Art Event: "Before the Dawn of Language. There Was the Symbol"


It is finally Spring! I think I can say that with a heap of confidence and not worry that a freezing day is around the corner. With the weather warmer that means getting out is a lot easier, and sticking around past dusk is more pleasant. Yesterday evening I enjoyed the exhibition "Before the Dawn of Language- There Was the Symbol." This was put on by the Golmok Gallery and the International Artist Community (IAC).

It is still happening so before I show you all the photos and a video let me give you the information:
Where: Address 갤러리 주소
Gallery GOLMOK
34-0 Ponji, Itaewon Dong, Yongsan Gu, Seoul
서울시, 용산구, 이태원동, 34-9 번지
Tel: (02) 792-2960
Gallery Opening Times: Daily 10:30am-10pm
How to Get There:
From Noksapyeong Station (line 6) Exit 3, walk straight to the crossing and cross.
녹사평역 (6 호선) 3번 출구에서 똑바로 걸어습니다. 횡단보도으로 길 건너편으로 갑니다.
At the entrance to the alley walk straight for 20 meters.
골목 입구에서 (사진 1& 2 보세요) 20 미터를 똑바로 걸어세요.
Gallery Golmok is on the right.
갤러리 골목 노란 건물이 오른쪽으로 있늡니다.
Dates:
Part 2, Saturday April 2nd – Sunday April 24th
바람 Ba Ram Choi Korea Installation artist
So Young Kang Korea Video artist
김찬준 Chan Jun Kim Korea Musician
김진경 Jin Kyoung Kim Korea Installation artist
Sang Youn Lee Korea Sculptor and Installation artist
Eric Scott Nelson USA Performance artist
오현경 Katherine Oh Korea/USA Performance and installation art
박진성 Jin Seong Park Korea Sculptor/inst (Gallery Owner)
임연진 Jean Rim Korea/USA Performance and installation art
VAEMO Korea Musician, performance inst.
  
Back to my story!
 I arrived a little bit early, but this was to my advantage as I was able to catch pictures of the works without anyone crowding around. First I was a little shy and waited outside at their cafe area.


Then I went inside the gallery and looked around.



The exhibition theme is explained below:
"This is an ambitious and exciting exhibition both in the diversity of the participating artists and in the theme being addressed. In all, 25 artists from seven countries are taking part, including painters, photographers, sculptors, installation artists, performance artists and musicians. The theme has challenged artists to go back to the beginning, to a time when art was the primary mode of communication for the emerging human species and the means by which the mystery, wonder and majesty of the world both seen and unseen could be expressed.
In today’s world of mass instant communication of the sublimely trivial, this exhibition’s intention is to reintroduce its audience to art as symbol. Visitors to the exhibition will experience images, sounds and performances that dissolve barriers and open gateways to pure communication as it was “Before the Dawn of Language.”
 Definitely the works and the performances, which I later saw, had a contemplative mood to them that matched this theme of before language.





It was still a little cool out yesterday evening so I stuck it out in the back of the gallery where there were seats, which were kind of funky.


Things started to pick up outside and so I headed back out there, while I did one of the artist's son was playing with a sculpture.

The performances I watched were a sound sculpture by the artist Vaemo, and one done by Eric Nelson. The sound sculpture performance was a real delight, as when I was taking sculpture class I really wanted to try out this kind of medium. But my lack of engineering and mechanical skills challenged me a lot.





Definitely the performance was amazing as you really wondered how he programed everything to move and make sounds. You can catch it later in the video at the end of this post.

 Eric's performance was a lot more interactive. The breakdown of it was that he had a mannequin-doll he danced around with then set it down. There was colorful paper on the ground and he handed this out to people to "cut up" and "make a new city." At first people were a bit shy about participating but soon many people were making a "new city."




Then my camera died (even my back up battery wasn't charged) and so I relied on my iPod.


I liked this performance since it got the public involved and also was visually able to portray a message without being too difficult to understand. 

Since my camera had died and the evening was setting on I went on home. However, I definitely had a good time and hope you can get out there and catch the tail end of this exhibition.

Watch the Video and see the Sound Sculpture Performance!