In Garden of Regrets, Sylbee Kim perceives death as the only certain future in our current era of accelerated shifts and technological developments. We try to avoid “risks” in life, while simultaneously desiring things that are prohibited to us. For example, according to the story of the serpent in the Bible, humankind originates from a failure of obedience and is destined to live with the regret of giving into temptation leading to the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Regret itself can indicate a sense of missing the chance to have done something that could never be achieved again after the actual moment. Time is embedded into the notion of regret, because it combines a certain point in the past with a later point in time and space. Meanwhile, the Garden is a failed paradise. In Garden of Regrets, a voice-over mimics nameless public announcements as well as manipulated moving images of a serpent, which in a contemporary city we encounter locked within the glass case of a zoo. The script jumbles common warnings in public spaces, such as subway stations and airports. Following the nature of warnings, what is asserted implies consequences yet to be seen.
Bio:
Sylbee Kim (b. 1981) lives and works in Berlin and Seoul. Kim acquired her B.A. at the Korea National University of Art, Seoul, and Meisterschüler at the University of Arts Berlin under Maria Vedder and Hito Steyerl. Kim’s video installations appropriate historical records and iconography to produce a parallel reality that proposes different possibilities of a future audiovisual language. Recent solo exhibitions include Cradle of Regrets, Hapjungjigu, Seoul, 2018; Garden of Regrets, Sindoh Art Space, Seoul, 2018; The Red Liquid and Narcissus, Nevan Contempo, Prague 2017; and Misread Gods, Insa Art Space, Seoul, 2015. Recent group exhibitions include Monstrous Moonshine: Collateral Exhibition‐Gwangju Biennale, Naver Partner Square, Gwangju, 2018; Neriri Kiruru Harara, SeMA Biennale: Mediacity Seoul, Seoul Museum of Art, 2016, and Give Us the Future: Berlin Senate Stipend Recipient Show, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, 2014. Kim is an awardee of the Sindoh Artist Support Program 2017 and was a resident at Gasworks, London, funded by Art Council Korea 2018.
