Curated by Stéphanie Jeanjean, Ph.D.

  • Exhibition Dates: May 28 – June 11, 2022 
  • Venue: AHL Foundation, Inc. 
  • 2605 Frederick Douglass Blvd., New York, NY 10030
  • Opening Reception: Saturday, May 28, 3-6 pm
  • Heehyun Choi | Gyun Hur | Dohee Lee | Yozmit

New York, NY – AHL Foundation, a non-profit organization supporting contemporary artists of Korean descent, is proud to announce the opening of its 3rd annual Artist Fellowship Exhibition: When Attitudes Become Positions, featuring the 2021yr Artist Fellowship recipients Heehyun Choi, Gyun Hur, Dohee Lee, and Yozmit. 

 

The jurors for this year’s artist fellowship were Stéphanie Jeanjean, Ph.D. (Adjunct Assistant Professor, Cooper Union and Sotheby’s Institute of Art), Sara Raza (International Curator & Writer / Founder and Director, Studio Punk Orientalism), and Lumi Tan (Senior Curator, The Kitchen). 

The exhibition, curated by Head Juror Stéphanie Jeanjean, took inspiration from the 1969 canonical exhibition by Harald Szeemann—When Attitudes Become Forms: Live in Your Head—at Kunsthalle Bern in Germany, which first crystalized a selection of artistic practices that formed Conceptual Art. When Attitudes Become Positions similarly starts from the understanding that materializations of art as objects have grown into becoming attitudes. The exhibition proposes that these attitudes not only materialize as formal visualizations of themselves, but also present a position: individual, social, and political.

 

 

About the Artists

Dohee Lee (Oakland, CA) presents an impressive and mature multi-media practice that develops in installation, music, dance, and performance and ties traditional customs found in Muism or Mu shamanism (which is traced back to at least 1,000 BCE) to today’s concerns and realities. Her artistic performances often function as healing practices that address traumas found in the recent past and in the wounds that humanity has inflicted onto the world. For example, in Shamanic Ritual Upon Desecrated Land (2019), she is pointing out the US military exploitation and environmental impact on Jeju Island in South Korea, or in Ritual for Theresa Cha (2019)—her New York’ street performance and homage to artist and writer Theresa Hak Kyung Cha—Dohee Lee acts on the location of Cha’s brutal rape and murder in 1982. In addition, Dohee Lee has worked on community-based projects to propose shared experiences amongst groups of participants, who develop gestures and behaviors of care, memory, and restoration collectively. 

Gyun Hur (Brooklyn, NY) is an installation and performance-based artist communicating about her diasporic experience. She proposes solid soothing but energetic horizontal floor structures using combinations of formal motives (color, shapes, materials, and textures or effects), which are inspired by her traditional Korean heritage along with childhood memories of mourning rituals, often associating river water with beneficial outcomes involving rejoicing, negotiating loss, and dealing with personal trauma. She creates private and introspective spaces made public and often uses them to perform and connect with herself, her audience, and others, using her body, her gestures, her physical touch, and the sound of her voice to capture attention and fight isolation. Gyun Hur’s titles then function as sentences providing the subtexts that communicate her intentions and her expectations: “So we can be near” (2021), “I wouldn’t know any other way” and “To hold gently” (2020). 

Heehyun Choi (Stevenson Ranch, CA) is a promising artist proposing a type of screen tests in the form of structural and conceptual short video works that reappropriate, document, and reflect on the technological and visual developments of the history of video and film. At the time of AI (Artificial Intelligence), VR (Virtual Reality), AR (Augmented Reality), as well as of social media, Heeyun Choi focuses on revealing how real, special, and virtual effects have been constructed over time and are being embedded in our daily life—in real, digital, and virtual experiences. Using a variety of film and video formats—16mm, analog videotapes, digital video, projections, and computer screen recordings, etc.—that visually refer to other styles or ages of images, she constitutes a visual archive of nostalgic references, while peeling off the processes of construction and illusion commonly used in the moving image. Finally, Heeyun Choi adds layers of criticism in her work that did not exist in her references originally.

