particular incidents are positioned all around the screen, taking
metaphorically capture the human being’s ceaseless pondering.
place simultaneously until at some point they come together
The artist has said that he is “very interested in structuring illusions
again within the overall rising action of the image, functioning
together with records of fact and the contemplative recollections
ultimately as one grand narrative. The use of sprawling panorama
surrounding human history, and in blurring polarized forms
views creates situations where the intimate relationship between
and states to create new historical, cultural, and philosophical
part and whole is ostensibly fully visible, yet its breadth exceeds
landscapes.” Indeed, the unfocused perspective within the crisp
what can be perceived in detail all at once by the human eye. The
video image and the anonymous situation, in which subject and
scenes each maintain a fragmentary story structure, scattered
object have become difficult to discern, lead the viewers’ gaze to
shardlike in their nonlinear deployment throughout the screen;
rove endlessly over the image’s surface.
each possesses an independent symbolic meaning, confounding the relationship between part and whole. Like an electronic
Lamentable yet sublime
display, a screen in the right corner of Operation Mole-Endgame
Etymologically, the word “panorama” comes from panhoran,
provides real-time commentary on the events happening through
meaning “everything is visible.” As if to underscore this, Choi
the video, highlighting this vague connectedness between part
Sung Rok makes active use of videos and media that are close to
and whole. Despite the high resolution of the images, the distance
reality -- that capture reality itself -- yet constantly questions the
created by the panorama views makes it impossible to perceive the
issues of experience and perception that arise as a result. In an age
parts precisely, resulting ultimately in a situation where the whole
when information produced through advanced digital imaging
cannot be clearly understood. In this, it echoes the intentions of the
technology is quickly reaching the realm of excess, what does the
work, which alludes metaphorically to a tragic conclusion: despite
human being gain and lose, enjoy and dread? Interestingly, while
advancements in their social systems and mechanical civilization,
the artist speaks of a reality in which we repeatedly encounter
humankind will not be saved, but will face times of catastrophe due
memories and experiences of the real world -- and a loss of
to the destruction of nature and loss of humanity.
subjectivity -- within today’s digital image culture, he never lets go of his playful attitude and perspective toward a technological
In contrast, the A Man with a Flying Camera and I Will Drone
civilization that never stops racing forward. Even as he revels in
You series uses drones to maintain a certain height as they take
hopes for the arrival of a never-before-experienced world of digital
aerial photographs of the artist himself. While the backdrops and
images and the sensory joys that it will bring, he also trenchantly
figures in the video call to mind the digitally simulated spaces
analyzes the senses that are lost or degraded within it, and our
and imaginary characters of a computer game, the space is one
rapidly changing systems of perception. In a sense, this may be
that actually exists, and the figure is the artist, a living, breathing
a way in which the sublime and rapturous experiences of the
human being. The drone itself is never directly shown in the image;
technologically granted playfulness and imagery in his work can
with its surveilling perspective from a defined location, it is merely
coexist with his examination of our ongoing loss of judgment.
posited as an unseen entity, a kind of phantom. In the process the artist repeatedly transposes the position and meaning of the agent at the blurred boundary between virtual and real space, 10
11