscapes where we are a part.
The actual rubbing work of Maitreya
statues, Rock n’ Feel (2024), conveys the artists’ tactile
and sensory experience of encountering the cold and solid stone statues by
using charcoal to trace and feel the surface of the Maitreya figures. This
approach elicits a sensory connection with an alienated landscape and
sculpture, allowing for the rediscovery of the forgotten presence of art in
life.
Installation view
of “ikkibawiKrrr: Rocks Living in Rewind”. Photo:
Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights
reserved.The artists bring landscapes shaped by
oddly formed rocks and bizarre stones into the exhibition space through the
work Everybody Mountain (2024), created using paper clay and
ink. The video Dances with Trash (2024) captures dust and
trash dancing amidst ruins, evoking a new relationship that harmoniously exists
within untouched dust, free from human interference.
At the beginning and end of the exhibition,
Buddha High Five (2024) serves as a medium through which
visitors can enter by “rocks living in rewind.”
ikkibawiKrrr begins with the imagination
that, to approach the future envisioned by Maitreya, one might need to embrace
the past and live “in rewind.” Through this solo exhibition, the Art Sonje
Center invites viewers to reflect on the landscapes of everyday life, seeking solace
and hope that Maitreya offers as one “surviving the past” amidst abandoned
stones and landscapes.
Ji Yeon Lee has been working as an editor for the media art and culture channel AliceOn since 2021 and worked as an exhibition coordinator at samuso (now Space for Contemporary Art) from 2021 to 2023.
