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5 min 16 sec
film by AndalMirror
'Crossing in between' is the basis of becoming a Shaman as a mediator.
Under my gaze, you follow me to see the real waterscape of Mississippi River.
I struggle to balance myself in between poles.
Instead of fulfilling your expectation to sail the river out, I neglect and gaze at you to create spaces in between us.
I like to keep the tension where expected power dynamics get flipped.
CAM Video Mapping Projection
When does art in public function as public art? What is public art? Can't art inside galleries and museums also be considered public art? I have been contemplating these questions. In my definition, public art is work of art, whose content and format operate within the presence of audience and its site-specific context. For this project, which will be initiated outside the building of Saint Louis Contemporary Art Museum, I propose to generate a short video where I, as a shamanistic figure, mediate between the worlds inside and outside the screen by brining oceanic nature.
While St. Louis is a major regional center of Native American Mississippian culture and possesses several unique landmarks along with the famous Mississippi River, the museum's location comparatively lacks visual context of the city's history or background. I envision reflecting both the natural worlds of St. Louis and my own Korean background of Shamanism, which originates in physiolatry—nature worship, like that of Native Indians and many other cultures. Korean Shamans, so called 'Moo-dang': shaman are charismatic shamans who are engaged in displaying magical power as it is the source of their ability to communicate with the spiritual world.
Shamans and artists have shared numerous similarities, for they function as bridges among differences. As an intermediate artist Y∞n Hong, I walk in between various media, cultures, and perspectives of Universe through my art Y∞niverse.
“My Little Fish Tank”, for instance, blurs ontological boundaries of art and nature by flipping power dynamics between spectacle and spectator through physical and virtual manifestation of a fish tank. In “Cahokian”, I intermediate between the lost land of Native Indian and the present moment of 21st century through interactions of body and nature. The film's horizontality underlines Cahokia's wide landscape and the skyline.
In this project, I am going to shoot a new video in which I perform shamanistic ritual within the oceanic environment. While my body interacts with the surrounding nature, my attention will concentrate on the viewer, who would watch the projection later. As in “My Little Fish Tank”, I plan to use uncomfortably close shots of myself to highlight the sublime, and attract and distract. The half of the video will consist of visual abstractions and dynamics of “We The Stardust”, a series of on-going project in which I create microcosms of waterscape by animating trivial materials, such as, glitters and baby oil, and using their nature's phenomenology. The portion will mostly appear in decalcomania to increase the level of immersion and spatial abstraction. I function as the creator and facilitator of my work through which I attempt to realize the neglected value of metaphysical reality.