My visual art practice considers ideas in the manner of dismantling and reconstructing the ruling order observed in a minutely tuned society history. I talk in such a way as to expose the historical and political issues of the society starting from the firing points of trivial personal experiences. Within the works, I stand as someone witnessing and concurrently caught up in the battle between the internal patriarchy and the external or social patriarchy. My works are realized in various presentations such as film, performance, object, sound, and photography.
Cave Nr 41
Whisper - 2022-ongoing, film, black & white
303
Vivid fears - 2019, video, monitor, 4min 37sec
'Vivid fears' In an online community , I met Japanese women who talked about the fear and pressure of their excretion sound . Anxiety among women of various ages , from teenagers to the elderly , was a very specific and commen life . I wanted to give a hint that this reality , which exists as a natural fear , is a bit strange .
Blue Ocean - 2020, Film, 18min 53sec, with installation. In the film Blue Ocean, Goeun Bae deals with the personal disaster of a recurring leakage in her social housing apartment in the Bijlmer district. She consciously creates a personal memory of this place, as an 'excavation of the future history of the Bijlmer'. In the work, Bae is an explorer, a witness, and a dancer. She takes on the roles of exploring the past of the Bijlmer, examining its current status, and previewing its future. In a poetic way, she connects a recurring daily experience to issues and topics such as housing policy, migration, gentrification, and architecture. She also uses a method of excavating and predicting the structure of time, as this structure is intertwined with urban space and history. Humor and tragedy go hand in hand as the artist takes picnics in Amsterdam with a portable ocean made from the leaked water.
Animal Forum - 2019-2020, Performance and workshop, 30min+40min.
Concept, Director, Script, Visual, Choreography: Goeun Bae
"Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art " by Mao Zedong
Performers (Kung Fu Master):王晓雷, 杨丹妮, 陈聪 Voice Performer:张馨云, Percussionist:高宇阳
Location: Goethe Institut Beijing.
I conducted an animal fairy tale performance. I wrote a script that follows the structure of "Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art " by Mao Zedong and borrowing the tone of the communistic speech, implies political stances with a twist of fairy imagination. The animals gather and attend a forum about how they can express themselves, communicate with each other through voting, and accept their diversity. Professional martial artists who specialize in animal-shaped martial arts play as performers. Live narration leads the story of the performance, accompanied by live percussion music. I conducted performances and workshops for children together in Beijing. During the exhibition, The origami sculptures were installed at Goethe Institute Library.
Gentle tracking - 2019, 6 drawings, the ancient senryu poem, mixed media. Based on the ancient senryu poem of Japan, this research drawing follows the historical, economic, political, and social traces of patriarchy involved in excretion. This research drawing follows that the dread and loathing for the excretory sounds forced on women since the 18th century Edo period persists to this day
Intelligence operation - 2019, performance video, 23min 03sec.
Through the toilet sound device called Otohime, which was invented to hide the excrement sounds of women, I expose about the structural patriarchal system such as the historical, economic and psychological pressures in the Japanese society.
I gave guerrilla performances in public places for three days, dancing to the music made of my excretory sounds and played on a portable Otohime. I collected the portable keyring Otohimes and loaded it with music made with excretion sound, which is a way to rebel against the very function of Otohime made to mask female excretion sound. With the strategy of masking excretion sound with my excretion sound, I am rather exposing the sound of excretion.
Sunday’s practice - 2017, site-specific performance, monitor,5 hour 46min, Based on the characteristics of the region in which I live and build relations, I carried out a site-specific performance using the materials provided by my neighbors in the Bijlmer. Materials discarded in the garbage area for a week until the day before the garbage truck comes for collection become objects for my self-improvised performance. My installations made at the dump site be left behind to be removed by the collection vehicle. The trash installations are not preserved as art object, but the works of art exist through my actions and attitude. Also, the neighbors became my material providers, participants, and audience
Betrayal series - Betrayal I HD, 3min49sec ,Betrayal II HD, 7min58sec, Betrayal III HD, 3min39sec
This project explores the psychological conflict between the resisting and the evading in connection to my personal memory after reading the news reports on numerous suppression of demonstrations happening in Korea. I felt the need to train myself in order to understand the unreasonable social structural problems and the patriarchal consciousness. So, after assuming the role of one of the demonstrators, I began by asking the questions; can I open my eyes; can I see properly; can I withstand. These may be dismissed as trivial or unnecessary behavior, and yet, they demonstrate the attitude for not ending the resistance. The training was carried out in the form of self-torture by having to confront running water, strong wind, hot ice, and burning flame. This project moves beyond the simple visual domain
