Inventing Temperature

The Korean Cultural Centre UK presents Inventing Temperature an exhibition inspired by a philosopher of science Hasok Chang’s widely acknowledged book 'Inventing Temperature'. This book departs from the simple question What is temperature? And how can we measure it accurately? By challenging the common knowledge of 100 degrees as the boiling point of water, what seems to be a naive question at first glance ends up highlighting a paradox within the premise of the notion of measuring temperature: keeping the fixed points fixed.

Starting with Chang's premise, this exhibition presents nine contemporary artists whose practices have questioned the ground on which a specific notion of knowledge in Western modernity has been sustained. In unravelling the complex web of relations that has governed the modern system of knowledge production, these artists call the notion of science as truth-keeper into question in order to open up new possibilities for understanding the world. Moreover, this exhibition aims to expand the question of temperature and go beyond the discipline of the philosophy of science. To have a temperature is one of the most concrete signs of a living being. Therefore, rethinking temperature is to rethink the very conditions of all those living by going beyond anthropocentric perspectives of the world.

The Participating Artists are Kyung Roh Bannwart, Nikolaus Gangsterer, ChosilKil, Suhee Kim, Seung Jun Lee, Hwayeon Nam, Hyerin Oh, Joo Yeon Park, Lucy Powell.

NOTES TO EDITORS

I. KCC Lab is a research-focused exhibition programme for the Korean Cultural Centre UK. It explores artistic possibilities that go beyond the dichotomy of theory and practice by which multiple layers of dialogue and participation aim to challenge the presuppositions inherent in the modern systems of knowledge production. Its primary task is to provide a platform for emerging artists to try out multi-disciplinary practices whilst also heightening the attention drawn to London-based Korean artists through individual and collaborative works.

II. The participating Artists for the exhibition Inventing Temperature are, in alphabetical order:

Kyung Roh Bannwart kyungrohbannwart.com

Kyung Roh Bannwart addresses attention to disenchantment of subject and individuation of objects, inspired by contemporary philosophy, notably that of Ray Brassier and Gilbert Simondon. She examines the strategies to interrogate perception of object and language, currently working with video and photography. She has graduated from ECAL/École Cantonaled’Art de Lausanne (Master in Fine Arts) and Central St. Martins College of Art & Design (Bachelor in Fine Arts, London). Recent exhibitions include: The Pleasure of the Exhibition at ArtsonjeCenter, Seoul (2014), Practicalities at Basis, Frankfurt (2013), Echo: The Poetics of Translation at Institute of Contemporary Art Singapore (2013), Atrocity Exhibition Archive Paradoxe at Circuit, Lausanne (2012), and Que sera, sera at La station, Nice (2011). Since 2011, she has contributed writings to Art in Culture (South Korea) and Kunstbulletin(Switzerland). Also she is a member of committee of CAN /Centre d’Art Neuchâtel (Switzerland).

Nikolaus Gansterer http://www.gansterer.org/drawing-a-hypothesis/

Nikolaus Gansterer lives and works in Vienna and Berlin. He studied Transmedia art at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and completed his post-academic studies at the Jan van Eyck Academy at Maastricht in The Netherlands. As an artist, Nikolaus Gansterer is deeply interested in the links between drawing, thinking and action. In his visual work, he focuses on mapping processes emerging out of cultural and scientific networks, unfolding their immanent structures of interconnectedness. By rejecting a strict differentiation of these two areas, and through a consequent recombination of methods and settings from both fields, he arrives at distinct lines of connection and division, questioning the imaginary threshold between nature and culture, art and philosophy. Some recent exhibitions and presentations of his work include Kunsthalle, Vienna; Sonar Festival, CCCB, Barcelona; Moving Patterns, ACF, New York; Chisenhale Gallery, London; Potential Dialogues, RCM Art Museum, Nanjing; Wrong time, Wrong place, Tent, Rotterdam; The Stone Road, KHEX, Vienna and at Argos, Brussels; Structures, Transmediale, Bethanien, Berlin; Sound Escpaes, M HKA in Antwerp.

Chosil Kil

Chosil Kil (b. Seoul, Korea 1975) graduated from the Royal College of Arts, London in 2004. She has exhibited her work in solo exhibitions at Aoyama | Meguro, Tokyo (2014); Rowing, London (2014); Basel Statements (2013); Objectif Exhibitions, Antwerp (2012); Galerie Opdahl, Berlin (2012); Cornerhouse, Manchester (2008). Her group exhibitions include: Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork (2013); David Roberts Art Foundation, London (2013); The 9th Gwangju Biennale (2012); Adelaide International (2012); Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul (2009) and Platform Seoul (2009). Her future solo exhibitions include Concentration Series at the Dallas Museum of Art, Texas (2015).

