Her candy-coloured sculptures come to Sydney as part of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s, ‘New Romance – art and the posthuman’ exhibition. It brings together Australian and Korean artists who reflect on ideas of the future, what it means to be human, and our relationship with technology. Curator Anna Davis says she was interested in including Kang’s work as it “makes me think about the future of knowledge. It raises questions such as: ‘How will we store knowledge in the future?’, ‘What bits of it will we value?’ and ‘Will we absorb it in the same ways?’ Kang suggests that the way we are absorbing knowledge now is becoming more multi-sensory and she links this to synaesthesia where senses get mixed up and combined.”
When did you know you wanted to be an artist?
I can remember that I have been into drawing since I was very young. Things were very natural that I got into Art High School and Art College consequently. Probably all of the complements and support throughout that time made me become an artist.
What has been the greatest influence on your work?
All the books in this world.
What is it about books that you can’t resist?
I’m intrigued by books since they are not just an object but more like a space, which contains metaphysical thoughts. Books are working as a virtual space of temporal condensation of the numerous lives of people and their knowledge.
How do you choose which books to portray?
Considering a theme of an exhibition, I initially choose a category or genre of books and then pick specific books among the group. Recently I’m trying to portray books pertaining to women, especially Japanese military sexual slaves, comfort women, in Japanese colonial era in Korea.
What do you hope to stir in the viewer with your work?
I want to evoke a synesthetic experience, which is enabled by the texts from specific books I decide to address in the form of video and light projection.
What is one book that is incredibly important to you?
One that relates to Japanese military sexual slaves because it is the most important issue at the centre of my recent work – I’m working on a video installation that deals with this.
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Until 4 September, 2016
Sydney
