Currently, equality has officially settled all around us, but humans are unofficially still divided according to race, gender, and class, instead of being treated as just the ‘individuals’ they are. As Nirmal Puwar explains, “There is a connection between bodies and space, which is built, repeated and contested over time. While all can, in theory, enter, it is certain types of bodies that are tacitly designated as being the ‘natural’ occupants of specific positions. Some bodies are deemed as having the right to belong, while others are marked out as trespassers, who are, in accordance with how both spaces and bodies are imagined (politically, historically and conceptually), circumscribed as being ‘out of place’,’ till this day, we have never been equal. 

 

We cannot deny the fact that raced bodies are automatically classified, placed within a hierarchy, the moment they enter a certain space. Due to their distinctive bodies, they cannot escape ‘being treated as children’ and ‘excessive surveillance.’ So, in order to hide their very visible bodies within that space, they had to portray a sense of exaggerated confidence and competence. 

 

Out of various methods of hiding their bodies that are treated as such, some choose to wear designer clothes, an effective method to escape from the classification within a short period of time. If so, in contrast to this, what is a body that is invisible?

 

An unracialized body that becomes the inconspicuous standard? On this land, a very natural occupant is a body that is not described as a person of color. The key factor in becoming this general body is ‘the ability to be inconspicuous’ and that inconspicuousness allows for the body itself to have that power and that becomes the general tool of power. Today, we survive another day of living as fish out of water, within a certain space, as bodies that have been unable to be included within that power. 

 

It is time that we wake from the fantasy that we are all equal and that race, gender and the color of skin will not bring about discrimination. This fantasized community is dressed as a period where there is no racial discrimination and where only racial conflict exists but actually, although racial discrimination is no longer explicitly apparent or officially supported, that makes it even more ‘silent,’ thus even harder to become aware of it and name it. Are we not silently acting in accordance with this silent phenomenon? 

 

In ‘Eichmann in Jerusalem,’ Hannah Arendt emphasizes that all those who live as a ‘thought-less’ person is capable of committing evil in certain situations and is this not us choosing the life of ‘an absence of thought (thoughtlessness)’ under this phenomenon and feeling a sense of peacefulness? 

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In 2020, as a new virus suddenly appeared and spread rapidly, people expressed their once-inconspicuous thinking explicitly in a very short period of time and even turned violent collectively. Racial discrimination turned into racial hatred, stabbing at each other, and the crack between the insider and the outsider widened even further. We both learned of the speed at which we pushed the other away at first sight of fear, our pitiful present state was revealed, and we were reminded once again of how fabricated the community we trusted was. Trying to go beyond the existing boundaries of common sense is a very difficult attempt. 

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Despite all this, outsiders were able to situate themselves within that space as a familiar alien by changing their permanent, external, bodily features, their gestures, form of language, and value system. Topics of race, gender, the intersectionality of class have all been commonly dealt with, but I believe that it is now time to investigate deeper into the complicated process of becoming an outsider and an insider at the same time. 

 

In order to express this subject, I used acrylic paint and animation as my chosen media. In my animation, images of my painting became the base. As a proposal of an audience-participating program and execution plans, this will be in collaboration with contemporary dancer Kim Ji-Hyung (Korea National Contemporary Dance Company) and a live drawing session and performance based on the images and sound shown in the animation (‘Space Invader’) will be conducted. During this process, the audience may participate in the movements of the performance. 

 

​공간 침입자

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2020년 COVID-19가 전 세계 뉴스에 보도되고 매일 추측된 불투명한 원인과 기괴한 헛소문은 사람들을 불안하게 했고 매일 죽음의 숫자를 목격한 사람들은 공포를 경험했다. 우리에게 공포를 던져주자 타자를 얼마나 빠르게 밀쳐냈는지를 서로가 인식하게 되었고 우리의 현전이 비참하게 드러나며 우리가 믿고 있던 공동체가 얼마나 허구였는지 환기 시켰다. 더욱이 해외에 거주하는 동양인에 대한 혐오가 크게 가시적으로 표출되며 인종 차별을 넘어 인종 혐오의 형태로 서로를 찌르며 내부자와 외부자의 틈은 더 찢겼다.

 

현재 우리에게 평등이 공적으로 자리를 잡았지만 여전히 인간은 있는 그대로의 ‘개인’으로 대우받기보다는 비공식적으로 인종화, 젠더화, 계급화되어 있다. 사실 지금까지 우린 단 한 번도 평등한 적이 없다. 오늘도 나는 유색인종인이라 불리지 않는 지나가던 누군가에게 원인 없는 충고를 듣고 다른 인종의 놀림거리와 비웃음의 대상이 되는 것을 막을 수 없다. 너멀 퓨어(Nirmal Puwar)가 ’공간 침입자‘에서 언급했듯 인종화된 신체들이 어떤 공간에 출현했을 때 그들의 신체는 자동적으로 계급화되는 것을 부인할 수 없다. 그들은 표나는 신체 덕 분에 ‘어린애 취급’, ‘과잉 감시’를 피하기 어렵다. 그래서 그들은 그 공간 속에 매우 가시적인 자신의 신체를 빠르게 감추기 위해 과장된 형태의 자신감과 유능함을 보여야만 했다. 

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우리는 우리 모두가 평등하며 인종, 젠더, 피부는 차별을 낳지 않는다는 환상 속에서 깨어날 때이다. 이 상상 공동체는 인종 차별은 존재하지 않고 인종 갈등만이 현전하는 시대인 것처럼 꾸며져 있는데 사실 인종 차별은 더이상 명시적이거나 공식적인 지지를 받지는 않지만 그렇기 때문에 훨씬 더 ‘암묵적’이어서 이를 인식하고 명명하기 쉽지 않다. 이 암묵적 현상에 우리는 침묵으로 행동하고 있는 것은 아닌가? 한나 아렌트는 <예루살렘의 아이히만>에서 ‘사유하지 않는’ 삶을 영위하는 사람 들은 누구든지 특정한 환경에서 악을 범할 수 있다는 점을 강조했는데 우리는 여전히 이 현상에 ‘사유의 부재 (무사유)’의 삶을 선택하여 평안을 느끼는 것은 아닌가?  

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애니메이션 Space Invaders은 페인팅에 등장하는 캐릭터와 특정 이미지들의 찰나를 선택하고 거리의 소리와 시간의 방향성을 부여하였다.