I. Space and Memory

House and Paradise ZIP

There are certain memories that accompany certain places. They could be memories of something that happened in the place, or memories of something that happened in a similar place. Each memory is subjectively saved within each individual, is reconstructed, restored and replayed in different images according to each circumstance. Such memories are thus not the reality, but are relative, as time and space are. Buhm Hong works with such memories of specific places. He employs various media of video, installation, and drawing to express the process, form, and methodology of storing, reconstructing, and remembering the memories of a specific space he spent his childhood in, the childhood home. In the fixation of the fragmented childhood memories and in portraying as art the process of reproducing the memories, the artist does not depict the contents of memories in detail, but rather designates a certain structure that defines the memory process and focuses on the process of how the memories affect the individual, consequently seeking to demonstrate how each memory is reproduced.

Paradise ZIP, embracing the aura of eight decades, was also a home of such memories for someone. Today, only the basic structure of the building is left and the house now serves a different purpose with a new face. Only the traces of time and memories are left behind. The artist’s past memories, now expressed as artworks, are newly applied to the present space of Paradise ZIP, which used to be someone else’s home. The past and the present thus intersect.

II. Old Exterior

The exterior of places has long been disregarded.

The title of the exhibition, “Old Exterior”, first addresses the façade of spaces. The physical face of a space is the crucial clue and information for triggering related memories, and is the structure that allows the memories to linger in the consciousness. The façade serves as the link that stimulates reminiscences of experiences in different spaces as well, and the recognition of space connected in this manner is extended into interaction between the hearts of spaces.

The title also addresses the manner in which individuals evade, hesitate to face, and become indifferent to such spaces. The certain space that occupies the majority of one’s memories of childhood often feels so familiar that one is inclined to deem it will forever be there, which leads to ignoring and forgetting it. When one realizes that the space is no longer there, a sense of great loss sweeps over. The exhibition speaks of the unintended disregard for the spaces that exist only in memories, and the spaces that have long been ignored.