[Sungsil Ryu] Critical Essay/ Sungah Choo

(Overwhelmingly) Swollen Lo-fi Desire (too early) to be Dead: between raw objects and relief

Sungah Choo

Online streamer Cherry Jang, president Dae Wang Lee, and Natasha, who has been handy for their businesses with her multifaceted talents, can be considered the three key figures of Sungsil Ryu's world. After Ryu intentionally killed Ms. Jang, whose business was flourishing and was highly regarded by a bunch of unspecific individuals, she carried out a live performance of Cherry's funeral (Goodbye Cherry Jang, 2020). However, she revived Cherry's act by having her enjoy greater glory in heaven and explicitly reveal her status. In addition, an ancestor's elevator pitch, which preaches that the ancestor is looking after his descendants and that they need to honor other ancestors with similar appearances as himself, highlights unceased endeavors of deceased individuals toward the next generations through the unique frivolous and resilient Confucian culture (Mr. Behind, 2022). In her recent piece on a companion dog's funeral, Ryu summons the subject of death once again against the backdrop of Dae Wang Lee and his entourage's growing ambition through the successful red ocean strategy of Lee's new business, Big King Pet Funeral Services. As such, the basic targets of the business operated by the main characters with secular desires are consumers that are not presented in the work, and at the same time, the targeted audience is ambiguous. As spectators of the piece, we are uncertain of their primary consumers. However, what is clear is that it penetrates human desires, which are based on somewhat comfort for emotionally unstable individuals and the nosiness of burning love. The by-products derived from the most common desires and anxiety and a form of desperation for one's passion would have business specificity inclined to unique bizarre creativity because they actually belong to surprisingly pure hearts.

BJ Cherry Jang 2018.9,

single channel video, 11 min,

2018

 
Ryu's work style of YouTube-style compact video composition and the interactive user interface format shifted to 8-bit video graphics (Never Ending Family, 2019) and rough low-resolution images, and relief layers (I'm Not Dead!, 2022) linked to and derived from her videos gradually began to cover them. Low-resolution images and crude relief coverings are the reminiscents of the K-consumption culture, like shallow on-the-spot signboards and careless layers of glossy veneer sheets covering previous signs. This would be portrayed as inaccurate errors of lo-fi, and at the same time, it would be considered as taking a more inclusive attitude toward the relationship with the general public, rather than interpreting the perfect value. As a result, it leaves possibilities in connection to being less complete, like the low-quality noise or statics of lo-fi with poor sound quality. Furthermore, flamboyant video images and surfaces and lumps of all sorts of harmful properties protruding from them became supporters of each other. The artificially colored urethane foam and pink insulation foam protruding through the gap like a group of individuals with the same overgrown ambition would turn a blind eye for each other, the artist's touch that weaved, molded, and painted the reproducible elements to materialize the texture of the object on the layers of surfaces is her sincerity that represents the desire of the majority. However, the physical shells and lumps that Ryu began to create reveal the existence of raw objects as heavy entities that hold on to gravity as seen above the institutional sphere, and they borrow Korean senses that rapidly volatilize and begin to expand to high-resolution relief screen pieces composed of lo-fi.
 
On the one hand, the growing mass of matter surrounding a flat and clear display serves as a device that holds the sensation which prevents it from melting over the flow of time. At this time, it plays like a purely compressive visual surplus within the segmented screens and the scenes where the roles of the characters are reproduced, rather than urgently exposing any deficiencies as if it needs to be filled with fiction. The artificial screen construction creates a strange tension between oddly disparate differences, and the boundary between image consumption and physical shells is expressed on the screen as compressed desires pretending to be relaxed. As this is supported by physical pillars of hopeful and tangible desires to be realized on top of reality, the possibility of will among high tensions is maximized. A sort of fusion of objects and data with relief shells attached in the front and back weaves socially activated functional aspects and commonly used and reemitted formats within flat screens into lump data, in other words, fragmented data. It also confirms that forms and textures are inseparable. This is the result of the artist's cynical view of the public toward the demands of viewers being reverted into physical properties such as lumps, structures, textures, and forms. If we look back, the continuous use of artificial wreaths from Ryu's earlier works, which were not intended as reliefs using the sculptural method, can be also considered as the starting point of the relief in her pieces. In particular, Ryu mentioned that an artificial wreath is, "an object that serves as a great shell.”Thus, it is flamboyant and cumbersome and a shallow object at the same time. It is a by-product emanating from innocence and earnestness.

