People

Seokkyung Han

(South Korea)

Before embarking on the production of a new work, I normally undertake a process I call ‘narrowing the distance’ that makes me familiarize myself with a specific place. During this process I visit the place and spend some time there. In so doing, I grow familiar with the place and gradually get to know the place through objects within it.

Then, I use these objects to tell the story of the place. I realize that my installation works basically tell stories about public spaces but these stories come from a very personal point of view and a subjective interpretation of it. In this sense, my works bear resemblance to a documentary work made from the first-person perspective of an observer.

In other words, my current works are created by choosing and researching a specific place and taking and re-contextualizing the objects within the place. To create a work, I have to dialogue with local people, sometimes in their language. By communicating with the locals, I get to understand the place from my own point of view.