Art shows this week

After seeing the works in person, my perspective on your works have changed. The figures are a lot smaller in person—how on earth did you get clothes this small? On the “Still Life (Pieta)” (2007) is an altered jack we found, but everything on the sculpture is made. You can’t just get a dress off the rack, and it would take years to look around for clothes this tiny, with the right kind of color and fabric.    And who is this “we” that you speak of? My mother. She’s a dress maker, and the only person that I have ever met that is as fastidious and as particular as I am. So for “Woman and Child” (2010), I gave her my design, the fabric, and a foam body that she could put the pins into. Usually, a version is made to be tested on the mock-up, because these are all hard bodies that we can’t manipulate to fit clothing onto, as the sculptures are oddly positioned. But my mother is an expert. She’s the best.   Before you “became” an artist, you were a commercial sculptor in the film industry. How and when did the transition come about?   I started out as an illustrator when I was quite young, but went into advertising and making models for TV ads. The transition into film came naturally. The film industry was great fun, but there was always someone else who molded and painted the form that I made. It wasn’t artistically satisfying, so I kept making my own artwork, and showed them when given the opportunity.   I saw a clip where you were inserting the hair strands into the silicon,...

Adulting’s hard. And we all feel it’s too often overrated, especially in a society where perceived age-based hierarchy is hugely emphasized. What happens once you give up looking like an adult and turn your childlike hobby into a full-time career? We met some of Seoul’s prominent “kidults” and heard their stories.

Since their start in 2009, NAMELESS Architecture (a duo made up of Na Un-chung and Yoo So-rae) has been making quite a name for itself; collecting awards such as the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects, the AIA New York Honor Award and the Boston Society of Architects Award. The have also had several exhibits at places like the MoMA and the Center for Architecture New York. We at Time Out Seoul met them at the Seoul Museum of Art while they were busily preparing for their upcoming exhibition, “Re-play: 4 Platforms & 17 Events.” Their installation at the exhibition attempts to find solutions for revitalizing Guro-gu’s Lifelong Learning Center. Consisting of semi-transparent square boards attached to vertical white poles, these boards when turned in one direction can be  thought of as “doors” and as being representative of infinite space and when turned in the other direction can be thought of as “walls” and as being representative of finite spaces.    What’s it like to work in both New York and seoul? From an architect’s perspective, how are the two cities different? Yoo Sorae When it comes to complexity and intensity, Seoul is very much like New York. But personally, I think New York’s social and cultural infrastructure are stronger than that of any other city in the world. In New York, people from all over the world compete with each other and it’s very difficult to get a chance to build something there. Seoul, on the other hand, has many more opportunities...

Dan and Lia Perjovschi met at an art school for art when they were ten, and now they are married and both self-sustaining artists. Notorious for scribbling on the walls of art museums like a witty but a politically aware child, Dan has been illustrating for a Romanian newspaper since the ‘90s. Lia, on the other hand, collects objects from art gallery shops all over the world, jots down handwritten notes from her readings on science and art history and merges everything together into giant, drawing-based installations. Although the two Romanian artists are equally passionate about the social and political climate at all times, they create very different work. Time Out Seoul talked to the artists on the day of their opening, where Dan cracked jokes at the end of each sentence, and Lia, gave a tour of her “Knowledge Museum” like an articulate and intelligent historian.    For the exhibition, both of you packed light—Dan brought four markers to draw with and lia, some figurines and objects to install. Dan We want to make valuable art out of small, simple and inexpensive things. For instance, you’ll find a bunch of postcards stuck on the walls in the beginning part of the exhibition. I sent these to the Total Museum starting this January, and it’s a 30 dollar production altogether.   Lia’s "Knowledge museum" is like a 3D mind map on seven disciplines, including the earth, bodies and art, but it's all written in English. How should a Korean-speaking viewer approach the work? Lia...