Squish! In the Forest

June 18, 2024 - June 30, 2024
Insa Art Space (Seoul)
Artists: AFSAR × DAVRA, BARE, Ciwas Tahos (Anchi Lin), Yagwang
Curated by Eunha Chang
Supported by Arts Council Korea

Ciwas Tahos (Anchi Lin), Pswagi Temahahoi, 2022, single-channel HD video, color, sound, 12 minutes, ed.¼. Atayal Bee Tracer: Yumin Masaw. Performers: Sinkuy Katadrepan, Ai-Ling Wang, Ciwas Tahos. Sound Mixer: An Chen.

AFSAR × DAVRA, Proxy Conference: In Forest, 2023, single channel video, stereo sound, color, 4k, 35’ 4’’.

Squish! “Squish” can relate to a sensory experience—an uncanny, yet pleasurable sensation resembling the sound and feel of walking on mud or pressing into a soft surface. Besides this sensory connotation, “squish” is a term often used by the asexual community to identify aromantic crushes, signifying a desire for a platonic or non-romantic relationship with another person. Extending beyond romantic and sexual paradigms to encompass a profound longing for intimate connections, the word captures a yearning for deep bonds that embrace mental and physical intimacy without sexual undertones. This duality, both intriguing and slightly unsettling, abject yet pleasurable, is the thematic cornerstone of Squish! In the Forest.

The works featured in the exhibition delve into the sensual ambiguity of non-sexual (or perhaps more-than-sexual) encounters and their perceived uncanniness. Artists explore the material and aective resonances of squishing, using sound, storytelling, and visual language to question the norms of relating. What is closeness? What is togetherness? What is intimacy? What constitutes ‘the sexual’? Are all these terms interconnected, or perhaps one does not signify the presence of the other?

Yagwang, LATE(X), 2022, single channel HD video, color, sound, 9’ 37’’. Director: Terri Kim, In Jeon. Cast: Jiann Woo, Yoon Heo, Jihyun Park, Younghae Chang. Camera Operator: Syeyoung Park. Camera Crew: Younghae Chang, Yoon Heo. Choreography: Jihyun Park. Music: Seokyoung Hamm. Music Mastering: Seungki Hong. Coin Prop Maker: Mudt. Translator: Soyoung Chong. Supported by Art Council Korea.

Sad Captions: Everything Has Been Washed Away; I Can Only Write ‘Sad’...

May 23, 2024 - June 14, 2024
SeMA Bunker (Seoul)
Artists: Lee Wen, Charmaine Poh, Jieun Uhm, Leesop Cho, Cha Yeonsa, Suyon Huh
Curated by Eunha Chang
Supported by Seoul Museum of Art

Lee Wen, Journey of a Yellow Man No. 13: Fragmented Bodies / Shifting Ground,1999, single channel video, color, sound, 10’ 26’’. Lee Wen Archive. Courtesy of Lee Wen and Asia Art Archive. 李文檔案。圖片提供：李文及亞洲藝術文獻庫。

Here lies a soul, bound in silence, endlessly scrolling, seeking peace yet never finding it. Eyes dart across the blue screen, amidst a world of instant gratification. In this era, self-control is a costly prize. Thoughts on the world's turmoil burden weary hearts, and a lonely figure speaks to themselves in empty streets. Words severed from the tongue drift aimlessly, pouring fragments of shipwrecked emotions into the void.

These individuals, lost in their sadness, externalize their grief through screens. Mobile phones become vessels for their sorrow, casting it into the void. This desire to numb external experiences acts as a defense mechanism, yet sadness still flows within, persistent and haunting. Sad Captions: Everything Has Been Washed Away; I Can Only Write ‘Sad’... explores how we grapple with this sadness, asking whether emotions can be classified as good or bad, and how we understand sadness in a more liberated way.

The exhibition spans from the 1990s to the 2020s, presenting works like Lee Wen’s Journey of a Yellow Man No. 13 (1999), Charmaine Poh’s GOOD MORNING YOUNG BODY (2023), and others. These pieces tackle sadness arising from racism, cyberbullying, feminist reboots, climate crisis, and pandemics, offering diverse perspectives.
In this exhibition, you encounter fragments of sadness. Picking them up, you form a unique relationship with these voices, not easily subsumed into conventional explanations. It is a space that invites you to interpret sadness, not reduce or clarify it.

Charmaine Poh, GOOD MORNING YOUNG BODY, 2023, performance-lecture video, 6' 23''. Technical director: Jon Chan.

Jieun Uhm, Bonfire, 2023, single channel video, color, sound, 18' 50".

Beings Swimming Backstroke towards the Waterfall

Dec 23, 2023 - January 4, 2024
PS333 (Seoul)
Artists: Zheng Bo, Leesop Cho, Tang Han, Park Wunggyu, TJ Shin, Woo Minjung
Curated by Eunha Chang, Maria Markiewicz, Shi Sun
Supported by Arts Council Korea

Woo Minjung, Following Flowers, 2021, mixed material on jute, ocher, clay, 120×160cm.; Woo Minjung, If All of These Do Not Match Each Other, as Everyone Points with a Finger, 2021, mixed material on jute, ocher, clay, 120×160cm.

