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[SHOWS] ZIN KIJONG'S SOLO EXHIBITION '21c Taxidermist'
SEPTEMBER 10TH, 2019
ZIN KIJONG'S SOLO EXHIBITION '21c Taxidermist'
진기종 개인전 '21세기 박제사'
2019. 08. 22 - 2019. 10. 15
PRESS RELEASE
Kijong Zin contemplates unbelievable happenings, mysterious phenomena, and conflicts caused by contemporary political, social or religious problems around the world from a neutral point of view. His art world is based on the concept of the “21st century Taxidermist” and his observation and “reconstruction” of diverse social issues through multimedia. In Zin’s works, the artist’s perspective on the world indicates his general intention to express errors of judgment of reality, which are caused by the gap between perception and reality, and errors of our perception of the world. His works present things that are happening at present as well as a blueprint for things that are likely to happen in the future through various media.
In his first solo exhibition, titled (2008), the artist made a shoddy miniature set representing the major scenes of certain incidents. By shooting the miniature set in real time through the discrete positioning of the camera, the layered flat monitor shows the set as if it were a real scene, implying his neutral interpretation of the easy manipulability of the televisual medium, which is the most representative tool of all media. In his work (2010), Zin raised questions about the earth’s natural environment and the harmful effects of the politico-ideological environment using the diorama technique. By asking questions about the causes of changes in the natural environment, which has been seriously damaged by humans, Zin satirized the basis of certain long-running, fatal disputes arising from the selfishness of the owners of natural resources and those who try to obtain them. Leading on from social, political and environmental issues, in his work (2015) Zin raised questions about the existence of an invisible god. By asking the artist’s “zetetic” subject “Is there a god?” he posed a question about invisible existence through religious practices and methods, and studied the causes of persistent global religious conflicts from the past to the present. Zin has consistently explored the nature of truth and lies, and the border between fact and fiction, through his works. His exploration of things about which he is curious or about which he asks questions has led to another interest, namely the development of a technique for totally deceiving a target through imitation. In his ongoing work 〈The Difficulty of Imitating Nature> (2017~), Zin studies the techniques of fly-fishing and makes fake baits representing aquatic insects. The process of deceiving a real predator by imitating a real low-ranking organism - thereby alluding to the production of art through imitation, creation and realization - embodies his theme of ‘the border between truth and falsity’ through close experiences with the natural ecosystem.〈The Difficulty of Imitating Nature> does not end when a real thing is obtained through an exquisite imitation, but rather leads along the pathway of human thought in pursuit of truth and fact in order to respond to sophisticated techniques and art produced by humans for the purposes of survival or play.
So far, Kijong Zin, as an artist of the 21st century, has recorded the phenomena of disputes divided into truth and lies, fact and fiction, from a totally neutral point of view, like a taxidermist who can capture and reproduce a moment in the life of a dead animal as if it were still alive.
Kijong Zin’s solo exhibition <21c Taxidermist> has been organized to represent his series of questions by selecting his most representative works to date.
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