Ahn Jinkyun | Three Faces, Two Places, One Device | HADA Contemporary | 2014

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Three faces, two places, one device ahn jinkyun


This catalogue is published by HADA Contemporary to accompany the exhibition:

AHN JINKYUN THREE FACES, TWO PLACES, ONE DEVICE 5 JUNE - 31 JULY 2014 No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any mean, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without prior written permission from HADA Contemporary Ltd.


Three faces, two places, one device aHN JINKYUN


AHN JINKYUN

Three faces, two places, one device

HADA Contemporary is delighted to present a new body of work, Three Faces, Two Places, One Device (2014) by Ahn Jinkyun (b.1983). This exhibition will showcase Ahn’s playful still life photographs that fur ther investigate and elaborate on the linear quality of the photographic process and the genealogical inheritance in a family, which provide a singular path from the point of depar ture to arrival; the ‘eye – lense – subject’ and the ‘father – son – grandson’. The visual and spatial materialisation of Ahn’s personal memories accumulated through the camera enhances the lively engagement of the audience through the cheerful interplay of the six elements; the three faces, two places and one device. In The Villa of the Mysteries (2012), Ahn endeavoured to obscure the boundary of mor tality by reducing or eliminating the physical distance between the empty burial plot reserved for his parents and their living room that symbolise the death and life via the use of photography. Fur ther developing this conceptual framework, his new still life works orbits around an object that mimics the structure of a camera evoking intense childlike curiosity in contrast to his previous densely choreographed tableau photographs. As the title suggests, each works depict various reciprocal interactions of the six elements – the faces of the ar tist and his parents, the empty plot, the living room and the wooden toy camera. The blithe dynamics of the faces and toy cameras in conjunction with the


gestural poses heighten the approachability of the images gently encouraging the audience to par ticipate in a play or a performance that the ar tist and his parents are playing. Fur thermore, the resemblance of the volumous and tunnel like open installational structures to the children’s wooden blocks also augments the ar tist’s underlying notion of the universality of the photographic images. Depar ting from the premise that the photographic process inherently defies the authenticity of what one would naturally perceive through the vision, for Ahn, to take a photograph is a performative act that manifests a concept. Often initiated by inner necessities in the shape of conflicts, in his photographs the impor tance of the hierarchy and the structure of the power generated from the position and the direction of the ar tist to deliver one perspective is significant. In every click of the shutter, a camera deposits images, which in turn evidence the par ticular time and place of the image and of the photographer thus materialising one’s memory. Similarly, a face of a body is the representation of the accumulation of individual histories that reflects the memories of the time and places akin to a tree rings or a stratum. In Conspiracy (2014), the overlay of the living room and the empty plot on his parents’ faces embellishes on the idea of the face and camera as a place and location where memories are collected. Whereas Cord (2014) and Button (2014) suggest on the linear succession and inheritance of the histories and memories recorded in these places. The objectification of each element into the form of the camera facilitates and simplifies the visual understanding of their relationship and the ar tist’s effor t to superimpose and amalgamate dichotomic boundaries such as death and life into each frame. Often utilising objects such as cameras and mirrors like props in a set in sync with photographic technique to manipulate, rearrange and multiply, he amplifies the tension and confusion for the viewers’ confrontation. Hovering between the boundaries of death and life, reality and fiction, private and public, reflection and gaze among others, the unique flexibility and the multiplicity of the space and time in his works allows the images to transcend the threshold of the vision to depict ‘the imageless substance that lies behind the boundaries of the vision.’

Ahn Jinkyun (b. 1983) received MA in Photography at Royal College of Ar t London and BFA in Photography and Film, Animation and Video at Rhode Island School of Design in the US. He has exhibited internationally at The Photographer’s Gallery, London; Phoenix Brighton, Brighton; Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam; РОСФОТО, SaintPetersburg; Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London; Gallery IHN, Seoul; Ohio University Seigfred Gallery among others. He has been selected and awarded as 2013 UK Winner of Emerging Photographer by Flash Forward, Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed 2013 by The Photographers Gallery London, Belfast Photo Festival 2013, Foam Magazine #36 Talent, Winner of 2012 Brighton Photo Fringe Open and Honourable Mention for International Photography Awards 2011. He currently lives and works in Seoul, Korea and London, UK.

