UNFAMILIAR CORNER: Seulki Ki

'Unfamiliar Corner', Endless Questions in a Simple Space

 According to one of the most advanced theories of modern physics, it may be true that the Universe, which is 'all that is', is a 3D holographic projection of the information encoded on a 2D surface that lies somewhere in its boundary. Developed with the advance of theories concerning characteristics of Black Holes, the physics says all the information of a Black Hole is contained on its surface called the 'event horizon' which is its boundary or threshold.

We, as ordinary people, may have a hard time to understand how the complete information of a 3D space is all contained on a 2D surface but they have rigorous and precise mathematical backup for their reasoning, thus if we accept its validity we may say that our whole 3D world is an illusion and some 2D representation is the ultimate reality.

Then photography, the art of a plane, is in a sense the process whereby we convert the illusion to the photographic reality. Seulki Ki's works of「Unfamiliar Corne」may look very flat at first glance, not to mention photography is already in 2D. We see a piece of body part is placed somewhere in the inanimate surfaces, then the picture just gets another dimension like a bulging bellows of the bandoneon, which in turn allows the viewer to expand the context of meaning beyond the confined boundary of the captured slice of space.

But the retrieved space doesn't feel familiar enough for us to perceive it is ordinary and still retains its delicate tension and uneasy sense of being not ordinary. 

We communicate our meaning through comparisons and interpretations in a contextual structure. Added to the spoken or shown, extra information of various elements, directly or indirectly related, is required for a fuller and more accurate communication. However, we don't seem to want it always. For example while we watch a movie if we manage to imagine or almost see all the staff, the director and lighting equipment around the scene by expanding the confined screen, thus retrieving its 'context of situation', then all the meaning and delicate nuances that the director tries to convey instantly vanish. So it is necessary that a good director try his best to retain its delicate unordinariness.

In this sense Seulki seems to say "Here I am." by successfully retaining her own artistic sensitivity while deftly showing slices of unfamiliar space. 

Seulki Ki's images, in their simple frames of a plane, provide us a koan anew that lead us to think and feel about plane and space, illusion and reality, familiarity and unfamiliarity, part and whole. It is solely on the viewer's part how much the view expands, where to come and go in between the thoughts and where to stop for deeper answers.

- Choe Chang Ho