가창창작스튜디오 2017 해외작가 개인전 마이클울린 michael wolin : witness to time

작가노트

all works are titled “Witness to Time,” inkjet prints, 2017. 350x350mm (square images) or 350x525mm (wider images) What does it mean to bear witness? Why do we find comfort in the things of the past? How does the past fit into the present? Why do we find meaning in the worn surfaces of old objects? How much weight does the past carry?

’Witness to Time,’ is a short, sentimental journey through a corner of the present world, leaning into the past. The chair pictured in these photographs is a kind of quiet tour guide of the past. It suggests where to look, but says little about the world seen. I am its tour guide in the present. I set the chair down facing a certain direction, in a certain light and at a certain time; we view the world together in passing, or we stop a while and rest.

The chair raises many questions, but answers few. How many children sat in this chair, or stood on it and were scolded by their teachers? Who have these children become? Whose hands built this chair? Why don’t they make chairs like this anymore? The chair, out of place in the present, belongs always to the past. Still it remains.

An old man stopped me on the subway to ask about the chair. He lit up at the sight of it, saying that when he was a child, schools had chairs just like it.

How many chairs like this one remain?

What did this chair witness? What do we witness?  

Opening : 2017. 3. 21 TUE 6:00 PM