Installation view of 《Living Island》 (CICA Museum, 2020) ©Sujin Moon

The exhibition consists of documenting materials of the performance work, ‘Living Island’, which occurred from the beginning of February to mid-March 2020 at Lake Hebron in Monson, Maine. ‘Living Island’, a month-long performance project, creates a snow island on the frozen lake with the simple act of shoveling snow until the spring starts the island melt. The work is intertwined with the ideas of the fear from the situation of standing and working on the unstable earth, on the ice, the alertness of latent death, the vulnerability of being, and the consolation from the connection and solidarity with people.

Considering the nature of performance work, which is always moment-specific, the question of how to present the performance afterwards in the gallery space always matter. In this sense, the documenting materials are created as interpretations of the memories of the performance, rather than a representation of it. I attempted to find the appropriate forms for the textures and shapes of fragments of the memories. Some moments become a bundle of papers which is bounded to physical weight and thickness. Some other moments become a video, or in other words, light. The other becomes a movement, which is waiting to be activated by someone flipping their fingers.

We have passed through a long year. This year was colder and harsher than any other winters due to the spread of the novel virus so that we had to stay inside longer than ever. In this difficult moment, we cannot let the anxiety out of our mind completely. I look back again at the memories of being on the lake and I rethink how weak and small we are, and how much we can be consoled by someone’s support, as I could be by the people in Monson. I hope this work will be a metaphor for lives and a humble gesture of support and solidarity to someone who visits the show.

Sujin Moon, Living Island, 2020, A month-durational performance ©Sujin Moon

A sense of touch is the basis for all the other sensations. Sight is reconstructed image in the brain from sensing the light when it touch the retina, hearing is to sense the sound wave when it touch the eardrum, taste is a chemical reaction to the foods particles touching the taste buds on tongue, and smell is to sense the odor molecules touching the olfactory cells in the nose. All senses involve a tactile process of ‘touch’ with something.
I define myself as a sculptor. Making sculpture, for me, is touching something: touching something’s surface, feeling the texture and resistance of it, and carrying the weight of the thing and wrestling and struggling with it with my whole body.

I was born and raised in Seoul. I have stayed and worked in US last three years and came back to home country due to the struck by the covid19. I had a first solo exhibition at Woosukhall, Seoul National University in 2014, and have participated in several residency programs including Monson Arts in Monson, ME in US. I am currently living and working as an artist based on Seoul.

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