“The foley artist began to show signs of fatigue,” Bona Park (b. 1977, Seoul) remarked. “After all, I asked him to make the sound continuously for two full minutes. Usually, these sound effects do not last more than a few seconds.” The video 1967, on view at GB11, depicts a foley artist—an individual whose profession is to create sound effects for movies—crouching down and moving about inside his studio, which is haphazardly filled with objects of daily life from buckets, to broom sticks, cans etc.
1967_2015 (2015) directly refers to a mining accident that happened in 1967, when the miner Changsun Kim was buried in a Gubong mine in Chungyang, South Korea. Kim was rescued after 15 days underground, and the event played a key role in the campaign for labor rights in the nation. Here, the foley artist is asked to create sounds that were present inside the environment where the miner was trapped. He is seen holding in his hands two wet cloths that he then places on the floor, and repeatedly taps and squishes them rhythmically in order to create the sounds of footsteps. Donning headphones, focused, practicing his craft, he is creating sounds that the audience cannot see, but will believe is coming from what they see onscreen. By requiring the foley artist to create a sound effect much longer than he is usually asked to and physically capable of, Park highlights the fine line between the work of a profession so specific to contemporary capitalism and the intensity that any kind of labor entails when repeatedly performed. 1967 also translates the memory of this partly forgotten historical event in contemporary terms and makes it possible to take it into the future.
Park's works and projects question social systems, including art, by uncovering the various structures and labors therein. By juxtaposing art with social conditions, her practice creates awkward situations that confuse and upend the boundary between art and daily life, often appropriating art-historical references that switch into new social and environmental contexts. MW
self-presentation:
Before studying art, I was an English literature undergraduate. I never leaned traditional art techniques, as is standard for entrance to Korean art universities. Instead I adopted a conceptual approach. Moving places often I try not to build a mass of material possessions, which would occupy my bags and personal space. Until now, I have been able to make art with the help of gallery staff, carpenters, printers, designers, actors, etc. They inspire me in many ways and become the artwork itself.
Rather than grand, general social narratives, I am more interested in the small stories and decisions within a person’s life. I like to read novels by Anton Chekhov, Juan Rulfo, and Kim Seungok, among others. I am very much inspired by Chekhov’s brilliant way of paralleling comedy with tragedy through an ordinary person’s minor issue, Rulfo’s multi-sensory imagination, and Kim’s outsider characters dreaming of deviation.
