Installation view of 《Throbbing, Moving, Stopped》 (Mueumsanbang, 2023) ©Jinseon Ahn

The solo exhibition by artist Jinseon Ahn, 《Throbbing, Moving, Stopped》, takes place at Mueumsanbang from February 7 to February 19.

Ahn visualizes the anxiety she experienced in the city by using materials she gathered from everyday surroundings. The space consists of trembling fabrics supported by slender legs, long and rigid stands, tubes delicately stacked upon each other, and plates arranged to generate noise—evoking the look of construction sites or roadside scenes.

The sheer weight and noise of architectural materials found in urban landscapes naturally cultivate anxiety. When one leaves a smaller city or rural environment and enters a larger metropolis, the new artificial structures encountered there create a sense of disruption. The term “artificial structures” here includes not only architectural elements and landscaping materials, but also the socio-psychological conditions that one must navigate within the urban ecosystem.

Ahn projects her personal sense of urban anxiety onto these specific materials placed in the city and translates them into lightweight, movable media, thereby exploring the unstable sensation that accompanies such anxiety.

Installation view of 《Throbbing, Moving, Stopped》 (Mueumsanbang, 2023) ©Jinseon Ahn

This distorted sense of stability accumulates into a scene that gathers fragmented forms to generate a heightened feeling of unease. Objects are arranged after calculating the exact dimensions of the space and the precise distances between components.

Lightweight brown tubes, pedestals resembling the colors of cement and rebar, fabrics and legs that mimic gray roads, and sleek, opaque zinc sheets—these familiar materials in urban environments overlap and deviate slightly when placed together.

When encountering this installation, viewing moves from what is heard or seen first to what is recognized later. The gaze climbs over scattered forms and descends again; the viewer tucks their body between objects; gestures emerge as they listen closely in all directions.

This space filled with subtle movements is a setting where Ahn aims to transfer her own sense of urban anxiety to the viewer. Once anxiety begins, returning to the state before its recognition becomes difficult. The cycle of an unpredictable movement—where one cannot foresee where or when something might shift—simply continues that anxiety.

Unlike writing a warning or delivering a message directly, anxiety infiltrates gradually and unconsciously. This structure suggests that anxiety may reveal itself only at the moment one becomes aware of it. By transferring her own sensation to those who enter this space, Ahn transforms the very perception of anxiety into an act of articulation.

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