‘Wetting Your Whistles’
With works by Cho Beom-Seok, Jaiwon Choi, Boma Pak, Rondi Park, Seohyun Sue Park, Sun Woo & Muyeong Kim
Art Sonje Center, Seoul
11 May 2023
Social ties are established while drinking, people communicate and interact. The choice of drinks thereby also defines the relation of the participants among each other, while the rituals connected to them force the structure of the way of being together. The artists of this two hour long exhibition conceived and appropriated a variety of drinks, respectively formulated instructions on how to use them. What normally accompanies the communication, becomes the subject matter in this participative exhibition. In the tradition of relational aesthetics it transforms a conversation piece into a social sculpture – and the other way around.
With the work ‘Hey, it's not just a glass of water.’, Cho Beom-Seok (*1986) offered a variety of different still waters to drink, while posing questions to visitors and documenting the situation at Art Sonje Center's rooftop with his camera. At the table of Jaiwon Choi (*1996), one could taste a drink including flowers and herbs from the mountains. Boma Pak (*1988) recreated a piece that she first did in Bremen in 2011. During a night walk there, she perceived the water of a river as not flowing in the darkness, thus also as a magical moment of a halting of time. She transformed this experience into ‘Blackwater’, a mixture of red wine, green and blue food colourings, that was drunk by people during the event in the evening and ‘ended in the ocean at night’. With ‘Though I won't be present’ by Rondi Park (*1993), she provided one with ‘a small ritual personalised for you and your independent taste’, consisting of an instruction, incense to burn and stick in a rice bowl, wafer to eat and wine to drink. ‘My body and blood will fuel you, stimulate you, hopefully refresh you to want more’, she stated, though she wasn't present. A fish gall bladder soju shot from a variety of fresh water and salt water fishes was served by Seohyun Sue Park (*1992). Her father introduced her to this drink, who always encouraged her to consume raw foods. Rich in vitamin A, allegedly good for digestion, skin, stamina, and against both aging and hangovers, the artist drew a parallel between a traditional healing beverage and a current trend for functional drinks: ‘Drink your gallbladder, get drunk, get promoted, live forever.’ Sun Woo (*1994) and Muyeong Kim (*1995) served something to drink and something to lick, accompanied by a reading of ‘Two or three let-offs’ by Kim, before the sun slowly went down.
