Cold Green Base is an exhibition that explores the bodies of human and non-human beings based on the deep sea. Artist Ahree Song displays her performative sculptures that reflect her ideas and experiences related to the transformed body. She mainly uses transparent materials to represent the material-semiotic notion and metaphorically indicate anti-purity. This exhibition consists of sculptures of plants living in the deep sea that Ahree created based on her artistic imagination and performances representing the movements of these plants. Sculptures of eight species of plants rooting in the SeMA Bunker, an artist specializing in arts, and a dancer specializing in modern dance connect with others based on their bodies and repeatedly perform synthesis and replacement. Cold Green Animal (2022) indicates sculptures that Ahree created by inserting seawater that she collected in brick-shape molds, freezing the inserted seawater to fill the molds with ice, and wrapping the surfaces with transparent tape. When the frozen seawater, which is the main material for the sculptures, melts and drains out of the bodies, these rectangular shells do not contain ice that filled them and eventually reveal numerous traces of things, such as floating matters, salt particles, and water. Cold Green Plant (2022) indicates performances that display dynamic aspects of plants, which move intensely with strong instincts for survival, in an enlarged way. Two performers imitate plants’ movements in the deep sea by wearing wearable sculptures in dark green color, like seaweed. They move as sculptures and can be in a stationary state only temporarily. They swim in the SeMA Bunker while being constantly restructured and expanded. Swimming of performers reflects the process of contemplating the interface of binary oppositions, such as that between human beings and nature, machines and organisms, materials and non-materials, and purebred and hybrid, and learning their survival strategies. In Cold Green Base, the body transformed into a plant embodies the world of innumerable layers where we can witness different beings and obtain symbols based on various knowledge systems and practices without being restrained to the rule of time.
○ Programs associated with the exhibition
Cold Green Plant (2022), a performance conducted by artist Ahree Song and dancer Minjin Lee, is held for 30 minutes at 14:00 every Saturday and Sunday.
14:00 on August 20 (Sat)
14:00 on August 21 (Sun)
14:00 on August 27 (Sat)
14:00 on August 28 (Sun)
14:00 on September 3 (Sat)
14:00 on September 4 (Sun)
Viewing point
Artist Ahree Song has focused on the notion of the transformed body to analyze a relationship between different beings that free themselves from the skin of the body and yearn for a different world. She has constantly conducted experiments on contemplating the interface of binary oppositions, (e.g., between human beings and nature, machines and organisms, materials and non-materials, and purebred and hybrid) and learning their survival strategies. Her work has been included in numerous exhibitions, including those at the Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati (2019); Arnot Art Museum, New York (2019); Windmill, Seoul (2022); AlterSide, Seoul (2022).
