Page 3 - 김태은 개인전 2022. 12. 7 – 12. 13 가온갤러리

< The story about memory (2) >

- Absense of time

When I travel alone, sometimes, there is a moment when I face a purple sunset. And that memory's time moves backward. Then, is it possible for me to revisit
that memory? There are instances when I feel the remnants of the memory with my body.

In the age of cutting-edge technology, it is now feasible to meet individuals in memory who cannot be met in reality and those who have passed away at any
time. However, I ponder if I will be more demoralized than the first time when I return to reality because of the intelligence of the machine. Modern technology
replicates the ease, fleeting joy, and emptiness in memory. Traveling via cutting-edge technology becomes a vacuous transient pleasure that returns to reality
in vain when the hollow echoes that never return pass through the traces of memories rather than an ordinary everyday existence.

I like the commonplaceness and roughness that analog provides, as well as the calmness that enables me to evoke memories that are held close to my soul.
I really like the purity that comes with no artifice, despite the lack of comfort and delight. With the exception of cutting-edge technology, magazines with
photographs and text are tools that quickly transmit knowledge needed for everyday living or expertise in certain sales.

Additionally, I believe that only writing and photography are capable of expressing not only the sincerity of the memories I don't want to remember but also
the memories I want to recall once again. By connecting the authenticity of photography, which records transitory events, with words, I hoped to complete
family memories.

Photographer Eugène Atger once said that the purpose of existence and the lack of temporality for things that vanish and can never be seen again is to give
people a better sense of the past via photographs.

I now feel that every second was precious when I look back on the photos I previously shot of my mother-in-law. I made an effort to reflect on the value of life
and convey its progression so that both the happiness and continuity of the family and the joyful emotions experienced beyond the family's boundaries could
not be missed.

My mother-in-law used to be particularly fond of purple. She had a purple sunset in her heart. Like an adolescent girl, she was a girl who desired for both
the chilly loneliness of blue purple and the warm delight of red purple. At the same time, I also admire the warm, beautiful, and brilliant shade of purple that
evokes both loneliness and sorrow.

Painting is the flesh if photography is the bones. While I was preparing her makgeolli, she and I had a meaningful talk in which we exchanged memories. I miss
that warmth and kindness, and the pleasant memories that are left behind give me, as an artist now, a sense of obligation to the past and the value of family.

As I feel that the family has steadily diminished in significance as the nuclear family, I planned this exhibition in the hopes that "the tough but friendly timw will
come again."

“What is the most important is to be touched, to love, to hope, to tremble, and to live”
- Auguste Rodin