대런 아몬드 전시 리뷰

Almond's persevering works on show

 

A sweaty Indonesian miner takes another heavy step towards the nearby crater, carrying a 100 kg chunk of sulfur on his shoulder.

Surrounding him is a fog so acidic, it can make you cough up blood in less than one hour. The only thing that protects him from the deadly environment is a piece of cloth that he keeps stuffing into his mouth.

British artist Darren Almond followed this miner around in Java, Indonesia, and captured him in a 35-minute-long film.

"Over there, as soon as the sulfur touches your eyes, your eyes turn into acid. In just two days my lungs were bleeding," said Almond at a recent press conference.

Almond, 38, became recognized in the contemporary art field after he was chosen as one of the finalists for the Turner prize in 2005 with his work "If I Had You."

His artwork is usually the result of his voyages or experiences in unfamiliar places. He uses photos, videos and installations to express his memories.

Though the process might appear similar to making a documentary, Almond said that it is not because it contains no 'facts,' referring to "Bearing," the film in which he followed the miner.

"There is only emotion in 'Bearing.' I saw a documentary about them before going there, and they had kind of removed the dignity from these guys and turned them into facts. I felt that I needed to go back and give back their dignity," he said.

Including "Bearing," about 30 pieces of Almond's sentimental and persevering films and photographs are on display at his solo exhibition currently running at PKM Trinity Gallery in southern Seoul.

Though Almond is young, British and a contemporary artist, do not expect to see the shocking, sensational type of works like those by the "Young British Artists," a group of artists who became stars since the exhibition "Freeze" in the 1980s.

"I see no connection. I went to different schools, and so to speak, I deliberately moved my studio to the other side of town. I'm the next generation," said Almond.

Almond's works are interesting in their own way. For instance, "Marathon Monk," another of his films on display, is not only interesting in content but also the way it is viewed.

In the basement of the gallery, the film is viewed on six different screens amid complete darkness where one cannot even see his or her own hands. Visitors have no choice but to lock their eyes on the screens and immerse them into the monk's marathon.

In the film, a monk ceaselessly runs on Mount Hiei in Kyoto. He is practicing asceticism, which finishes when he succeeds in running half of the equator's circumference within 1,000 days.

"He only rested while praying at certain spots where other monks had died during their marathons," Almond said.

As if he himself is practicing asceticism too, Almond created some unique photos that could not have been made without much patience.

Some of his photos were taken in Antarctica and each in his "Full Moon" series required at least eight to 20 hours of exposure time.

As a result, Almond acquired some rare photos of Antarctica and nighttime photos so bright with moonlight that they appear to be taken in the daytime.

The exhibition runs through April 16 at PKM Trinity Gallery in Cheongdam-dong, southern Seoul. For more information, call (02) 515-9496 or visit www.pkmgallery.com

(claire@heraldm.com)

By Park Min-young