By Alex Czetwertynski
New Media art is often a very big, loud, bright, favoring sight and sound over other senses — and doing so with a strong taste for perceptual overload. It is quite refreshing to see the work of New York based, Korean artist Yeseul Song. She approaches her work with a touch that feels extremely delicate, imbued with patience and sensitivity. She demonstrates this quite clearly in her “Invisible Sculptures” series, an ongoing project.The goal seems somewhat akin to a practice such as Tai-Chi, in which practitioners appear to be moving invisible objects or sculpting thin air. Song’s sculptures require the mobilization of various senses, but constantly elude vision, or at least the first degree ocular vision we rely on somewhat excessively.
The sculptures take different forms, and all require the user to engage with a small space above a plinth. Using sonic, haptic and even olfactory cues, the audience slowly builds an understanding of the work’s “presence”, meaning that its shape is largely defined by each user’s perception.
It is quite fascinating to experience, but also to see others experiencing, as this video shows.
Find out more about this project on Yeseul’s website.
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