2024 Acrylic on box Dimensions variable
Dahoon Nam has
pursued a practice that reinterprets a wide range of media through his own
perspective, using replication as a primary method—from small and large
Styrofoam fragments to computer graphics. By recreating phenomena and objects
close to our everyday lives with lightweight materials such as Styrofoam,
cardboard boxes, and paper, the artist conveys the structural contradictions of
contemporary society in a humorous manner.
The artist
selects his subjects for replication based on social phenomena unfolding within
his own surroundings and on events he has directly experienced. These subjects
range widely, from Usadan-ro in Yongsan, Seoul—an area threatened by
gentrification—to Jeff Koons’s ‘Balloon Dog’ and the diverse memes circulating
on social media.
Nam’s practice of
replication goes beyond mere reproduction, constituting an attempt to question
the status of the “real” and to explore the subversive potential inherent in
the “fake.” In a rapidly changing contemporary society driven by values such as
efficiency, innovation, and progress, the artist prompts us to reconsider what
has been given to us—and to re-recognize what we may be overlooking—through
fakes that closely resemble reality.