16.04.–07.05.2016
solo show
Space One, Seoul
work links:
»Upper«
»The Tallest«
»Xed«
»Upper« presents three video and photography works by Rebecca Ann Tess as a part of her ongoing project Alpha++. Alpha++ deals with global cities and the materialization of wealth. The works evolve from discussions on history, the manifestation of power and the power relations in our daily life as well as in an international structure.
The central piece of the show, »The Tallest« (2014) is a shot on-site collection of the tallest buildings in the world today. The high-rises are shown as set pieces of global capitalism, visually diminishing into abstraction. The images are reduced to reminisce the architect’s 3-D renderings of the buildings. A computer voice narrates the competition for the tallest building among several cities including Chicago, Dubai, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Mecca, Nanjing, New York City, Seoul, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Songdo and Taipei.
The film »Upper« (2016) depicts medieval towers of the Italian city, San Gimignano, dubbed the Medieval Manhattan. San Gimignano was an important trading center in the 13th and 14th centuries. The fortified towers in San Gimignano however, were not used for defense but rather as a way for the rich Tuscan families to boast their wealth and power in its height. The ultra-high definition images of the towers are shot with intense blue skies – detached from the site’s spatial structure. A dense, high frequency soundscape (composed by Sara Lenzi) of non-local crickets narrates the towers of San Gimignano as the origin of today’s global high-rise architecture. In this respect, »Upper« serves as a historical echo to »The Tallest«.
»Xed« (2016) is a photograph site-specifically installed in the cabin-like room on the rooftop of Space One, is the world’s tallest twisted building: the Cayan Tower in Dubai. The picture is rotated 90 degrees forming a barricade and in this performative gesture, crossing out the existing space in Haebangchon.
