6973 miles of force in 1cm (* Interview with Sun Young Kang on the exhibition: 6973 miles of force in 1 cm conducted by Jeong-Hyun Kim)
2019, Cotton thread, needles, paper, board, magnets *created during the ArtSpace O One-Month Residency program in Oct. 2019 in Seoul Korea
The initial idea of this project emerged from very personal emotions about lost or weakened connections to my homeland and longing for my that home. The number 6973 refers to the physical distance between my current residence and my home country, Korea. The distance “1cm” symbolizes “the invisible force,” as well as “the invisible boundary in between,” depicted in the gallery space by the use of hidden magnets. The magnet pulls the needle up in the air and holds it in a fixed position, but does not drop it or fully connect.
I feel emotional distance and tension can be found in every relationship—personal, interpersonal, and beyond. Despite an increasingly connected world through technology, the emotional boundary or distance between our connections seem, if anything, to be greater due to the fragility of virtual relationships. Religion, culture, politics, language, and indeed all human relationships and social creations involve boundaries whether they are positive or not. This creates tension inside of us—a longing, a desire, a dream, a gap between imagination and reality, between the past and the future in which we exist. The space with its vertical strings is quiet and almost peaceful until the audience sees the space between the needles and the bottom of the boxes. 130 small boxes suspended above are floating at eye level. Each box is empty to emphasize “the invisibility of the force.” The magnet hidden inside each box physically pulls the needle up against gravity, dragging the thread. This represents time, life, connectivity, and the beginning to the end, eternity.
I want to suggest to the audiences that they think of this invisible tension, distance, boundary or force by immersing themselves in 6973 miles of force in 1 cm. My hope is that this immersion will allow them to dwell in uncertainty while being part of a space which exists as an experiential metaphor passing between opposites. (Photos by Jeong-Hyun Kim, Jinyoung Lee, Jihoon Kim, Yeon Jeong Park)
