(deep sighs) untelevised, revolution on wheels
2015. 6. 9
The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised, will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.– Gil Scott-Heron, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, 1970
But until then you know and I know niggers will party and bullshit and party and bullshit and party and bullshit and party and bullshit and party…
Some might even die before the revolution comes.– The Last Poets, When The Revolution Comes, 1970
I. Time – the present
Changes that occurred in the one-year work process, served as a tool to create something important driven by the collection of small contributions of many people. In this installation work, basically the stage and light installation based on its configuration are modified. The real-time engagement happening in this modified installation space is projected in live. The LEDs glittering with ‘revolution on wheels’ and colorful RGB halogen lights surround an arena. The video being switched on where the audience stands and captured spots combined with numerous mosaic data images fill in the cracks of the circular structure surrounding the space. Moments where something is going on and which are unpredictable repeat in the present.
II. Live! Not on-air news
It is not like turning on the light on the stage. Revolution might not be televised. It is ‘live’ and there is ‘no re-run’ at all times. There might be a change outside, quote “until then you know and I know will party and bullshit”, unquote, while being immersed in TV, SNS and other forms of entertainment. However, engagement of many people could make a trivial event into something important. Moreover, a history could be written to change a successful revolution into a legend. These moments may occur in our life every day.
III. Revolution, about the axis of rotation
The word ‘revolution’ from the Latin words ‘re-‘ and ‘volvere’ meaning “a turning around” or “rotating in a circular course” back to a starting point. Revolution, as “the locomotives of history” are on wheels. The wheels are interlinked with numerous gears while being connected to one another through a sophisticated device. Generators and motors roll their wheels in a high speed. The power moving forward through constant rotations makes us advance, but we cannot stop at this speed and in this bond until the route changes. In the frame of ‘production,’ this locomotive was designed to be destined that way. We are also a part of the output of the production, so we are practicing of ‘becoming-artist’ by tightening the screws ourselves. We dream of changes that have not come yet in a place of ‘making-artist’ by someone.
IV. Infinite loop, propelled with no distance
When the space for distance, time and thought is reduced, repetition that fails to get out of the contingency, uncertainty and a circulating chain leads to a broad and yet weak connectivity. The new relationship formed based on a flexible and loose network imbues big potentials of ‘automatic accumulation’ in the information capitalistic market. When the engine of our society is empowered by this, the value of RPM (revolutions per minute) would increase. The communication that occurs in the high-speed/real-time society where the speed of revolutions is high, but without adequate distance or time would have a higher amount of heat and noise. The production mentioned here has this process. A project carried on without much breathing space would lose its directions, collapse the inter-gravity and end up being overloaded. It would be because our production merely takes up one point of the orbit formed in the mutually dependent environment. We run toward an unknown destination. A new production is repeated in this micro network would like a repeat mark. However, subtle differences occur in the reiteration and stepping away from it would form a crack, which would then generate a different distance from the starting point.
V. Showtime, au clair de la lune
There might be many reasons for watching the closing credits after a film finishes roll up. It might be a gesture to express some respect for the contribution made by many people. The moment of expectation that there will be more hints or a trailer might come up flows onto the screen. A light might be on in a movie theater with the indication of various logos and copyrights, but we cannot leave the seat easily. The fourth wall has already collapsed in a circulating structure where there is no internal-external boundary and a spiral is drawn following an experiment of penetrating inside and outside. Visual indication and object specificity for the installation created using products in the post-industrial society look still fuzzy, although they reveal the well-planned product design and fine-tuned technical implementation capacities. In this space of installation, we can arbitrarily discover the locations of the objects and position ourselves there. Filling the space up is not some artwork nor some condensed time to appreciate the artwork. It is the moment we realize where the boundary of each other’s ‘positions’ is obscure as our given roles and circumstances differed. Obscurity, at least, is attractive. Something enigmatic, ambiguous and uncertain would give way to time and space to rethink about imagination, differences or diversity. This is nothing new in the production mentioned above. However, this minimal intervention could be small engagement in the repeated obscurity where reaching the end would drive one to reach the starting point again and hopefully, could express some respect for the contribution of many people.
Even thought the show in the light of the moon (au clair de la lune) would begin soon and end shortly.