Backstroke (or back crawl), next to butterfly, is one of the most difficult swimming strokes to master. In their initial positions, the swimmers performing the backstroke lie flat on their backs, supported by the body of water. Legs extended backwards. Arms and fingertips stretched in the forward movement. Direction? Unknown. Beings Swimming Backstroke Towards the Waterfall cannot see where they are going. They are unaware of the upcoming dangers that lie ahead of them; unaware of the waterfall that they are heading towards. But what if we see this waterfall not as an upcoming catastrophe but as a hopeful rupture? As an alternative, non-linear temporality meant to challenge the heteronormative, anthropocentric view of history? Here, the back crawl represents an intentional refusal of the past to arrive at a new, queer future – the swimmers look away from the expectations and limitations employed by the past and turn towards a bright, blue sky. What will they see there?

Zheng Bo, Pteridophilia 4, 2019, 4K video, color, sound, 16 min 35 sec. Courtesy of the artist. Image still courtesy of the artist and Kiang Malingue

Convening the Untitleds (Eunha Chang, Teng Yen Hui, Ruha Fifita)

December 7, 2023 - March 3, 2024
Seoul Museum of Art, Seosomun Main Branch (Seoul)
As part of The Part In The Story Where Our Accumulating Dust Becomes A Mountain

Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, The Part In The Story Where Our Accumulating Dust Becomes A Mountain, Seoul Museum of Art (7 December 2023–3 March 2024). Courtesy Seoul Museum of Art. Photo: Cocoa Pictures.

Convening the Untitleds is an attempt to read the untitled works from the collections of the three institutions in various ways. The three invited curators (Eunha Chang, Teng Yen Hui, Ruha Fifita) deliberately exclude background information such as the narrative of the artwork and the intentions of the artists, and interpret the artworks based on their own perspectives, experiences and knowledge, attempting to connect it with new meanings. In the process, the fundamental meaning of the act of giving a title to an artwork is discussed, along with the consequences of that act in different institutions and regions. The autonomous and reflective nature of interpretation and appreciation are raised, acknowledging the inevitable natures of understanding and experiencing due to the instability and relativity of knowledge, and the act of projecting oneself into the portrait. The stories woven along their respective readings show that we can freely read and appreciate artworks through reflection and interpretation of our own without having knowledge, and that we can connect and share different knowledge and stories through artworks beyond words and texts.

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Autophagy: Eating in Its Destructive and Creative Nature

February 1, 2023 - April 30, 2023
Beautifulsoup Online & de Appel (Amsterdam)
Artists: Alaa Abu Asad, Chulayarnnon Siriphol, Mooni Perry, TJ Shin
Curated by Eunha Chang
Supported by Arts Council Korea & DutchCulture

The curatorial project, Autophagy: Eating in Its Destructive and Creative Nature, is an experiment that takes the concept of 'autophagy'— a biological mechanism within the body—as a theoretical hypothesis as part of the larger curatorial project Inclusion and Innovation as Curatorial Practice: The 5 Inclusion Tactics for 7 Curators. Out of five given keywords: Cooperative, Empowering, Fair, Open, and Supportive, I selected 'empowering' to delve into. By combining this selected keyword with the concept of ‘autophagy’, the project explores the true nature of empowerment and what it means to truly empower someone or even the self.

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Invasive Species Behind the Notoriety: Multi-directional Narratives for Abundant Futures

November 24, 2021 - December 5, 2021
Asia Culture Center, Gwangju
Artists : Chang En-Man, Eunha Chang
Curated by Eunha Chang
Supported by Asia Culture Center

Chang En-Man, Turn East onto Road 68-1 at 423km, Highway No. 9. (Kalesekes Ljakadjaljavan). photo courtesy of artist.

This research-based curatorial project examines the historical trajectories of invasive species introduced to Asia as food commodities before and after World War II, including two video artworks by Chang En-Man. The study focuses on two cases: the American bullfrog (introduced to Korea in the 1970s) and the Giant African Land Snail (Achatina fulica, introduced to Taiwan in the 1930s). This comparative research investigates the ecological politics, moral implications, and sovereignty discourses surrounding non-human species reduced to food commodities. Through dialogue with Myungae Choi's "Rewilding: Experiments for Nature Conservation in the Anthropocene" at the KAIST Anthropocene Center, the study critically examines temporal dimensions within invasive species histories, questioning the constructed temporality that determines species as 'invasive' or 'native.'

Portals, Teleportation

October 21, 2021 - October 31, 2021
Ankara House & Büyükdere35 Art Gallery (Seoul, Istanbul)
Artists : Eda Sütunç, Minhee Kang
Curated by Eunha Chang
Producer: Pınar Yün
Associate curator: Melike Bayık
Sponsors: Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korea Sports Promotion Foundation, Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange
Contributing Institutions: Sanatorium, Büyükdere35 Art Gallery

Eda Sütunç, Artificial Tears, 2020, HD video, Stereo, 7’ 3’’, courtesy of the artist and SANATORIUM

"Portal" means a magical, technical door that connects geographically different locations, or a website that is used as a point of entry to the internet. Portals, Teleportation, an exhibition for a Korea-Turkey culture exchange, employs the portal to teleport our existence between Seoul and Istanbul. By presenting the "portal" that connects Seoul and Istanbul, the exhibition proposes an alternative culture exchange method during the pandemic era.

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