Installation view of 《Never Step on the Threshold》 © Mihakgwan
Mihakgwan is presenting the group exhibition 《Never Step on the Threshold》, featuring artists Kim Younghyun, Song Jiu, Oro Minkyung, and Lee
Heekyung, through August 30.
The exhibition takes as its starting point a
familiar scene often encountered in ghost stories and horror films: a ghost
lures someone from inside a familiar space by calling to them from outside the
door, prompting them to open it and thereby allowing the supernatural presence
to enter.
Installation view of 《Never Step on the Threshold》 © Mihakgwan
The exhibition begins with the unsettling
realization that a voice coming from outside the door creates a sense of fear
precisely because we cannot see who is calling until we open it—and that a
simple door, which merely separates inside from outside, can somehow keep out
even an immaterial being such as a ghost.
Standing before a boundary that is difficult
for even the immaterial to cross, the exhibition asks us to reflect on how we
respond to the voices calling to us from the outside.
Installation view of 《Never Step on the Threshold》 © Mihakgwan
The exhibition invokes the taboo surrounding
thresholds and stories of ghosts to summon displaced or out-of-place beings
situated in places where they are not expected to exist. Standing before the
threshold, we consider how we might respond to the vague fear provoked by
unknowable beings and to their voices, which seem to demand a response.
Between opening the door and allowing what
lies beyond to enter and keeping it firmly closed, the exhibition explores
different attitudes toward encountering beings that exist across the boundary.
Participating Artists: Kim
Younghyun, Song Jiu, Oro Minkyung, Lee Heekyung