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Jorg M. Colberg, Interview with Jinkyun Ahn , Foam Magazine #36 Talent, Fall 2013, p. 224

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Button (1-4) | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm (x4) | 2014



Button 1 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

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Button 2 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

Button 3 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

Button 4 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

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Conspiracy 1 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014


Conspiracy 2 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

Conspiracy 3 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

Three Faces Two Places One Device Ahn Jinkyun, 2014

Photography provides a path. This path is a straight line that can only tolerate a single perspective, one which depar ts from the pupil, travels through the viewfinder, via the lens, and eventually arrives at its subject. Likewise, the image of the subject returns in reverse order in the form of a reflection, becoming imprinted on the surface of a film or a sensor. As a result, the perspective and the subject are firmly fixed at both ends of this straight line (or path), with the camera only dictatorially mediating in the middle. This par ticularly linear quality of photography reminds me of the inevitability of family legacy and how one generation leaves an “imprint” for the next, as an imposed gift. The forces that underpin the cycle of every family’s life are the lives of the children and eventual deaths of the parents. Although the physical body of parents may disappear after their deaths, their qualities and traits are transmitted to the child, leaving an indelible imprint. In much the same way, the image of the subject is delivered from lens to a negative, and the negative to a print. Cameras store memories. Each image, that is collected from the clicking of the shutter, verify the par ticular time and place of the photographer. In other words, those images are the visual materialization of someone’s memories. Within its body, a camera accumulates these memories layer by layer. This type of sedimentation can also be found in the face of a child’s parents. A child can find countless memories scattered across the face of his parents as they are the first to be visually perceived and the longest witnessed sites to him. The angle of an eyebrow, the shape of a cheekbone and the color of lips are not merely minor details that compose the totality of a face. Instead, these form a fuse of tangled memories. Just as a tree grows by expanding its annual ring, time and memories are layered on one’s face for a long period of time, thereby adding immense weight on the form and eventually transforming its original shape. Finally, although the face may disappear from a child’s visual perception as it is not a face that a child confronts when seeing their parents, the memories they created together.

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Cord (1-4) | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm (x4) | 2014

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Cord 1 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

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Cord 2 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

Cord 3 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

Cord 4 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

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Hole (1-4) | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm (x4) | 2014

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Hole 1 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

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Hole 4 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

Hole 3 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

Hole 2 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

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Nose (1-4) | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm (x4) | 2014

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Nose 1 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

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Nose 2 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

Nose 3 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

Nose 4 | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

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Two Places & One Device | Digital c-print | 65.4 x 80 cm | 2014

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AHN JINKYUN

b. 1983 Lives and works in Seoul, Korea and London, UK EDUCATION 2012 MA, Photography, Royal College of Art, London, UK 2010 BFA, Photography, Rhode Island School of Design, US BFA, Film, Animation and Video, Rhode Island School of Design, US SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2014 Three Faces, Two Places, One Device, HADA Contemporary, London, UK 2012 On the Surface of Images, Phoenix Brighton, Brighton, UK SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2014 Je Baak & Ahn Jinkyun, HADA Contemporary, London, UK Selections from Belfast Photo Festival Open Submission Exhibition 2013, Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, Ireland 2013 Belfast Photo Festival 2013, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, UK Antechamber, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London, UK Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed 2013, The Photographer’s Gallery, London, UK FOAM Talents - Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam, Netherlands FOAM Talents - РОСФОТО, Saint-Petersburg, Russia Multi Effect, Gallery Ihn, Seoul, Korea 2012 The Curator’s Egg, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London, UK 5th 4482 [sasapari] Map the Korea, Bargehouse in Oxo Tower, London, UK Paradise, Ventura Lambrate, Milan, Italy Place not found, Smokehouse Gallery, London, UK Show RCA 2012, Royal College of Art, London, UK 2011 4th 4482 [sasapari] Rhizosphere, Bargehouse in Oxo Tower, London, UK Merry-Go-Round to Hell, School Keeper House, London, UK Construct, RCA Photography Show at Folkestone Triennial, Folkestone, UK Alt. +1000 Photo Festival, Rossiniere, Switzerland BITTERSWEET/thunderspace, Hanmi Gallery, London, UK Art From the Heart 2011, 25CPW, New York, USA 2010 Rehearse, Rewind and Repeat, Ohio University Seigfred Gallery, OH, USA Encave, Red Eye Gallery, RI, USA Senior Invitational, Woods Gerry Gallery, RI, USA New Contemporaries, Gelman Gallery, RI, USA Future’s future’s future, Korean Cultural Center, London, UK AWARDS 2013 Flash Forward – Emerging Photographers 2013 UK Winner Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed 2013 Selected Artist Belfast Photo Festival 2013 Selected Artist Foam Magazine #36/Talent Selected Photographer 2012 Brighton Photo Fringe Open 2012 Winner 2011 Flash Forward – Emerging Photographers 2011 UK Honourable Mention International Photography Awards Honourable Mention Royal College of Art Overseas Fine Art Bursary




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