[Ahn Kwanghwee] Critical Essay/ Seojin Yim

Space for the “Minority”

Seojin Yim

Hip-hop music, meme, and ASCII art are elements that have been closely analyzed in the writings about Kwanghwee Ahn's work. They are genres or forms that are popularly familiar and they appear as the fundamental part of the artist’s work. In the music video, the language and image linked to the rap recited by the artist are put together in a distinctive manner. While this method of editing follows a normalized way of constructing audiovisual objects in the Internet era, it also constitutes the unique facade of his works. At the end of some of his music videos, the sources of the beats, images, and GIFs are specified, indicating that the work is an outcome of remixing various existing materials.

Ahn's reuse of the beat using DJing, mashup, and sampling as a methodology feels like a natural choice, considering that hip hop music at its early stage had not faced too many restrictions in relation to the notion of the author and originality. The term ‘remix,’ which encompasses the aforementioned methodology, began to spread as it was widely used in the field of popular music, and it is also an early distinct feature of hip hop and Internet visual culture, which are two main subjects linked to the artist's works. Today, the meaning of ‘remix’ goes beyond the scope of a simple technical method and it has been extended to indicate ‘remix culture,’ which is a term associated with a series of social movements that supports free reading and processing of information. The implications of ‘remix culture’ now have become prevalent to the extent that it constitutes today’s way of life that, in turn, establishes a dominant aesthetic in almost all areas. Using emojis, memojis, and GIFs that move brilliantly in sync with the music, Ahn utilizes the visual materials that we frequently encounter in our day-to-day technological environments. These characteristics may be reduced to familiarity, but his work may be viewed as an unexaggerated diagnosis and reenactment of today's visual environment.

Lenticular,

Lenticular, 130x90cm,

2022

Culture is bound to be gradually institutionalized, and distortion of initial intentions occurs after the institutionalization. Nowadays, highly commercialized hip hop music and its culture are consumed as images of gangster black men or hypersexualized black women. The use of watermarks and paywalls is spreading in the Internet environment. These are systems that are devised to accelerate the money-making in virtual spaces and they are becoming more intricate day by day. We must remember the starting point of both hip hop music and the Internet, and the fact that they have expanded their influence by advocating unrestricted access and exchange of given resources. Procedures to limit these early ideals have become structural and institutional practices, and the respective culture in two areas, hip hop and the Internet, is also taking such steps. Then, why is the artist exploring the two realms as the main devices of his work?

The answer is in the question just asked. Hip hop culture functions as a metaphor for the ideal worldview that Ahn wishes to introduce. Among them, block parties, which the artist mainly mentions, are symbolic to provide the spatial context of hip hop culture. Block parties were held mainly in Harlem and the Bronx area, where African-American populations are concentrated, and they were festivals where neighbors of all ages could participate in. Hip hop music was first born in the form of live performances, such as gatherings in the streets or empty lots playing music on turntables and break dancing to the music. The scenery of a block party, which would have been full of people dancing and talking, was different from the image of a slum that we easily think of in connection with the Harlem area. Ahn's interest in block parties lies in the power of transforming a place from a space of poverty to a space of connection, and from a space of individual isolation to a space of community. Regarding the effect of the power, the artist has expressed that,“Black people in Harlem have become awakened as a political group.”This is an interpretation mindful of the institutional function and ideal possibility of a block party that could form communities and groups. With such a point of view, for the artist, each of his exhibitions has the same meaning as an invitation to a block party.

Infinite Tagging,

Single-channel video(color), Loop,

2022

In his work titled The Pathetic Studio of The Pathetic Label (2022) presented at the Seoul Art Space Geumcheon (SASG) Open Studio in 2022, Ahn introduces a new system. He adopts the system of a label studio like he did previously with that of a block party. The project is to create a studio or a hideout space of a label consisting of three virtual members. In this space, a computer station where you can enjoy Ahn's rap music, graffiti, lenticular goods printed with lyrics, and a large portrait of the three virtual members are displayed—some on the wall, some on the floor. Given that this office space constructed by the artist is a space that accommodates relatively homogeneous members, instead of randomly gathered people, the demographic of the potential invitees to this space is more specific and straightforward than block parties. In other words, the setting of the label studio is a condition that increases the specificity of the entity who may become a part of the community. These settings half close the space that was open indefinitely when the exhibition space was set as a space corresponding to a block party. This measure could also be interpreted as a minimum device to be able to call on the industry and the group that share similar tastes or interests in a more direct manner.

Considering the physical space of the SASG, instead of the virtual setting of the label studio, this is a space where only the art professionals such as artists, curators, critics, and administrators would gather with a high probability. Moreover, visitors during the open studio period may belong to a narrower demographic due to the additional filter of being an affiliate or an acquaintance of an affiliate. The artist's word that this narrower group of people may be called a “minority group” makes us look at the group from a completely different perspective. This is comparable to the implication about a smaller group that often paints a picture in our mind of a privileged group. Ahn wants to evoke a collective experience within this spatial bracket where you are viewing the exhibition and reading the text, even though he knows that the identity of an artist is a difficult condition to be bounded within a single scope.

Lenticular,

2-channel video projection (color, 5-channel sound), 2min 12sec,

2022

In addition to promoting collective awakenings, the block party played a role in liberating the individual from the tension that fills a racialized space. Then, could Ahn’s invitation of the “minority”—artists or art professionals—to the virtual studio space also lead to liberating a group of people? If so, what could they be liberated from? What could be possible beyond the sense of liberation and efficacy that result from occupying a space? In order to proceed to the next step, it is necessary to turn our attention to the lyrics of the music created by the artist. His music already exists in all public realms that he was able to find, including exhibitions, catalogues, and online platforms. 

Seojin Yim (independent curator)
Seojin Yim is based in Seoul, and she curates and translates. She majored in art history at New York University (NYU) and earned a master's degree in art management at Seoul National University (SNU) with an art theory thesis that examines the change in the status of art museums as a public domain. She has experienced the art scene as she worked at the Arko Art Center, the Hyundai Motor Group's ZER01NE, and Lehman Maupin and curated the exhibition Public Vision (2021). Currently, she is investigating her interests in the way how visual and linguistic fragments travel across different cultures in the contemporary art field.