Suhee Kim

Suhee Kim was born in 1978 in South Korea and lives and works in London. She holds a BFA in Communication Design from Incheon National University (2003), and has expanded her practice using multiple media whilst completing her Masters in Visual Communication, Royal College of Art (2014). Recent exhibitions and projects include: Synthetic Aesthetics - No straight line, no true circle at Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2014); folsvwefcEIrion at Hockney Gallery, London (2014); Work In Progress Show at Royal College of Art, London (2014), PaTI+RCA Project at PaTI, Paju, South Korea (2014), Crystallize at Old Billingsgate, project by ISKAI ART, London (2013), Words to be spoken aloud at Turner Contemporary, Margate (2013), The Drawing Challenge at Pump House Gallery, London (2013); Poster Art 150 at London Transport Museum, London (2013); Open Plan : Ordinary at Departure Foundation, London (2013); Work for Galleyway at Hockney Gallery, London (2013); Playland - Wooden Furniture (leaded by ApolonijaŠušteršič) at Emscherkunst, Düsseldorf (2013); Disruption - After The Event at Gulbenkian Gallery, London (2013). She has awarded The Desmond Preston Drawing Prize by Royal College of Art in 2013.

Seung Jun Lee

He attended Seoul Institute of the Arts in South Korea (2011), and is currently studying Fine Art at the Central Saint Martin College in London. He is interested in sound, film and photo works and using objects from his surroundings. ‘Common’ things are his main subject. His works depart by finding aesthetic objects in strange places. ‘Find good feeling in familiarity’ is an attempt to use experimental things and not just taking photography and recording films. His works are made with materials derived from familiarity, which are visually easy to understand and aim to be tractable like non-manually produced goods.

Hwayeon Nam

Hwayeon Nam lives and works in both Berlin and Seoul. Her practice deeply engages in performative processes, through which a work unfolds its latent body. Her interests are in the interval of times generated by detours within the process of making art. Recent exhibitions and performances include: The Song of Slant Rhymes, Kukje Gallery(2013), Novelle Vague, Memorial Park, Palais de Tokyo(2013), Dimensions Variable, Festival Bo:m(2013), Move, on the spot, The Korea National Museum of Arts(2012), Garden of Italy, Festival Bo:m(2012).

Hyerin Oh

Hyerin Oh grew up in South Korea and China, she is currently studying Fine Art at Goldsmiths University, London. Her artwork pays more importance on the subjective and emotional artistic experience rather than the aesthetic and technical approach. She pursues artwork which deviates from things that are shown(visible), conceptual, and authoritative. The approach of general artwork starts from a desire for the strength and characteristics of artwork to be circulated and communicated outside the physical realm. Hyerin believes that objects represent life and have their own unique strength and nature. By creating them into art, she believes that she is projecting her ‘idea,’ ‘sensitivity,’ or ‘experience’ onto objects, not showing the materiality of an object. Her work in the manner of giving shape to things unseen, be it sensitivity or concept, compresses them into one single form and so impartsits meaning. The exhibition is not of artworks which simply stand on the basis of science, but instead pieces that strive to put our images inside the multilayered relationship that is where we perceive the world.

Jooyeon Park

JooYeon Park’s practice explores oscillations between reciprocation and extreme moments of stillness through a variety of media including film, video, sound, photography, and drawing. This fundamental movement in her work ultimately enables the visualization of the invisible and enwraps viewers in a physical and psychological engagement with the work.

JooYeon Park's works have been featured in solo and group exhibitions at such institutions as: Doosan Gallery New York (New York, USA, 2013); Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney, Australia, 2011); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (California, USA, 2009); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, USA, 2009); Art Sonje Center (Seoul, Korea, 2008); Rodin Gallery, Samsung Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea 2007); Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center (Istanbul, Turkey, 2007); Akiyoshidai International Art Village (Japan, 2005); Busan Biennale (Busan, Korea, 2006); Gwangju Biennale (Gwangju, Korea, 2004/2008); Access Artist Run Center (Vancouver, Canada, 2003).

Lucy Powellhttp://www.lucy-powell.com/

Powell works mainly with text and video, with a focus on animals and language, subjective scientific inquiry and the fusion of nature and culture, meaning and non-meaning. She studied Fine Art at Liverpool John Moores University and recent exhibitions/screenings include: Screening Nature, Whitechapel Gallery, London, The Animal Gaze Returned, SIA, Sheffield (2013) / John Cass Gallery, Metropolitan University, London (2011) Amateurism, Kunsterverein Heidelberg (2012); The Worldly House: an archive inspired by the writings of Donna Harraway compiled by Tue Greenfort, Documenta 13, Kassel (2012); Hunters and Hunted, Museum Villa Rot, Burgrieden-Rot (2012); Animal Kingdom, Schinkel Pavilion, Berlin (2011); Shooting Nature, Oberhausen Kurzfilmtage (2011); DerridasKatze, KunstamtKreuzberg, Berlin (2010). In 2011, she co-founded the Satellite Salon, a wandering art-science salon facilitating conversation and collaboration between artists, scientists, writers, historians and curators.