u_joo+limheeyoung - Pink Road (16bungee)
July 19 - August 19, 2012
Artist Interview
1. You’ve been focusing on the realization of fantasy since the beginning of your career. Is there a
particular reason you’re doing so? And, please tell us why you’ve entitled this fantasy, Pinkroad.
To us, fantasy does not require a certain starting point or motive to be, well, fantastic. We do not
negate the reality nor do we encourage escape. We seek to discover a world that we cannot in the
reality, from fantasy.
Pinkroad, literally means a pink-colored road. We hope to bring forth an imaginative discourse on
fantasies, from unreal situations such as in a pink-colored road.
2. Looking at your works, moving and functioning, we feel that we’re getting steps closer to the
fantasy. Please tell us why there was a sudden shift from video to sculpture, or, in your case,
mechanical devices. Was there a particular motive? What is so attractive about them?
Pinkroad speaks about the realization of fantasy. While working on, that is, realizing some of our
imaginations and fantasies, we felt that it was somewhat limited in showing our realization process
through video. We began thinking about other types of medium to express a world where reality
and unreality co-exist, and thus by making mechanical devices (kinetic sculptures) that hover
between the two realms, we hoped to further realize a more detailed fantasy. The mechanical
devices are featured with constant movements, and we believe it would be examples of fantasies
which are maintained in the reality. Working with mechanical devices is interesting because it is an
actual, animate object. It is an extreme pleasure when we see our conceived movement of the
devices is exactly realized.
3. The titles themselves are attractions of their own. How do you come up with them?
Each work carries their own stories. For example, Nice Engine (2008) guides one to the world of
fantasy by encouraging one to immerse oneself in the fantasy; The Nightmare Machine (2010)
takes nightmares away from people by dreaming them itself; The Dark Eating Machine (2011), a
generator that creates a black hole that leads to another realm; and last but never the least,
Silence of the Wolf (2012), a pillar that keeps all of the secrets of the world; we come up with
these titles that seems natural in between research and completion of each work.
4. The imaginative functions of the works (i.e. Nightmare Machine and Dark Eating Machine) are
given as if following the sculptures’ respective movements, but at the same time they seem
completely remote. Do you plan each work’s functions before you begin? If so, how do you come
up with their design and movements, and most of all, what inspires you to make such designs?
Function is what we invest most of our time on. This is done before we even design each device.
Function decides everything. The function of the work formulates the story, the title, and finally, its
design.
We do not have a particular inspiration source. Instead, we are open to all kinds of situations and
most affected by them, so we try to experience fun or various situations as much as possible.
5. Your works express virtual fantasies that are not real. And quite interestingly, you’ve made
yourselves virtual by introducing yourself ‘designers’. I’m intrigued to find out how and why these
absolutely impractical devices have come to existence, and moreover, why you’ve come up with it
at all. And finally, why are the ‘designers’ trying to create the Pinkroad, and what do they aim to
achieve?
The Pinkroad project is not made from any needs or demands. Instead, its stories progress by
expressing interest in fantasies. As the saying goes, “have faith, and you’ll see,” we perceive things
differently from each other, and therefore we see things differently. And fun things happen since we
do not see things from the same perspectives.
We believe Pinkroad is a world that already exists. Designers 1 and 2 are not making Pinkroad,
however, they are personas trying to realize a fantasy, after thorough researches and discoveries,
design and planning, and finally naming the product, ‘Pinkroad’. The project is still underway, so
we’re yet to find out they aim to find out there.
6. In 2011, at your exhibition at Kim Chong Young Museum, you’ve suggested, “the line that
divides the realm of reality and unreality is time”; we’d like to find out a bit more about your
thoughts on time. Do you mean to say that time is a device that act as portals, that is, wormholes
that lead from reality to fantasy?
In Pinkroad, time is not only a divider that separates reality from unreality, but the project focuses
more on the fact that it is a device that formulates the coordinates of the reality and fantasy,
bringing fantasy into reality. Time is the medium that enables the reality and unreality to co-exist.
The time of the fantasy maintained by reality, passes in accordance with our time of our world.
7. In this exhibition, you are exhibiting works other than Dark Eating Machine, such as Nightmare
Machine and Silence of the Wolf. Please tell us what is different here, say, from the previous
exhibition at Kim Chong Young Museum, and what you intend to express this time.
Pinkroad project is a preliminary work positioned somewhere in between stimulating fantasy and
imagining about the next step. It is important to keep in mind that what you see in this exhibition
isn’t the final result, but examples and motivations for you to imagine about the other aspects of
what you’ve seen.
8. Other than the three animate sculptures, there are drawings and inanimate sculptures in the
exhibition. How important are the drawings in your work process? What do they imply? Would it be
okay to think of them as blueprints for the sophisticated devices? They are indeed, as you’ve
already mentioned, the means to intensify Pinkroad, but please tell us a bit more.
If the sophisticated mechanical devices are the final products, drawings are the evidences that
indicate the process of those products. They’ll tell the viewer of the stories and directions each
work possesses. Drawings, may be a bit more closer to Pinkroad than the actual, animate or
inanimate sculptures.
9. It is certainly very promising since there are infinite possibilities to be introduced regarding the
realization of the Pinkroad. We certainly believe that the ‘designers’ will be making more of these
machines, and if we may ask, do they have anything else planned yet? And, last but not least, do
you plan to shift your work process to something else, other than sculptures or video?
Working with mechanical devices (kinetic works) resolves the drawbacks and limits of videos, and
vice versa. We certainly think hard about what other ways there would be, that would eventually
resolve the demerits of machines and videos.
And most importantly, we are on a constant quest to discover elements not only would trigger
interest on fantasies and machines, but also enrich the stories of the Pinkroad.