general kunst | Hyeryung Lee | Performance | 거리예술 장소특정형 퍼포먼스

works

Hyeryung Lee from Generalkunst has created a variety of projects, including audience-participatory performances without professional actors in various non-theatre venues, considering the format appropriate to the subject matter of the work.

Here, we will introduce some of our works divided by keywords. The full list of works can be found at the very bottom. Click on the captions of the photos to see some part of each project.

a series of projects that borrowed the language of protest to address the invisibility of women's labour

Concept and intention

〈Picketline〉 is a program initiated by Generalkunst, inspired by the puppet protests that took place in Barnaul, Russia, in 2012. It started in 2018 as a proxy protest using tiny dolls for women, patients, and disabilities who couldn't participate in on-site demonstrations. We focus on protests as a unique feature of the streets.

The project has taken various forms, including installation pieces, site-specific performances, and online exhibitions. It observes and interpretes some aspects often overlooked in protest — the sighs, songs, tears, expressions, and emotions of women.

In the initial project, the rallying cry was a historic slogan, "We want bread but roses too," carried by immigrants, women, and children a century ago during labor movements. Remarkably, its relevance endures, resonating with contemporary issues.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, the project underwent a thematic shift, adopting the slogan "We are everywhere but here." It particularly focuses on those who experienced difficulties even before the pandemic. This includes women engaged in the tireless care of their families or employed in roles such as cleaning and caregiving. By highlighting the struggles of these women, the project aims to draw attention to the often invisible labor of women that contributes significantly to our communities.

Picketline Eulji-ro (Installation), City Euljiro +2°C, Junggu Cultural Foundation, 2022

KakaoTalk_20191114_115414071_05_edited.j

Plans

The Picketline project is a kind of community art. When we first embark, a local employment agency is used to find people to care for patients or clean the house. You might be introduced to an elderly woman with graying hair. We also visit sewing factories or local community centers where there are many elderly women. After a brief workshop, conversation, or interview, we get to work. We eat snacks, chat, and make tiny, thumb-sized rag dolls together. The finished protest puppets are then decorated with the slogan "We are not here, but we are everywhere", fixings, and additional stitching before being placed around the final exhibition site. The slogan refers to the situation of women who, despite their fundamental role in the functioning of society and community, have been reduced to unpaid and invisible labor. The protest dolls are the spirits and alter egos of the elderly women. They reach far beyond the women's reach and convey their wishes, claims, and voices. Around the dolls are pickets in the form of QR codes, which the audience can connect to and view specific stories in the form of videos, drawings, plays, and audio. The work can be communicated in a simple and meaningful way, not only to a prepared audience, but also to the people on the street who happen to stumble upon the protest puppets.

Picketline - but roses, too (Installation), Seoul, Seoul Foundation of Arts and Culture, Mullae Art Space, 2019

Picketline (Installaion), Gwacheon Festival, Seoungbuk Nurimasi, 2020

Picketline temporary palcae (Installation), Suwon Cultural Foundation, 2021

In the site-specific performance, the audience is initially invited to participate in a fictional secret society known as the "Asia Housekeeping and Care Work Association". Following a workshop, local elderly women join the performance as both performers and staff simultaneously. Every 30 minutes, one audience member is welcomed to join. Participants are instructed to don headphones and immerse themselves in the secret society's meetings. Silently, the elderly woman guides the audience, communicating through handwritten instructions. Audience members follow the sounds in their headphones, the street scene, and the elderly woman's movements to reach the clandestine meeting place of the association. This location is typically a hidden, abandoned site in the neighborhood, such as an old inn or warehouse. The concept revolves around women, lacking their own spaces, sharing a room in an old inn or warehouse for staggered periods, allowing them time for themselves. To outsiders, this space is known as a "temporary association office". The audience is instructed to do nothing. By the end of the performance, the audience will understand the meaning of women's labor and that protest can never be limited to the field. When women stop, the world stops.

Picketline for my dear ladies (Performance), Seoul Foundation of Arts and Culture Seoul, Seoul Street Arts Creation Center, 2020

An online project carried out during the pandemic utilizes Google Docs to document and leave traces of conversations and play with women. Google Sheets, Google Docs, and Google Business, which are based on efficiency and practicality, are being used in ways that are contrary to their original intentions in 〈Picketline〉. In particular, she captures and shares the humor, aspirations, worries, and love of older women who come and go within the closed dialog of KakaoTalk. They use Google Sheets to create pixel art, Google Business to occupy virtual spaces in Google Maps, and Google Docs to write fiction and fake documentaries based on their stories.

Picketline Seoul (Online Performance), Seoul, Google Map, Google Spread Sheets, Seoul Arts Market Pams Choice, 2021

Performance and other projects dealt with spectatorship

in institutional art spaces such as theatres.

Concept and intention

The word 'theatre' comes from the root word 'theatron', which means seat, and the number of seats is what defines the size of a theatre. The theatre is first and foremost a place to watch, which presupposes an audience. The audience is always an important element of a performance. Even in traditional theatres, which have been around for many years, the stage has been equipped with various facilities, but why have the seats remained the same? Who are the seats for? Can we really say that a theatre is a place for an audience?

The performing arts put fragile and diverse groups of human beings on stage, revealing chaotic and vulnerable lives and systems, because that's what art is. But while dealing with such human beings... it doesn't actually invite the weak and unusual human beings to be part of the audience. Is that what theatre is for?

2. 《대극장 짓기》(인천아트플랫폼 C 공연장, 인천, 2022) 공연 전경 Performance view of Theatering (Incheon Art Pla

《대극장 짓기》(인천아트플랫폼 C 공연장, 인천, 2022) 공연 전경 Performance view of Theatering (Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, 2022)

The performance starts from that irony and creates a theatre with only seats, a theatre filled with seats that are created by unfolding very thin and fragile things. These seats soon become a place for audiences in various states of vulnerability, and a theatre of seats is predicted to be a place of seats. This challenge seems like a failure. Nevertheless, we will begin to build a theatre that is alive with the breath of the audience, the words of the audience, the hesitations of the audience, the gaze of the audience, the rumours of the audience.

There are no professional actors or well-decorated stages here. Instead, they are guided by the people surrounding the theatre: the stage manager, producer, house usher, and other audience members. In a guided narrative that blurs the lines between reality and fiction, the audience is encouraged to reflect on what it means to be an audience member and question the fundamental reason for the existence of art. It will also be an opportunity to reflect on one's place as a citizen in a social system that closely resembles the theatre.

3-2. 《대극장 짓기》(인천아트플랫폼 C 공연장, 인천, 2022) 공간 디자인 ⓒ신승주 Space Design of Theatering (Incheon Art

《대극장 짓기》(인천아트플랫폼 C 공연장, 인천, 2022) 공연 전경 Performance view of Theatering (Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, 2022)

It is a fake documentary starring the author himself, based on autobiographical anecdotes. It welcomes non-spectators who are frustrated to become audiences in existing theatres, not only in terms of content but also in terms of method, running time, and format. The performance time (weekdays at 1pm), age range (all ages and animals are welcome), and seating (padded seats, sofas, cots, strollers, wheelchairs, etc.) are newly introduced to accommodate those who cannot become audiences under existing theatre norms.

The show opens with a letter from the house manager of a large theatre who is faced with having to eject an audience member. The writer sets out to answer the question: 'What kind of audience can we turn away? He metaphorises theatre etiquette with the abusive comment filtering system that works for a clean online environment, and draws on historical anecdotes about average and mediocrity. It points to the reality that hatred of some audiences works in tandem with theatre norms.