Finnish Fairy Tale Inspires Artist
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
Artist Jun So-jung recreates a Finnish fairy tale in her solo exhibition ``The Finale of a Story.'' This exhibition is currently at the Gallery Kong through June 22.
It was during a trip to Finland last year when Jun first heard through her friend the Finnish fairy tale about a dancer who lived in a forest. This casual meeting inspired the series of work, ``The Finale of a Story.''
``'The Finale of a Story' is created from the memory of my Finnish friend who took me to a forest, my memory in the forest and the memory of the dancer in the forest. Those memories came across my mind separately as broken pieces, and then intertwined to construct an act, like a surrealistic game,'' she said.
Her friend accompanied her to visit the ruins of a small town in a forest, which was supposed to have been built by the male dancer in the fairy tale. Jun said the memory of the forest and the fairy tale lingered in her head.
At the gallery, Jun recreates her memory of the Finnish fairytale through a video installation and art works. She carefully constructed the stage, featuring deep purple curtains, different colored cloth and corrugated cardboard for the trees and grass. A life-sized white doll is also prominently featured on the set.
Jun got a Korean actor (wearing a blonde wig) to play the part of the fairy tale hero. Visitors can see the video of the entire performance at the gallery. The 30-minute performance is accompanied with English-language narration by Jun herself.
``By awakening my memories, the story between consciousness and unconsciousness; dream and reality; existence and nonexistence, becomes life through various media including installing the stage, performance of the actor and recreating the performance in the film. However it remains unfinished. The end of the story, the finale, is accomplished by the audience at the gallery,'' she said
Jun, who graduated from Seoul National University in 2005, is very interested in exploring memories in her work. ``My work is about memories based on personal experiences and converting them into images. … I was very attracted to the ironic act of pursuing the existence of memories because the more I tried to go after them, the more they ran away. It was as if I was walking on a tightrope connecting memory and recreated image.''
Jun's work on memories started with her self-portrait photograph series ``Hidden Files,'' where she draws on her own memories.
``It was a result from capturing images, remembered together with certain spaces, and transferring them into a piece of photograph, a self portrait. I searched the spaces existing in my memory, recreated images in my mind and restructured my position in it. Producing `Hidden Files,' I could recall many moments forgotten in my personal history,'' she said.
Visit www.gallerykong.com or call (02) 738-7776.