Public, Yet Profoundly Solitary: On the Work of Artist Sejin Song
Boseon Sim
The evolution of visual artists' work follows a unique trajectory compared to other artistic genres. For writers, shifts in thought lead to changes in theme and style. Yet, they continue to create through text, and the result remains in printed form. However, for visual artists, it is different. As their thinking shifts, so do the materials they work with, and the outcomes take on entirely new forms. Visual artists form unique relationships with different objects, and any changes in their creative approach involve new struggles and negotiations with these materials.
People often think of literature as “an expression of the writer’s thought”—as if their thoughts naturally flow into words. Of course, we would not expect a “thoughtless” writer to produce great work. Yet, what kind of “thought” are we talking about here?
In fact, this preconception extends to other forms of art. We tend to think of thought as something expressed through words, sounds, and images. However, contemporary visual art may be the most suitable art form to dispel this misconception. The materials and forms of contemporary visual art are intensely physical and so are their arrangements and combinations. The materials and forms of visual art are concrete because they are so highly tangible. Moreover, for the same reason—due to their limited connection to (immaterial) thought—they are more so abstract.
Nonetheless, artworks are connected to thought. In contemporary visual art, we learn that this relationship is not one-directional. Thought becomes concrete, shaped, and diversified through its relationship with materials. I once came across a line in Adrienne Rich’s poetry that says, “The first line calls the following line.” This idea can be applied to a single work and even an artist’s career. The artist contemplates within the limits and possibilities of the object they have created, and that contemplation, in turn, gives rise to the creation of yet another object's limits and possibilities. The interplay of thought and material within a work is like a Möbius strip, where cause and effect cannot be distinguished.
Sejin Song’s specialty is glasswork, so he understands the material properties of glass better than most. Craftwork is generally seen as the skill of making visually beautiful, yet functional objects by hand. Among its techniques, Song uses glassblowing. He links the unique physical quality of glass that creates and transforms its form through the process of filling or removing air to myths of masculinity or personal memories tied to the body.
There is undeniably a poetic dimension to his work. The material’s qualities catalyze thought, which, in turn, is expressed as it freely utilizes those qualities. I find Song’s glasswork deeply compelling. Moreover, this appeal would have been effortlessly conveyed when the work transitioned into an exhibition and further when the audience engaged with it.
However, Sejin Song seems to be shifting his focus more toward thought than material. Consequently, his artistic practice is taking a more discursive and socially engaged direction, which aligns with broader trends in contemporary art. In the non-commercial art scene, movements focused solely on individual style and personality—detached from current issues like neoliberalism, state violence, and climate change—tend to occupy a somewhat peripheral position.
Nevertheless, there is something unique about Song’s career. Typically, when an artist incorporates and expresses social discourse in their work, they tend to build networks to share or develop them into pieces. Furthermore, they often adopt collaborative strategies, such as forming collectives. However, in Song’s case, while his artistic world has evolved from craft to video and text, his approach seems to be growing more personal, except for technical support. This shift may stem from unavoidable experiences in his career. We once believed we had to unite for a common cause. Yet, we have learned through experience that such collectives can also become sources of new forms of violence.
The state violence that Sejin Song and many other Korean artists have had to endure brings the theme of collective memory into sharp focus. However, on the other hand, this collective memory is reshaped by another micro-level violence. I was very impressed with Song’s 2016 work Lip-Sync for Your Life. It features a drag queen’s lip-sync performance, set against the backdrop of a crowd dispersing after a presidential impeachment protest. This video captures an uncanny emotional response through the physical movements and expressions that arise from the paradoxical state of being both part of the crowd and apart from it.
Additionally, Song created a work based on his trip to Paengmok Harbor around the tenth anniversary of the Sewol ferry disaster. The journey was recorded and edited using a disposable film camera, and the medium’s unique characteristics lend the personal journey an intimate and poignant quality, connecting it to a collective memory. This approach contrasts sharply with the way social movements commemorate the Sewol ferry disaster. For me, Song’s recent video works are an intriguing and compelling example of how collective memory can be transformed into subtle poetics through the medium of video and its documentary strategies.
There is consistency in Sejin Song’s recent work. Through personal documentary and fictional video works, the artist explores how the micro and macro levels intersect, clash, and embrace as personal identity and life’s journey intertwine with collective memory and community. Song uses the terms foreground, middle ground, and background to describe this process. These terms effectively capture the dynamic interplay between micro-narratives/images and macro-history/symbol, and they could serve as keywords encapsulating his work.
However, in our conversations, Song described the challenges while transitioning to research-based work with the term expertise. As I understood it, his concern is that delving deeply into specific socio-political topics requires specialized knowledge and depth, and it was challenging for him to translate this into an artistic form.
Not being an expert in visual art myself, I cannot offer a specific artistic solution. However, it is worth revisiting the relationship between thought and material in his work. Artistic expression does not end at capturing and expressing thought through the arrangement and combination of objects. The arrangement and combination themselves are a form of thought, and it is precisely in challenging or countering social, conventional, or scientific ways of thinking that the unique strategy of art lies. In this respect, Sejin Song is already fully and persistently committed to this strategy.
In recent years, so-called social art, or research-based art, typically presents itself by documenting and reconfiguring the voices and testimonies of those directly involved in relevant issues or collecting and reorganizing extensive related materials. These strategies often rely on collaboration, connecting diverse specialized knowledge and skills to produce outcomes. However, I would not recommend this approach to the artist because what I have gathered about his character suggests that he is somewhat of a loner.
All artists live and work with uncertainty in one way or another. Sejin Song's particular uncertainty seems to arise when he attempts to address profoundly contemporary issues in an equally solitary manner. In my view, this has nothing to do with artistic ability, such as the capacity for contemplation or expertise. Hannah Arendt distinguishes between loneliness and solitude. According to her, loneliness refers to being separated from society and not having anyone to converse with. In contrast, solitude is the state of engaging in dialogue with an inner "other" even when alone, thus shaping oneself into a public presence. In this light, perhaps Sejin Song should embrace solitude even more. For him, encounters with others and with objects may ultimately circle back to a conversation with himself. This journey toward becoming a public presence inevitably involves an arduous struggle with uncertainty. That is because uncertainty is not something that can be resolved by intellect alone, but must be embraced and transcended through sheer will.
Boseon Sim(Professor)
Boseon Sim teaches and conducts research in art sociology and cultural mediation at the Graduate School of Communication and Arts, Yonsei University. He values learning through dialogue and collaboration with artists and continually reflects on the meaning of a life enriched by writing, making, and enjoyment.