Yozmit (Carson, CA) is a multi-talented trans-identified visual artist, designer, singer, songwriter, and performer whose work focuses on overcoming the strict restrictions associated with gender identity, role, and appearance, and finding liberation in self-expression. In 2015, Yozmit launched the art campaign *DoYou* to affirm the power of transformation and promote self-expression by curating her own music, fashion, and performance. As Yozmit states: “DoYou is my artistic mantra to shift power from external conformity to internal realization.” Yozmit commonly performs under her chosen name and alter ego Yozmit The DogStar, meaning “myth about one’s self”, and proposes elaborate forms of futuristic spectacles such as singing performances, music videos, or fashion photography, also displaying the artist’s wearable art. In order to overcome transphobia and other forms of gender discrimination, Yozmit The DogStar embodies plural identities that not only explore non-binary forms of existences, but also attempts to neutralize or restore a balance between feminine and masculine forms. This is most exemplar in Yozmit’s genderless impersonations of bodhisattvas of compassion.

 

About The Curator

Stéphanie Jeanjean is an art historian, educator, translator, and independent curator. She received her M.A. in Art History from Bourgogne University in Dijon (focusing on contemporary art) and completed a Ph.D. in Art History at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York (focusing on early video and militant art in France). She currently teaches Art History at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and for the Master programs at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York. She is also a regular lecturer at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and for Smithsonian Journeys in Europe. 

 

About The AHL Foundation Artist Fellowship

Established in 2019, the AHL Foundation Artist Fellowship is awarded to mid-career contemporary artists of Korean descent in support of their creative endeavors during key moments in their artistic and professional development. Four selected fellows receive a grant of $5,000 and the opportunity to showcase their work in a group exhibition in New York.

The AHL Foundation Artist Fellowship was made possible thanks to a generous contribution from the Dow Kim Family Foundation, a non-profit organization engaged in philanthropic activities in areas of education, social services, and arts & culture with a primary focus to help better and empower the lives of underserved and under-resourced Korean Americans.

 

For media inquiries, please contact:  Katie Yook katieyook@ahlfoundation.org | Jiyoung Lee jlee@ahlfoundation.org 

Images:

  • Dohee Lee, Sanamgut 사남굿, photo by Jino Han, 2018-19
  • Gyun Hur, Composition of us and the river – “liken it to the dance”, casted glass and river water, 2021
  • Heehyun Choi, This Isn’t What it Appears (이것은 보이는 것과 다르다), super8, color, sound, 18 min., 2022
  • Yozmit, Performance at Avalon Hollywood for Cartoon TV Network, 2019

 

한국어

알재단, 2021년도 아티스트 펠로우십

수상작가전 개최

When Attitudes Become Positions

(태도가 입장이 될 때)

● 전시 기간: 2022년 5월 28일(토) – 6월 11일(토)
● 운영 시간: 수-토 오후 12-6시
● 장소: 알재단 갤러리(2605 Frederick Douglass Blvd. New York NY 10030)
● 기획: 스테파니 진진
● 참여 작가: 요즈밋, 이도희, 최희현, 허견
● 오프닝 리셉션: 2022년 5월 28일(토) 오후 3-6시

비영리 한인 미술인 지원 단체 알재단 (AHL Foundation, 대표 이숙녀)이 2021년도 아티스트 펠로우쉽 수상 작가전을 오는 5월 28일(토)에 알재단 갤러리(2605 Frederick Douglass Blvd. New York NY 10030)에서 개최한다. 다우김 재단 (Dow Kim Family Foundation)의 후원으로 운영 되는 본 프로그램과 전시는 심사 위원이자 교육자, 독립 큐레이터인 스테파니 진진(Stéphanie Jeanjean, Ph.D.)이 기획하였으며, 아티스트 펠로우로 선정 된 요즈밋, 이도희, 최희현, 허견 씨가 작가로 참여한다.

