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EXHIBITION MASKED WORDS 


Insa Art Space, Seoul, Korea 
Nov 2 - Nov 20, 2021
SMSW (Grace Cho, Wonwoori, and Sua Kim)


Masked Words is an exhibition as a result of activities at IAS Studio from June to November 2021. The IAS Studio is a residential program of Insa Art Space that supports creative practices and research based on visual arts and provides process-oriented programs sparking interdisciplinary collaboration. 

The team SMSW consists of three members - a neuropsycologist Sua Kim, a sound artist Wonwoori, and a visual artist Grace Eunhae Cho. The team aims to shed light upon the stories of those who have been marginalized by the inescapable situations prompted by COVID-19. The exhibition Masked Words narrates the stories of socially alienated individuals, such as women who are bounded by obligatory domestic work and isolated adolescents who are pushed out of social protection in the state of social distancing. Instead of recording or reciting verbal narratives, SMSW re-embodies their words in series of works adapted in diverse mediums, such as sound, video, and sculpture, placed strategically throughout the exhibition on the second floor and the first basement level of the IAS Studio. The exact conversation with their subjects is not revealed but is to be experienced holistically through all senses, allowing the visitors to imagine the subjects more vividly and to experience the weight of the words that has been left unnoticed somewhere between light and darkness of the society.

*you can see a detailed description of Room Nineteen and Masked Words series when you click a title of each work, however, for the rest of the works which are by request only.



Room Nineteen, 2021, mask filter, speaker, microphone, audio cable, variable dimensions.Room Nineteen, 2021, mask filter, speaker, microphone, audio cable, variable dimensions


Masked Words, 2021, mask filter, print on drafting film sheet, 39x27cm


What Should I Say, 2021, mask filter, print on paper, 39 x 27cm
I Can’t Put into Words, 2021, mask filter, print on paper, 39 x 27cm


Chirality, 2021, chemical compounds on glass, each 34 x 27cm


Hesitancy, 2021, dirt on acrylic board, 40 x 40 x 8cm, 20 x 20 x 30cm


Unipolar Disconnections, 2021, sound, speaker, variable dimensions



Untitled, 2021, single-channel video, color, sound, 3 min 14 sec What Does It Sound Like, 2021, single-channel video, color, 2 min 3 sec
Untitled, 2021, single-channel video, color, sound, 3 min 14 sec What Does It Sound Like, 2021, single-channel video, color, 2 min 3 sec
 
Photo by Chulkyu Jin
Video by Dami