YH Chang presents 'Life in Three Easy Tutorials' at Art Sonje
A banner on the front of Art Sonje Center asks "Politicians who dye their hair ― what are they hiding?" / Courtesy of Art Sonje Center
By Jon Dunbar
“Politicians who dye their hair ― what are they hiding?” asks Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (YHCHI) at its first exhibit in Korea in almost four years.
The question is posed on a giant flashing screen of text on the third floor of the Art Sonje Center in Bukchon Hanok Village, central Seoul. The exhibit is titled “Life in Three Easy Tutorials,” with three multimedia installations on three floors.
The three exhibits peer into politicians’ deceptiveness, the ubiquity of corporate capitalism and a dinner with a dysfunctional family.
The exhibit also includes printed leaflets, online videos and banners displayed on the building exterior.
“There haven’t been many opportunities to see its work in South Korea,” says the Art Sonje website.
YHCHI’s last exhibition was in 2013 at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, and its previous was a 2004 solo exhibition at the Rodin Gallery.
Since 1999 YHCHI has been making Adobe Flash animations setting text and robotic voices in 26 languages to frenetic, jazzy, percussive scores. Its pieces, including “It’s a Woman’s World (But it wouldn’t be Nothing without a Man or a Boy),” “Cunnilingus in North Korea” and “The Cultural Revolution: Smash the Gang of Four Billion!” are uploaded on yhchang.com which is a surviving relic of the Web 1.0 era.
YHCHI is the creation of U.S. poet Marc Voge and Korean artist/translator Chang Young-hae. They were recognized for their contribution to online art by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art back in 2000.
Their work has been exhibited at London’s Tate Gallery, Paris’ Centre Pompidou and New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art and New Museum of Contemporary Art. More recently, they were Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Creative Arts Fellows.
An artist talk this Thursday has already been sold out. There is still room to attend free screenings on Feb. 16 and 23, introducing YHCHI’s art world and offering a Q&A afterwards. Both start at 4 p.m. Any digital documentation of the screenings is forbidden.
Visit artsonje.org to book a seat or for information.