본 전시 ‘태도가 입장이 될 때 (When Attitudes Become Positions) 는 하랄트 제만(Harald Szeemann)의 1969년 독일에서 열렸던 상징적인 전시 ‘태도가 형식이 될때 (When Attitudes Become Forms)’ 에서 영감을 받아 기획 되었다. 전시는 오브제로서 구체화 된 예술이 태도로서 확장해간다는 생각에서 출발한다. 또한 전시는 예술 작업이 형상화 된 시각적 존재로서 존재할 뿐만 아니라, 개인, 사회, 정치적 입장을 표현한다는 것을 암시한다. 전시를 통해 관객은 퍼포먼스, 비디오, 설치 등 멀티미디어로 작업을 하는 4인이 어떻게 오브제를 통해 자신의 입장을 나타내는지 확인 할 수 있다.

‘요즈밋(Yozmit) The DogStar’는, 두개의 영혼(Two-spirit)/트랜스젠더 싱어송라이터, 퍼포먼스 아티스트이자 디자이너이다. 요즈밋은 패션 디자이너로서 커리어를 시작하였으며, K-POP 스타가 되려 시도하다 그의 성 정체성에 대한 대중의 편견 때문에 그 꿈을 이루지 못한 좌절감을 극복한 후 퍼포먼스 아티스트로 거듭났다. 캘리포니아로 이주한 후, 요즈밋은 음악/패션/퍼포먼스 아트 캠페인인 *DoYou*(*자신을 이루라*)라고 하는 이름 아래 작품 활동을 시작했다. 자신의 명성을 상품화시키는 현대 팝 스타와는 달리 DogStar는 성별과 정체성을 둘러싼 불평등, 편견, 소외로부터의 해방을 위하여 예술을 수행의 도구로 써 실천한다.

이도희는 타악 연주, 춤, 설치예술과 소리에 대한 다양한 기교를 몰입감 있는 의식화된 제례 작품으로 창작해낸다. 한국 제주도에서 태어난 이도희는 한국 샤머니즘에 뿌리를 둔 음악과 춤을 공부하였다. 2002년 캘리포니아 오클랜드로 이주, 이 후 Kronos Quartet, Anna Halprin, inkBoat, Degenerate Art Ensemble 등과 협력하여 전통 및 현대 예술 작업을 해왔다. 이도희는 작업을 통해 공연과 설치의 신화적, 실험적, 의례적, 역사적, 치유적 측면을 강조하여, 이를 통해 정체성, 자연, 영성 및 정치적 사이의 새로운 관계를 촉진하고자 한다.

최희현은 로스앤젤레스와 서울을 기반으로 실험영화를 만든다. 영화 형식에 대한 구조주의적 탐구를 통해 이미지의 물질성과 가상성을 다루는 것에 관심이 있다. 캘리포니아 인스티튜트 오브 더 아츠 (CalArts) 필름앤비디오 석사과정을 졸업했다. 서울독립영화제, 인디포럼, 서울 국제 대안영상예술 페스티벌 (네마프), 에딘버러국제영화제, 어니언시티실험영화제 등의 영화제에서 상영하였다.

허견은 이민 1.5세로서의 경험과 정체성을 바탕으로 설치, 퍼포먼스, 글, 콜라보레이션 등이 접목된 순수 미술 작업을 하고 있다. 13살의 나이에 가족과 함께 한국에서 아틀란타로 이민을 했으며, 지금은 브루클린 을 기반으로 작업을 하고 있으며, 파슨스 디자인 대학의 교수로도 재임 중이다. 스토브 레지던시, 브랑스 에임 펠로우십, 단스 스페이스 작가 레지던시 등을 최근 참여했으며, 허전스 프라이즈, 아테디아 등 다수의 상을 수상한 바 있다.