DOOSAN Yonkang Arts Awards │ DOOSAN Art Center DOOSAN Gallery

eobchae, the recipient of the 2021 DOOSAN Yonkang Arts Awards of Visual Arts, is a three-person collective comprising Nahee Kim, Cheon-seok Oh, and Hwi Hwang. Based on the development of the digital and online virtual world, they are working with interest in coding, programming, pseudo-reality technology, real and virtual space, and sound. eobchae is a generation that naturally embraces the consumption and production of digital and social networking system (SNS) technologies, their works are a kind of sci-fi system and/or sci-fi universe. Through the work they critically reveal today’s technologies and society by using or borrowing digital technologies and environments such as artificial intelligence, chatbots, SNS, and one-person media broadcasting. eobchae works with various media including video, sound, installation, and performance, and has been showing remarkable practices both in the online and offline space.

업체eobchae, CHERRY-GO-ROUND, 2019, Single channel video, color, sound, 26min 57sec

업체eobchae, nahee.app run daddy.app, 2019, Single channel video, color, sound, 11min 12sec

업체eobchae, The Decider's Song, 2020, Single channel video, loop

업체eobchae, The Decider's Chamber, 2021, Album

Education

Nahee Kim
M.A. Integrated Media Arts, City University of New York Hunter College, New York, US
M.A. Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, KR
B.A. Communication, Seoul, KR National University, Seoul, KR

Cheon-seok Oh
B.A. Communication, Seoul, KR National University, Seoul, KR

Hwi Hwang
M.F.A. Multimedia, KR National University of Arts, Seoul, KR
B.F.A. Sculpture, College of Fine Arts, Seoul National University, Seoul, KR

Solo Exhibitions

2023
Rola Rolls, SeMA Bunker, Seoul, KR

2022
eoracle, DOOSAN Gallery, Seoul, KR
AMAEBHCH, Museumhead, Seoul, KR

2019
eobchae×Sungsil Ryu: CHERRY-GO-ROUND, Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin, KR

2017
(故) Lee Gwerom Full Edition, Space413, Seoul, KR
I.WILL.SEOUL.YOU Ultimate Promotion, I-GONG Alternative Visual Culture Factory, Seoul, KR

2016
I.WILL.SEOUL.YOU 시연회, Gwangju Pharmacy, Seoul, KR

Group Exhibitions

2022
ARKO Art & Tech Festival: The Fable of Net in Earth, ARKO Art Center, Seoul, KR
Arecibo, TINC, Seoul, KR

2021
NEO-HYUNDAISM [PART-2]: MOVEMENT, GCS, Seoul, KR

2020
I, Etcetera, HITE Collection, Seoul, KR
Reality Errors, Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin, KR
Follow, Flow, Feed, ARKO Art Center, Seoul, KR
The Better Man 1948–2020, Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul, KR
Artist Survival, Sehwa Museum of Art, Seoul, KR

2019
Psychedelic Nature, BOAN1942, Seoul, KR

2018
NEWS, DEAR MR. RIPLEY, Buk Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, KR
CAVA LIFE layers x RYSE Hotel, RYSE Hotel, Seoul, KR
Bildad, Space413, Seoul, KR
Screening Shot-, Nanji Han River Park, Seoul, KR
eobchae×Sungsil Ryu: Mirrors of Mirrors of Mirrors, Hapjungjigu, Seoul, KR
Lapses 1st Screening, Osisun, Seoul, KR
Lapses 3rd Screening, Platform-L Contemporary Art Center, Seoul, KR

