Installation View
Two Butterflies, 2023, Mirror, adhesive vinyl film, 2 beam projectors, MDF, wood, Dimensions variable

Two Butterflies, 2023, Exhibition View at War & Woman's Human Rights Museum, Seoul, KR

Two Butterflies, 2023, detail

Drawing for Two Butterflies, 2023, Pen on paper

Exhibition poster

This work is a video installation consisting of two beam projectors and a single mirror.

I was invited to exhibit at the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, and after visiting the museum to understand the space, I pondered what differences should exist between artworks processed through the language and form of contemporary art and the exhibitions at the museum, which record and testify to history. I questioned how an artwork should exist and operate amidst the records and messages that fill the museum.

While conceptualizing the work, I reflected on how it is nearly impossible for us, living in relatively peaceful and ordinary contemporary lives, to easily grasp or imagine what it means for the inevitable and colossal flow of history, such as war, to penetrate an individual’s life. This thought led to a specific structure in my mind―a scene where two contrasting video images projected onto a single mirror reflect and split into two silhouettes, converging on the wall.

Among the two videos used in this work, one captures a serene gaze exploring beautiful flowers discovered along a walk, while the other is a slideshow of images related to World War II, collected through internet searches. These two videos pass through a butterfly-shaped mirror placed on the floor, emerging as two butterflies reflected on the wall.