YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES is yhchang.com. Based in Seoul, YHCHI has done their signature animated texts set to their own music in over 20 languages and shown many of them at some of the major art institutions in the world, including Tate, London, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Whitney Museum, and the New Museum, New York. Young-hae Chang (Korea) and Marc Voge (United States), the two principals of YHCHI, were 2012 Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Creative Arts Fellows.

The works of YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES are presented in two galleries: Gallery 6 and the Storage Gallery, as well as the passage and stairs that connect the two. While Gallery 6 has a relatively conventional shape, the Storage Gallery is a 13-meter-high cube that stretches from the third basement level to the first basement level. Moreover, visitors can look down into the Storage Gallery through the glass in Gallery 6 and in the passage at the first basement level. Thus, this gallery affords the opportunity for unique spatial compositions that are simply not possible within a conventional exhibition space, which is typically designed to incorporate four steps: introduction at the entrance, development, turn, and conclusion at the exit. All of the works are displayed at eye level, and the spaces without any works remain blank in conventional exhibition spaces. But the exceptional design of Storage Gallery, with no fixed center and an array of possible perspectives, allows visitors to appreciate works of art from completely new angles, by gazing up or down at them.

To commemorate the opening of MMCA Seoul, YHCHI has created an 11-channel HD video installation that was designed exclusively for the dimensions of the space. The installation is entitled GROOVIN' TO THE BEAT OF THE BIG LIE, and it marks the group’s return to Korean language after working extensively in various other languages. They have also contributed a six-channel video installation—BLUES FOR JUN—which encompasses the entire space of Gallery 6, serving as a total “environment” that envelopes the audience. Hence, viewers are invited to actually immerse themselves in the work of art itself, rather than simply entering a space that surrounds the work. The Storage Gallery will feature two different installations: POLKA DOTS AND PROPAGANDA and ME, MY BABY, AND BIBIMBAP, a work about the mixed rice dish that is Korea’s representative traditional food.

Two key properties that differentiate new media art from traditional art genres are interactivity and immersion. Viewers are often encouraged to interact with works of new media by directing the development and even changing the images; thus, these qualities are widely associated with the democratization and accessibility of art. Meanwhile, there has been active research and experimentation towards constructing immersive environments that approach a “virtual reality.” However, YHCHI applies strategies apart from those of other new media artists. The group’s official website (yhchang.com) features flash animation-based artworks, which are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, but which cannot be manipulated by the viewer. YHCHI has never focused on the use of highly advanced or futuristic technology, so their works comfortably embody a contemporary perspective. Like the group’s internet animations, the large video installations being presented at MMCA Seoul do not offer the viewers much opportunity for physical participation, and the rapidly flickering text and images are often difficult to apprehend. However, with some effort towards appreciation, the hypnotic pulses of poetic texts, images, and music achieve a distinct harmony, manifesting themselves as a captivating “environment” that integrates all that we have come to expect and enjoy from art, whether of the past or present. Lev Manovich has pointed out that the main limitation of computer-based interactivity is the reductive “physical interaction (of pushing buttons, choosing links and moving bodies) between the users and the media to the exclusion of mental interaction.” YHCHI consciously avoids this mode of interaction, thereby enabling new possibilities for richer, deeper experiences for the viewers, both intellectually and emotionally.
- YI Soo-Jung (Associate Curator of MMCA, Korea)

Room 1: BLUES FOR JUN
Room 2: POLKA DOTS AND PROPAGANDA
Room 3: ME, MY BABY, AND BIBIMBOP
11-Channel HD Video Installation, Flexible Dimensions Original Texts, Graphics,
Background Videos, and Music Soundtrack
© Younghae Chang Heavy Industries
courtesy of the artist and MMCA, Korea