AGO X RBC Artist-in-Residence: Ivetta Sunyoung Kang

Project: Proposition 3: String Figure

Residency period: April 25 to Jul 19, 2022

Foreword: I want to note that the collection of visual materials you are going to experience below are only segments of the entire collective work. Also, it still awaits Y’s string figure materials, who is my last participant in the project as of the time the materials are being uploaded here. All fully completed assemblage and collection will be available for your viewing on the website: www.ivettakang.com

Proposition 3: String Figure invited six friends I once met before the pandemic and have never met in person since the pandemic. They all live in different countries and in different time zones. From 7th May to 6th July 2022, I had about 12 conversations with them. All the conversations were carried out with loose topics, including their everyday lives during the pandemic, anxiety and agoraphobia or other mental/emotional struggles not only due to the pandemic but also personal issues and respective desires and dilemmas that might represent that of our generation.

After all the conversations, they received Welcome to Our Ephemeral String Figure Intersection Instruction.

Summary of instructions: 1. The present turning into the past - Take a photo of your string. 2. The past turning into your present - Record a video and re-enact the string figure performances from the video. 3. The past coming to your present - Try to remember and recall what string figures (cat's cradle) you made when you were a kid, make the string figures that you can remember. 4. The past and present turning into the future - What would be figures you'd make with your string for/with these keywords?

Welcome to Our Ephemeral String Figure Intersection instruction, Ivetta Sunyoung Kang. 2022

A photo of a red string placed on a blue and turquoise couch with two couch cushions. One cushion on the right side of the photo is smaller than the other one on the left side, cropped by the frame. The small cushion has stripes in different, pastel tones of colours. The big one is made of pale green corduroy. The red string made in a loop is placed between of the two cushions. The following words are displayed: Blue and turquoise, daylight. A comfortable spot. A free just outside the window.

A photo of Corinna’s string shot on the fourth morning she spent with her string in her house, Melbourne, Australia. Corinna Berndt, 2022.

A photo of a red string placed behind an orange candle body placed on a wooden plate. Next to the string, a small glass container is placed. In front of it, there is a square plate made of ceramic on which a small dolphin sculpture is placed. All of them are placed on a cotton flowery mat placed on a white shelf. Around the photo, there is a white background on which the following words are written: On the bookshelves. Morning right after a nightmare, birding singing from the window. Bit feeling dry.

A photo of Miru’s string shot on the first morning she spent with her string in her house, Seoul, South Korea. Miru Bahc, 2022.

One friend would finish archiving their four days spent with their string and string figures, and the materials would be passed to the next friend. Our individual string figures grew into collective string figures assembled through repetitions yet differences with relational interpretations of the friends.

A screenshot of multi-channel videos containing five friends’ string figure enactment videos, assembled by Ivetta Sunyoung Kang. 2022 (Y’s string figure enactment video is on wait as of 11th July 2022)
From the top left, it reads, “This video is documentation by Miru Bahc, where she enacts a string figure from childhood.” On the top right, it reads, “This video is codumentation by Donghoon Gang, where he reenacts Miru’s string figures from her memories and his from his childhood.” On the center, it reads, “This video is documentation by Sophie Morrow, where they reenact Donghoon’s string figures and Miru’s string figures from the past and theirs from childhood.” On the bottom left, it reads, “This video is documentation by Dongyan Chen, where she reenacts Sophie, Donghoon’s and Miru’s string figures from the past and hers from childhood.” On the bottom right, it reads, “This video is documentation by Corinna Berndt, where she reenacts Dongyan’s, Sophie’s, Donghoon’s, and Miru’s string figures from the past and hers from childhood.”

A digital assemblage of five still cuts from five videos where five different people are making a string figure individually.

For #4 in the instruction, they were asked to invent their own string figures by any means. Their inventions were creative respondence to intersectional keywords I had shared with them prior to their four days with string figures. The keywords swirled up from intersectional moments and sharing between the conversations I had with one friend and the next friend. Each friend received intersectional sentences that were similar yet varied.

A text art work where three music notations are written. Above it reads: Repeat and hum until feel at home

A string figure invention responding to six intersectional key sentences by Donghoon Gang, 2022

A still cut of a video where two hands are being tied by a loose string loop. On the left palm, it reads: departure, and on the other palm, it reads: destination.

A string figure invention responding to six intersectional key sentences by Dongyan Chen, 2022

Their inventions of string figures were gathered at me. I let my acknowledgement that I would eventually function as an interlocutor, editor and transcriber of them be embedded in the inventions as poetry. The method for the following work is inspired by Lisa Capps and Elinor Ochs’ linguistic analysis that transcribes their patient’s traumatic stories and storytelling with grammatical and semantic utterances. They offer a new means for agoraphobia studies and related treatments to unveil narratives with elicited feelings, fear, emotions, and negativities that keep troubling agoraphobia and anxiety patients as "therapeutic intervention." ¹

Glossary for Dashes out of the Room. Ivetta Sunyoung Kang. 2022

Dear Miru, Elimin- - - - - -ation of my ident..tity; analog touching and mo……. ve..men.t; sharing sto ries- - -memor- -ies as a c-c-common grou nd for fri- - -end-s.h .i.p.- - - ompanion-s .h.i.p.;………anxiety tr iggered by- - -with- - -outside force…s; fav ourite food

Manuscript for Dashes out of the Room. Transcribed poem. Ivetta Sunyoung Kang. 2022

Dear Donghoon, A- -Analog touching and Movement; safety z..one - - as h-o-u-s-e- - - - - - h- - o - m - e; f- - - - - - - e- - - - - - - - - - - - - a - - - - - - - -r - - - - - o…f - - …f- - - - - - - - a - - - - - - - - - - - - i- - - - -l- - - - - - ing; s- - - share - - - -d s..y..m… ………pt….om……….s as a c-common ground for co mpanion..s..hi..p;- - - - - el Imin- - - ation of m……….y …….identiti……………….e s

Manuscript for Dashes out of the Room. Transcribed poem. Ivetta Sunyoung Kang. 2022

Dashes out of the Room. 8.5” X 6.9”. Textured paper, OHP film, laser-print. Intersectional keywords transcribed with dashes and dots with Donghoon’s own string figure invention. Ivetta Sunyoung Kand and Donghoon Gang. 2022

Dashes out of the room. 8.5” X 11”. Textured paper, OHP film, laser-print. Intersectional keywords transcribed with dashes and dots with Miru’s own string figure invention. Ivetta Sunyoung Kang and Miru Bahc. 2022

3D generated gallery view of Proposition 3: String Figure. 3D work by ijo and design by Ivetta Sunyoung Kang. 2022

Proposition 3: String Figure. 6 of 7 multi-channel videos. HD. colour. sound. Variable dimensions. 2022

Ivetta Sunyoung Kang is an interdisciplinary artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto on the land now called Canada. She obtained an MFA from Concordia University. Her work has been presented at Sound Scene in partnership with the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (2022), ArtScience Museum (2022), Dazibao (2022) and The Korean Cultural Center, Washington, DC (2021), among others. She has been awarded the RBC Newcomer Arts Award (2021). She has co-founded an artist collective, Quite Ourselves.

See all of our Artists-in-Residence

AGO X RBC Artist-in-Residence: Ivetta Sunyoung Kang

Project: Proposition 3: String Figure

Residency period: April 25 to Jul 19, 2022

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