August 1th ~ August 10th, 2019

Opening Reception: August 3th 6-8 pm

Yongshin Cho is a media artist working in Paris and Seoul. After receiving his BA in Painting from Hongik University (Seoul) in 1985, Cho went on to earn his BA and Master of Fine Arts degrees from the Université Paris-VIII in 1991 and 1997, respectively. In 1995, Cho was invited as one of the seven media artists, together with Nam June Paik and Bill Viola, to the 15th International Video and Multimedia Art Festival Video-Formes 1995 at Clermont-Ferrand. The video columnist of Le Monde/Art Press, Jean-Paul Fargier, reviewed Cho’s work in the art magazines Turbulences Vidéo and Art Press.

Cho came to live in Paris and became an instructor at the Foundation Danae, teaching video art. In 1997, he was invited to the group exhibition Everything Against Art at the Pompidou Centre, and also became represented by the Galerie Les Fille Calvaire (Paris), where he had a solo exhibition titled, Time Cube. The exhibition featured a 3D video installation using shutter glasses and was centered on the theme of an individual’s conflict with society. In 1997, the Samsung Foundation of Culture selected Cho as a resident artist in Paris for a three-year period.

Cho was also sponsored by the WIFCO Corporation to utilize their whole body scanner. Through this sponsorship, he created hyper-realistic body images, which could be used for interactive game characters. In September of 2000, Cho showed an interactive three-dimensional video installation titled Floating Body in a Media Entertainment booth at the Media City Seoul 2000. In 2010, Cho presented a media performance titled, Metamorphosis, during an opening ceremony at the Asian Culture Hall, and this twenty-minute media performance incorporated laser cube and choreography. In the same year, Mr. Cho formed a media art group called Solar Eclipse and brought new vitality to the contemporary art scene in Gwangju. Up to 10 Korean artists and 3 - 4 foreign artists have used the media technology developed under the leadership of Cho.

Artist’s Note:

In June 2014, a woman dressed in black turtleneck, frequently worn by Steve Jobs, stepped onto the stage of a TED Conference, a major platform where people give speeches about important ideas and topics. Her name was Elizabeth Holmes, and she was the former CEO of Theranos, now a defunct company. She founded the company upon dropping out of Stanford’s School of Engineering, and, as she began to only wear black turtlenecks, the popular media called her the female Steve Jobs.

Holmes’s company Theranos purportedly developed a blood-testing machine called Edison which surprised the world for its ability to accurately diagnose 200 diseases with a single drop of blood, at a fraction of the cost (compared to the existing methods). Many people were excited and invested a fortune in her company’s invention, including the pharmacy company Walgreens, which signed an exclusive supply contract with Theranos. The major American media such as Fortune, Forbes, and The New York Times put her on the cover and valued the company at $9 billion.

However, whenever facing criticism, Holmes avoided the necessary verification by other medical institutes by relying on the high-ranking government officials and the media responsible for the sensationalism. The company’s product was fake, and the people most responsible for the lies were not Holmes but the irresponsible media and the influential politicians. The press contributed to the fake myth by reporting Holmes’ lies without confirming its validity. When Holmes’ fraud became apparent to the public, Fortune published an article titled, “How Theranos Fooled Many Journalists With a Phony Product,” to excuse itself from its own responsibility.

The commercial nature of the media giants means that they seek news which meet the popular taste and desire for heroes. We should make the media giants take responsibility for their part in proliferating the fake news. We also must make the people in the Board of Directors at Theranos take responsibility because they included the powerful politicians who were ignorant of and protected the lies.

This solo exhibition is inspired by the story of Holmes; I ask what our role should be to solve the social problems and advance our society. How can I express my intention to awaken the passive social consciousness and the will of the public that is trapped in dark and small boxes, typical of a vulnerable modern society?

The results of this questioning are the small LED light paintings featured in this exhibit. The square black boxes, which surround the paintings and are 5 inches in lengths, are symbolic of the passive consciousness of the public. The paintings feature images of public figures that are difficult to recognize as they are roughly sketched, torn, and concealed. These are the people in the media and politics who avoid their responsibilities. Each painting contains a small LED chip, which is symbolic of the consciousness seeking to reveal and monitor the concealed hypocrisy of the mass media and the politicians who appear just on the outside.