Yang Ah Ham’s solo show at Sonje Art Centre in Seoul displayed a spectrum of works produced over the recent years from 2007. The show displayed a spontaneous yet disorientating look into the relation between individuals and society, which conceptually and emotionally guides the content of the works. Born in Korea, the artist has lived and worked in Korea, the US and the Middle-East, and now resides in the Netherlands.
Adjective Life in the Nonsense Factory accentuated the idea of the ‘adjective’ to question the need for individual perspectives. Sidelining the use of the ‘noun’ which is applied to reference an object, the artist explores the ways in which we use adjectives to identify, characterise and quantify things. Inside the ‘nonsense factory’, a multitude of stories disrupt the construct of reality. Instead, the artist interweaves various secrets, emotions and desires that slip between fact and fiction.
The solo show included diverse media including video, drawings, sculptures, paintings and performances. In Individuals in Society (2007), a television and audio system were attached to a metal pole to give an abstract appearance of a human figure. Each monitor displayed a still image of an anonymous face while the audio projected the sound of a person muttering. Lost in conversation, eerie and discrepant voices struggled to connect and communicate with each other. Like strangers on the street, robotic poles became distant and transient beings.
Bird's Eye View, 2008, High Speed HD, 10' 16"
In contrast, a more poignant video piece called Bird’s Eye View (2008) showed a perspective from an animal. A camera was attached to a pigeon which was professionally trained to fly across the city and return to the training ground. The video led to a surprising voyage, navigating a stunning panoramic view of the cityscape perceived by the animal, also reversing its gaze to city dwellers.
