Vanguard Gallery is pleased to present “When Tigers Used to Smoke”, a solo project by Kelvin Kyung Kun Park, at Liste Art Fair Basel 2022, booth No. 17. “When Tigers used to Smoke” consists of digitally processed video images of wild animals shot in the local zoo conveying loneliness and alienation, which aims to examine the threshold between nature and civilization.
When Tigers Used to Smoke HD video, color ｜ 6’50” | 2021
The Lion in Motion HD video, color｜7’00” ｜2021
Civilization was intended to protect people from nature. However civilization sometimes oppresses human being by robbing their own innate animal instincts. Commercial images of animals work within the frame of anthropomorphism to humanize animals, while in the urban context humans also evolve into beasts driven by desire and ambition. In this series the footage of the beats shot in the local zoo is superimposed by graphics of color and light data from a waveform monitor to create a simultaneous vision of impression and information, which simulates and upgrades the communication system among mammals including humans; while in “Tiger Wolf” a figure wanders around the empty streets of the central business district of Seoul during the pandemic, just as a trapped animal. “When Tigers Used to Smoke” allows the viewer to see the dismantled, fluid, and even dislocated living beings in action, thereby to re-imagine humanity in that context, and to re-examine human beings’ position in civilization and nature.
Tiger Wolf 4K video｜7’18’’｜2022
DOWNLOAD PDF: Kelvin Kyung Kun Park Works Info – Liste Basel 2022 – Vanguard Gallery
About the Artist
Kelvin Kyung Kun Park was born in 1978 in Seoul, Korea where he currently lives and works. His recent solo exhibitions include: “When Tigers Used to Smoke”, OCAT Shanghai, Shanghai, China (2022); “Medium Rare”, Sahnggup Gallery, Seoul, Korea (2020); “Double Mirror”, Shanghai Museum of Glass, Shanghai, China (2019); “A Dream of Iron”, Sin Ricoh Gallery, Seoul, Korea (2016); “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea (2016); ARTSPECTRUM 2016, Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea (2016); “Intuitive Landscape”, Arario Gallery, Seoul, Korea (2016). He also attended the following group exhibitions: “A place for Concealment”, Korean Cultural Center, Shanghai, China (2021); “A.I., Sunshine Misses Windows” – Daejeon Biennale 2020, Daejeon, Korea (2020); “Moment of Monument”, Choi and Lager Gallery, Cologne, Germany (2020); Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism “Collective City”, Seoul, Korea (2019); Busan Biennale 2018, Korea (2018); “Brilliant Memories”, Buk Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea (2016); “Korea: 70th Anniversary of Liberation”, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea (2016); “Resonating Triangle”, ARARIO Museum, JEJU, Korea (2016); “Obejectology II: Make, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art”, Seoul, Korea (2016)
