mari masouridou / hyunmin ryu
a visual dialogue
We invited two artists from our previous issue to A Visual Dialogue in issue #3. Mari Masouridou and Hyunmin Ryu play visual ping-pong across the world in their work 8741, the distance from their homes in Greece and South Korea with this delightful series of unexpected images. In their written exchanges they build a rapport full of encouraging words that became part of their conversation and is a touching addition to the images.
Happy they accepted the challenge, we now present the results of that match.
8741
Nov. 18 2021
Mari
I think of this challenge as a game with someone at the other side of the world. Bubble blowing is a common thing for children everywhere, so by starting with this image I invite Hyunmin to play with me.
Nov. 19 2021
Hyunmin
The first picture by you makes me feel happy because of the childlike color, beautiful shapes of objects and the toys which most people might have played with when they were little.
And soon it evokes anxiety and sadness in me. When I connect with photo images, I can’t resist that kind of feeling.
Photography makes me conscious of time. That's why I'm sad. Photography becomes the past as soon as it is taken, and we already know it. The act of photography is an act of recognizing time, and recognizing time is painful for me. The perception of time reminds me of the disappearance of the objects in photography and myself.
I am currently working on a project taking pictures of my beloved nephew. More and more often I tell him, “Can’t you grow up slowly, please? I hate that you grow up so fast.”
The dominant emotion I felt when I saw the first image you sent me was that the bubble that had swelled to its perfect shape would eventually burst. I happily accept your invitation to 'photo play'. And I imagine as follows : The bubble, made somewhere in Greece, is strong and healthy enough to travel thousands of kilometers, making it a great adventure to see different countries and beautiful people. And eventually, it arrived at a beach in Korea at sunset.
If the bubble is destined to burst in the end, why doesn’t it fall on one of the colorful and pretty colored pencils stuck in the feet of a child and an adult who are Wolverine lovers?
Hey Mari, What color do you like?
Nov. 20 2021
Mari
It is a beautiful and playful photo which I really like. It has a carefree feeling which I have missed during the pandemic. It made me think of drawings and happy colorful things. So I took a walk today around Athens and found a department store that had a colorful interior.
I photographed its ceiling and walls. With Hyunmin’s photo in mind I wondered about all those feet that have walked inside that building. Thinking about the same picture it felt to me as if the pencils collided into that ceiling.
Nov. 21 2021
Hyunmin
Your second photo is just as lovely as the first. The vivid colors are playful and friendly, as if bringing back the excitement of my childhood before entering the toy store.
The abstract image becomes an even better image by adding a bit of confusion that has been turned upside down by the presence of a cctv camera. (By the way, is the upside down image correct?)
In Daegu, Korea, I suddenly think. What color is the department store interior in Athens? How would these various colors, captured by Mari's camera and given in a mediated form from the display media I'm looking at now, have been recognized if I had been in the same space and time the picture was taken?
I had my 10-year-old nephew create a color checkerboard, a tool for reproducing relatively accurate colors for my project. I gave him an original swatch and let him paint it like a children's coloring book with his tools. I took the second picture that responds to you with the first image I made with this clumsy color checkerboard. I went to the sea again, and I took a picture of the sea reflected in the space and time I belonged to at that moment. And the final picture was completed by creating a color profile with the child's checkerboard.
While taking photos, I imagine the color of the sea in Greece and the color of Mari’s sea.
Nov. 22 2021
Mari
Photography is often a way for me to escape from the reality of everyday life, either by finding a way to turn into myself, or by creating things that make me think of other worlds. This color balancing card, drawn by a child, has been placed in front of the horizon. To me it looks like a portal to another universe. I have a cement cube and some glitter-paper, which I often use as studio accessories. In a photo collage I distorted the cube, having in mind an alien object in a vast sea of stars. How many hidden universes exist in our everyday lives I wonder. I also reflect on how photography often calls on our imagination to question what it is we see.
Nov. 22 2021
Hyunmin
I think having the ability to manipulate everyday scenes into extraordinary changes through photography is a great tool one can have as a photographer. In fact, I get great satisfaction as a spectator when I come across an event that has emotional reverberation from everyday objects, people, and scenes through the works of some great artists.
You have created a universe out of a combination of ordinary objects in the studio. In your photos it will be a photographic truth.
Our photo dialog is now half way through. So far I would like to mention that your positive and imaginative fairy tale approach is quite different from mine and at the same time very captivating. I feel that our approach is going interestingly from optimistic to pessimistic and from pessimistic to optimistic.
Like you, I tried to find the subject of photography in my studio, the most everyday space I feel. A green creature appeared from extraterrestrial material coming from a portal resembling a color checkerboard on the sea. Something hatches from some holes it has. Anything before hatching might have the potential to be anything.
Nov. 24 2021
Mari
All his (Hyunmin’s) photos have an element of surprise which I really love. To me this appears like two small alien eggs that their mother attached to the plant in order for them to have food when they are born. It seems that the red color on their shell resulted in a red alien being hatched from them. It grew in size very quickly. Now it is able to run around in the studio. Sometimes it bothers me asking for food.
Nov. 24 2021
Hyunmin
It's a bizarre and powerful picture. Especially for me, the left forefoot (Oops sorry, the model's right hand) tilts out a little bit, which disturbs my stability and makes the photo even more dynamic as it makes me imagine a later event (collapsing to the right).
