A Voyage to Silence II: Soyoung Kang
A Voyage That is Never Truly Quiet
Kim Hyunjung (Curator, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art)
Soyoung Kang’s 《A Voyage to Silence》 series seems to be built from a few key elements: the sound of waves, people, and stories. There are waves that have always been there, flowing past the scars of history. There are islands that hold those stories. And there are people who remain in those places, carrying their own lives and memories. Through drawings, sound installations, photographs, and objects such as hammocks, the exhibition invites us to look beyond what we see and expect something deeper.
As the artist explains, the series began in February 2009 on Baengnyeong Island. She then traveled to Marado, Gapado, Gageodo, and Dokdo, islands at the edge of the Korean Peninsula. In October 2010, she visited Kinmen Island between Taiwan and China. Although Kinmen still holds many traces of war, tensions eased in 2008, and the island is now being transformed into a large duty free shopping area. This note forms the background of the project.
The second chapter of 《A Voyage to Silence》, shown at Gallery Chosun, carries a deeper weight. It focuses on the voices of those who survived on these islands. These are stories that cannot be fully found in written records. They speak directly about war, about the marks it left behind, and about the lives that continued there. While earlier presentations shared large historical events with sound, this exhibition turns more closely to personal stories gathered on site. It is a moment to share those voices with viewers.
Among the people introduced are Choi Yeong-ui (known as Choi Bae-dal), who helped spread karate in Japan; an elderly tour guide in Kinmen who shares the island’s stores; Kim Seong-do, a boat driver on Dokdo; a woman who manages a war park in Kinmen; Mr. Hwang, who runs a guesthouse there; and a grandmother on Baengnyeong Island who raised her children while harvesting oysters and takes pride in never leaving her home island. Each of them is history itself. They are living traces of time and change.
A notable aspect of Kang’s work is its natural approach. As she writes, “Travelling naturally and placing myself in a specific location is the root of my work.” In 《A Voyage to Silence II》, she reflects three main themes: borders and territory; deep empathy toward the past; and installations that combine sight and sound, allowing viewers to move through space as if travelling through time. This exhibition brings these three elements together clearly.
At the entrance, visitors first see a video filmed inside a tunnel in Kinmen. Walking through the dark and narrow space, they feel almost trapped. After passing through, the gallery opens into a space that suggests an island shore. Visitors lie in hammocks and listen to the sound of waves through headphones, each forming their own thoughts and feelings. But this is not all.
The exhibition also presents images taken during her journeys to Kinmen, Baengnyeong Island, and Dokdo. These include barbed wire fences, a statue of sorghum liquor, “dragon’s teeth” anti tank structures, the pebble beach of Baengnyeong, and a bird flying across the border and Sagot Beach. While listening to the waves, viewers follow these traces of war that still remain on these islands in Northeast Asia. Once again, they experience the artist’s voyage through both sight and sound.
The work may not tell a grand, dramatic story like an epic film. Instead, it brings forward everyday lives and personal histories that feel close and real. The stories of those still living are livid, like fish freshly caught from the sea. Kang records stories that might otherwise disappear. She records the sound of waves and shares what she has seen and felt in person. Just as we cannot deny the past and speak only of the present, she tries to hold onto histories that many of us did not experience but that truly existed. Through sound, voices, and portrait drawings, she reveals both the past and the present of these places.
Despite the title 《A Voyage to Silence II》, the work is intense and serious. It connects the past and present in a powerful way. It is hard to measure the hardship and urgency that the artist must have felt in these places. The people she met may have simply endured their lives, adapting to their conditions. Yet their stories continue to resonate quickly.
The artist hopes to continue this series by travelling to small islands in Okinawa and the Kuril Islands. Her work is not about dramatic innovation in visual art. Rather, it gathers and reshapes existing records, presenting them in a raw and direct way. In this exhibition, viewers cannot fully share the physical sensations or emotions she experienced on the islands. Still, through the sound of waves and the voices of those who remain, we are given time to open our own perspectives.
Perhaps these islands once felt closed and isolated. Now, through this work, their stories and histories are slowly being brought to light. One hopes this process will continue, creating space for shared understanding and reflection.