Response-Ability
(Response-Ability, SomoS, 3 Feb – 11 Feb 2023)
/ Yeni MA (Curator)
In a time defined by climate crises, the mass extinction of species, and unpredictable environmental disasters, we have increasingly become aware of the need to change our relationship with nature and non-human species.
In an effort to create a more harmonious coexistence with other species, we have seen the emergence of increased discussions on the binaries between humanity and nature, the rights if different species, and sustainable provide an optimistic futurist perspective, believing that humans are capable of overcoming all these crises.
However, despite these hopeful changes, when looking at the way society operates today, our desires, whether big or small, inevitably sacrifice other living beings and contribute to the destruction of the ecosystem. Contemporary society continues to cage animals, cause wildfires, and turn a blind eye to human encroachment on nature to staisfy basic human desires, to realise conventent life, and to achieve economic efficiency.
‘Response-ability’ focuses on these conflicts and dilemmas caused by a human-centric worldview. There exhibited artworks do not hesitate to convey feelings of uneasiness and encourage viewers to stay with the trouble. Sitting in this uneasiness is not an invitation to indulge in despair, but rather a reminder there we should not expect only pleasure in communing with nature and other species. Within this relationship lines sorrow, tragedy, life, and the death of all living beings that have cycled through the universe’s long history.
The artworks in the exhibition ‘Response-ability’ propose that we cultivate the ability to respond to tragedies and their seriousness; the artists encourage you to sit with this discomfort rather than take heroic responsibility for such disasters.
(…)
Euysun Kim creates organic, nature-like forms with natural materials around her, such as leaves, branches, stones, and seeds.
As each element of the sculpture, Tangles, is connected without artificial adhesives, even a tiny wind or some static electricity can easily move the installation, and each connection can be broken. Audiences are invited to keep their distance from the sculpture since it will react in some way as they move close to the work.
Ironically, a viewer’s interest in the work may be the catalyst for this destruction. Rather than paying attention to the constantly vibrating sculpture, visitors are required to recognize to as an organic and independent being.
Through creating tension between audiences and the sculpture, Kim asks about the unilateral relationship that humans can possess with the natural world. How violent and destructive can it be to encroach without considering the others?