2017
iwillseoulyou.kr, Seoul, KR Art Space Seogyo, Seoul, KR

Screening / Event

2022
Festival Forum: EXiS 2022, e-flux.com
EXiS 2022, EX-Choice, Seoul, KR Art Cinema, Seoul, KR

2021
Daddy Residency Deluxe, deluxe.daddy-residency.com
Daddy Residency Deluxe Beta, deluxe.daddy-residency.com

2019
Psychedelic Nature, Artist Talk - eobchaeXAyoung Kim, BOAN1942, Seoul, KR
Psychedelic Nature, Opening Performance - eobchae vision 2020, BOAN1942, Seoul, KR
Sonicfiction Film Festival, eobchae Special Screening, Seoul, KR Art Space, Seoul, KR

2018
Hovering: Screening, 2/W, Seoul, KR

Album

2021
The Decider’s Chamber

Awards

2021
The 12th DOOSAN Yonkang Arts Awards Visual Art, DOOSAN Yonkang Foundation, Seoul, KR

2018
The 18th Seoul International NewMedia Festival, Audience Jury Award

Jury's Statement

No different from previous years, three jury members each nominated three artists based on the best of their judgment for the 2021 DOOSAN Yonkang Arts Awards in Visual Arts. The nine nominees were artists working in a vast range of mediums, styles, and subjects that grouping them into one category would be a fruitless effort. Today, some even say that contemporary art has become so diversified that it lacks the momentum to spark new movements—not to mention that the art world is yet to recover from the pandemic. Nevertheless, despite the dire environment, the ardor of artistic research and continued success of the nine nominees stirred the jury’s interest.

During the strenuous process of determining the winner, the jury at times had conflicting opinions about individual artists or broke into heated discussions when making tough decisions. Ultimately, the jury narrowed their evaluation down to two criteria. First, the jury sought to select an artist to whom the award would serve as a significant launch pad for a new body of work, especially in a direction that is not easily predictable therefore highly anticipated. Second, considering that the 12th DOOSAN Yonkang Arts Awards should reflect timeliness in addition to the existing characteristics and reputation it has built up over time, the jury kept in mind the significance of the “online environment” as a form of language and an embodied lifestyle (rather than an alternative platform), which has become increasingly prominent during the time of a pandemic.

After long deliberation, the award was bestowed to “eobchae”, a three-person collective comprising Nahee Kim, Cheon-seok Oh, and Hwi Hwang. The three artists, each deeply interested in network systems, coding and programming, pseudo-reality technology, space, and sound, have shown exceptional synergy in conceiving and executing long-term collaborative projects. A self-described “audio-visual production group,” eobchae’s most notable characteristic is its post-internet production methodology. For instance, eobchae’s collaborative series with Seongsil Ryu (“Cherry Jang”) simulates a one-person media broadcast programmed to develop a media figure and surrounding narratives, which is a refreshing approach to the idea of collaboration.

Another series, in which Nahee Kim is the main character, is an ongoing effort to build an organic sci-fi universe around the protagonist who puts out an open call for “daddies” to raise her artificially inseminated child, “Gaji.” The various sub-projects implemented as part of this series include 1) developing an AI chatbot to create a TrueView in-stream advertisement to recruit “daddies,” 2) compiling a safety tutorial for the future “centralized network society” in which people’s reproductive organs are hyper-connected, and the uterus and sperm each operate as the network hub and data packet, 3) developing an operating system optimized for the “daddy” who will perform as a parent for the duration of the contract, and 4) designing a “basic skill education program” after virtual schooling platforms, which simulates future political topographies and educates “Gaji” to discover errors and control variables as it grows up. Through such productions, eobchae highlights the potential of media aesthetics by materializing futuristic sci-fi universes in the contemporary context and naturally employs the crucial role of the artist—the critic of today’s technology and society.

Working in collectives is not a new trend in the arts anymore. However, eobchae’s work, demonstrating both curiosity and precision, hints at how the system of collectives may evolve in the future among young artists living in a time where social media technology is a means of production and consumption. The jury looks forward to seeing how eobchae develops and concretizes its ideas of higher dimensions during the time leading up to the awardee exhibition.

Jury Seong Eun Kim, Jiyeon Kim, Haeju Kim