NOTE FOR AHN(安), GALLERY 175, SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, 2019
Exhibition Note for AHN (安) was a two-person exhibition I organized with Ahn Jaeyoung, which began from the question of whether an individual could escape from being possessed — one of the mysterious symptoms containing elements of superstition from Korea. The exhibition, tracks how images attained from one’s superstitious beliefs relate to mythical and religious images, then recombines and deconstructs them. Under our collaboration lies the hope to contact invisible but clearly existing sensual phenomena, and to together overcome anxieties, interpreting phenomena as the destiny of artist/mediator.
Paying attention to the number of tattoos on Ahn Jaeyoung‘s body (the Chinese character 安, a blue diamond, an arrow, a red-haired Anne, Piglet, Mickey Mouse, and an epitaph of Nikos Kazantzakis), I interpreted each image as a charm to ward off Ahn’s anxieties. I then, researched mythical and religious imagery in order to strengthen the shamanistic narrative. Observing that the number 12 frequently works as important motive in the myths of many different cultures, I set Ahn Jaeyoung‘s birthday, December 12, as a central axis and tried to discover the references to god-related signs from the number 12. Combining the symbolic world of the image, language, color, and numbers from ancient myths from twelve animals that guards tombs, I created a chart for a system of faith and proposed a psychological space for a praying man, just like the secret connotation of the ancient character, 安
NOTE FOR AHN(安), GALLERY 175, SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, 2019
Exhibition Note for AHN (安) was a two-person exhibition I organized with Ahn Jaeyoung, which began from the question of whether an individual could escape from being possessed — one of the mysterious symptoms containing elements of superstition from Korea. The exhibition, tracks how images attained from one’s superstitious beliefs relate to mythical and religious images, then recombines and deconstructs them. Under our collaboration lies the hope to contact invisible but clearly existing sensual phenomena, and to together overcome anxieties, interpreting phenomena as the destiny of artist/mediator.
Paying attention to the number of tattoos on Ahn Jaeyoung‘s body (the Chinese character 安, a blue diamond, an arrow, a red-haired Anne, Piglet, Mickey Mouse, and an epitaph of Nikos Kazantzakis), I interpreted each image as a charm to ward off Ahn’s anxieties. I then, researched mythical and religious imagery in order to strengthen the shamanistic narrative. Observing that the number 12 frequently works as important motive in the myths of many different cultures, I set Ahn Jaeyoung‘s birthday, December 12, as a central axis and tried to discover the references to god-related signs from the number 12. Combining the symbolic world of the image, language, color, and numbers from ancient myths from twelve animals that guards tombs, I created a chart for a system of faith and proposed a psychological space for a praying man, just like the secret connotation of the ancient character, 安
The rapt of Proserpina,Joseph-Marie Vien, 1767, Musée de Grenoble
Installation view at 698-9 Seonosong-dong, Jeonju
( February 21 - March 06, 2020), as part of Print/Out,
Photo by Minkyoung Choi
Installation view of Jan van eyck academie openstudios 2021 Still cut, The geometry of the hunter, Single channel video, 2021
Photo. ACC Children's Culture Center
Your Memory Theater
Fantasy Inventory, ACC Children’s Culture Center
November 25, 2025 – March 2, 2026
Gwangju, KR
Workshop: January 31, 2026, 1:00 PM
Cellulose and Prometheus
AAD Week 4 Workshop, August 2025
Seoul, KR
Cellulose is a structural material of life formed from glucose produced through photosynthesis. Its name derives from cell and the suffix -ose, meaning a sugar that makes up cells. As a primary component of plant cell walls, cellulose provides structural support. Humans cannot digest it as a nutrient because we lack the enzymes needed to break it down, while ruminants such as cows and goats can decompose cellulose and use it as an energy source.
Prometheus is a Titan god in Greek mythology, widely known for bringing fire to humanity. According to the myth, humans were initially created without technology or fire. Taking pity on their suffering in the cold and darkness, Prometheus stole fire from Mount Olympus and gave it to them despite Zeus’s prohibition. As punishment for this defiance of the divine order, Zeus chained Prometheus to a rock on Mount Caucasus, where an eagle devoured his liver each day as an eternal punishment.
Within the context of the workshop, cellulose and Prometheus take on expanded meanings.
Cellulose implies microbial cultivation. Through tea fermentation, participants collaborate with plant-based microorganisms to cultivate cellulose and process their own “vegan leather”—a material derived from plants yet resembling animal skin.
Prometheus symbolizes Giulio Camillo’s Theatre of Memory (Teatro della Memoria, Italy, 1520s), used in the workshop as a method for sensing and interpreting the surrounding environment. Camillo’s Theatre of Memory organizes relationships among the cosmos, the Earth, and human and nonhuman beings through mythological narratives, with the “Prometheus” section occupying the final position among its seven sections. The workshop proposes the Theatre of Memory as a method for exploring our environment, expanding our individual sense of time—from the small world created by cellulose to the Earth and the cosmos.
The webzine Fermenting Worlds: Microorganisms, Myth, and the Theatre of Memory follows how these two axes reflect and unfold through the workshop. Participants first observe the slowly growing microbial world produced through fermentation, examining the surfaces and forms created by their cultivated cellulose. They then use Camillo’s Theatre of Memory as a conceptual framework, arranging elements such as mythology, climate, terrain, and images. Moving between the microscopic world created by microorganisms and the cosmic scale evoked by the Theatre of Memory, participants imagine a “subjective universe” grounded in their own senses and experiences.
Text by AAD
Full text and materials are available via the link : https://artsactsdays.kr/11109/
