notes on the films (2020-2023)
In my works, image, narration-text and sound are disparately intertwined with each other, and they co-exist by complementing one another. The third existence, which is non-human, seems to observes and stares at the situation inside the films. Through this, I intended to create a paradoxical and supernatural atmosphere, which transcends time-space dimension.
‘The Way We Wait’(2020) conveys consciousness towards time, the moments when we confront the finiteness of life. It emphasises that this finiteness allows us to see the most trivial parts of our daily lives to be special. ‘Once Upon a Time’(2020) shows the memories of the past could be reinterpreted, thereby it is impossible to reduce one’s life in a single perspective. I tried to convey a sense of freedom by tactilely presenting the whole transforming process of the perspective about memory.
‘Like You Know It All’(2021) focuses on exploring the possibility to respect each one’s undefinable parts, the spots that are not able to be known, that ambiguity and distance. ‘Out of Place’(2022~2023) deals with the action of ‘seeing’ itself through optical instruments and asks what truly is to perceive the women’s lived experiences.
The Way We Wait -
The film interconnects disparate images—my grandmother’s hospital, her impermanent house, and the process of building a sandcastle. This whole process seems to be a desperate attempt to delay the moment of sadness in the near future as much as possible. It was an intent to connect the far future and the distant past, overcoming the current context of loss or uncertainty by leaning on that vastness of time.
Once Upon a Time -
This film depicts a moment when we are unexpectedly overwhelmed by past memories and how to get out of it. There surely is a time when what I have documented in the past is read in a different way. Through interpreting the same experience in a different way with a time-parallax, I wanted to show the possibility that meaning and context are unfixed.
Like You Know It All -
There are no human faces in the film, but instead, there are certain places and movements where we get to imagine the stories of the anonymous people. It was an attempt to capture the immeasurable, the vast terrain of the human mind. It is true that we would never fully get to know the other’s mind, but it was a process of exploration to find out what it is to continuously try to understand and imagine that unfathomable depth of mind.
Out of Place -
The reality we face living both as Korean and Asian women, is actually the status quo that is taken for granted just like the air. Meanwhile, this reality is often treated as if it was not the authentic ‘reality’ in many cases. Ultimately, I have wanted to present the possibility that the meanings and contexts surrounding us are flexible and mutable.
by JiYoon Park