Bigking Travel Ching Chen Tour - Mr. Kim's Revival 2019,

single channel video, 25 min,

2019

 
One of the unique flower businesses in Korean society, artificial wreaths are used for various occasions in Korea. The form consisting of multiple tiers and diverse shapes basically became unified into a universal design due to their specificity of transportation and installation requirements, and for a while, illegal reuse of them in order to maximize profits in the industry was a problematic issue. The intriguing point here is that a kitsch combination of the general form, color, and structure of wreaths used for events has become the most broadly accustomed norm for flower culture and that they are used for all death-related occasions. Ryu brought artificial wreaths to Cherry Jang's funeral and to the funeral of a dog named Princess and modified them. Through her nonchalant attitude toward the usage of seemingly insignificant objects that are merely just shells, she aims at bloated human desires which commercially tackled the most defenseless state of human beings facing death. In particular, the long wall (The Burning Love Song, 2022), which monumentally commemorates the dead entities to the extent that it is excessive, is like a portal on the border between this world and the underworld. The most practical and effective sheets are used to create realistic fake surfaces. How efficient is it? The ingenuity and frivolity devised in the funeral business with a high turnover rate are converted into efficiency, and you can get a glimpse of Ryu taking her absolute stance from the business owner's perspective. The unique one-time nature and lightness of imitations also emerged as the shell of Big King Travel, which proposes a filial piety package tour to Ching Chen. The sculpture of the Ching Chen landscape protruding (Ching-Chen, 2022) feels like a megalith vertical monument or a street sign for advertising.

I'm Not Dead!,

motor, mixed media, 150x200x280cm,

2019

 
Recent works that have absorbed raw objects and reliefs are equipped with materials themselves, printed glossy sheets, artificial grass, urethane foam, artificial wreaths, and lo-fi displays. Ryu's recent works are surprisingly blended in as a part of images on sheets. The scope has more skillfully expanded from images and video glitches to the physical properties of the medium. Her work style is extremely straightforward and brazen to grasp whether it is an error or not. Furthermore, just as the shameless attitude of Cherry Jang, Dae Wang Lee, and Natasha absorb the customer base, the K-consumption culture blew up, and the desires of both producers and consumers are represented by Ryu's physical gesture that seems to be able to embrace errors. The small desires longing for the days when all our small dreams would come true are gathered together and transformed into a massive snowball and became a part of an irreversible high-resolution image. It feels almost like a waste to kill the main characters just yet.

Sungah Choo (curator)
 
Sungah Choo is an independent curator, and she has directed many events and has been continuously writing. She has planned many exhibitions, including Taeyoon Choi's solo exhibition Garden.Local (Boan1942, 2022), Hyangro Yoon's solo exhibition Tagging (Cylinder/Hall1, 2022), Juree Kim's solo exhibitions 0Columns (TINC, 2022), The Prequelt (Platform-L, 2022), Ziggy Stardust (N/A, 2022), COLD PITCH (BB&M, 2022), Prime Monument (N/A, 2021), Bek Hyunjin: Public Hiding(隱身) (Royal X, 2021), The 8th Amado Planning Award Shadowland (Amado Art Space, 2021), The Snark: Suddenly Vanishing Away (Gallery2, 2021), The Whistler (Gallery ERD, 2020), Hyejin Jo's solo exhibition Shape, From the Side: Reading Documents (d/p,2019), Things: Sculptural Practice (Doosan Gallery, 2017), and Heejoon Lee's solo exhibition Interior nor Exterior: Prototype (KIGOJA, 2016). Furthermore, she was selected for Perigee Team Project 2022.