Mari, I think I saw that creature on the street. I don't know if he's dead or looking at the home star, but it's faded and stretched helplessly on the floor. Did you properly feed the creature the right food?
Nov. 25 2021
Mari
What a witty response you gave me! In correlation with my previous image I found it very clever and it made me laugh. But then, it also made me sad. I thought about all the things that we throw away like trash once their use for us is over and how that affects the world we live in. Since this crooked chair looks like a dead little animal turned upside down, I couldn't help but think about life and death. I also thought about animals suffering. I have a great love for animals, so I am very emotional about their wellbeing.
Nov. 25 2021
Mari
For my response I created this image outside my studio, on the pavement of the street. I placed an embalmed bird inside a plastic bag. To me it looks as if it is alive and tangled in that plastic. But I know the truth of that picture, which is that the bird is not alive anymore and that brings out a sadness in me. It is true that this is life, happiness follows sadness (just like in our dialogue) and the circle goes on...
Nov. 29 2021
Hyunmin
That picture is a beautiful picture that is really intense and enigmatic to me. I think the uneasy combination of the bird and the plastic bag, which contrasts with the stable color and composition of the photo, is a great work, both aesthetically and emotionally.
After receiving your email, I pondered for a while as to what kind of image I should reply with. Discussing the cycle of nature and the welfare of animals from the human point of view has obvious limitations, so the subject becomes heavy. Having an “ego” with logical power is both a blessing and a pain because you recognize the limits of what you can do. The concept of nature has a limit as a concept that is in contrast to humans, and I think that overcoming it means overcoming the objectification that comes from the ego.
In response to your work, I have decided to introduce an animal friend of our family, whom we recently adopted. This guy's name is Mango. Commonly known as crested geckos, these creatures inhabit a small area of the island of New Caledonia in the South Pacific. The species was thought to be extinct before it was discovered by exploration. Currently, this species is bred as pets in many parts of the world, and humans are increasing the number by breeding various morphs not found in nature. As I was looking for ways to care for ‘Mango’, I was surprised that the breeding of these animals was highly industrialized.
While looking at a Mango with a happy and loving gaze, I suddenly wonder what he is thinking. Will he be happy with my family? We have no choice but to put aside our guilt and treat it with love.
I took a picture of Mango with a tissue box that resembles a New Caledonian tropical island presented by my nephew and a cage that I bought to make a vivarium.
Dec. 02 2021
Mari
Thank you for the lovely picture. It’s very interesting to know about the life of this species. It’s also interesting to note how your nephew always seems to sneak into your work and bring a charming effect on each image. The vibrant colors of the artificial habitat give a happy note to the image and I hope that this is also the case for Mango.
I really like geckos and lizards in general as well and I enjoy seeing pictures of them. I thought about how the world seems and how we humans look through the eyes of a small animal. Little creatures like geckos exist among us often without us noticing them. They are often hidden within rocks or leaves and we usually pass above them many times in our everyday lives. I wonder what they think when they see us and how we appear to them.
Dec. 02 2021
Mari
For my last picture and in response to your work, I decided to photograph a familiar person to me, my friend Maria, but having in mind the point of view of a small creature like your gecko. She is passing through, without noticing the sharp little eyes that look from below.
Dec 6 2021
Hyunmin
I have received your wonderful reply. I'm currently working on the project with my nephew, and I'm so focused on it, so it seems that I often mention my nephew in our work as well.
Regarding your response, I felt a warm heart from the description of your photo. Perhaps our photographs need a warm gaze for the world as much as the effort to produce cutting edge images and renew the manner of art.
From your photos, I think about the human gaze and the attempts to overcome it and the effects that come from it. I try to imagine the impossible, 'What is the experience of looking at the environment and objects from the perspective of a pure natural state that excludes reason?'
That imagination will soon become unknown and mysterious. Instead, I shrunk to a very small size and am locked in a glass cage of Mango’s. In it I have nothing but a camera. I just take pictures of the surroundings with my blurry vision. Now Mango is huge enough to be a threat to me. I envy the sharp gaze of Mango you mentioned.
Dec 7 2021
Mari
I quite enjoy the surreal element of it and it makes me think how small we are in comparison to the world. I think that the layers in the image are interesting; in the center of the image there is the human figure which seems artificial placed in another layer that looks like a small jungle which looks real, but at the end you realize that it’s artificial as well, when you notice the upper part of the image. This interplay of real and artificial is something that I’m very interested in and is clearly visible in my work as well.
Following the collaboration we asked Mari and Hyunmin about the experience.
Describe the collaborative process with a total stranger on the other side of the world.
Mari: To me it was something completely new. I rarely work with other people let alone a complete stranger from the other side of the world. I was somewhat troubled at first but after the first response I realized that the process would go smoothly and that it would be something that we’d both enjoy a lot. To me this distance and what it means for our collaboration became central to the project itself, hence the title of our dialogue. Image aside, our daily communication and the fact that Hyunmin was very expressive about our work helped me a lot to deliver what I envisioned about our collaboration. I think there was great anticipation for each other’s response and that made us work very quickly producing nearly one photograph per day.
Hyunmin: It was a really great experience. It was a good opportunity for us to empathize and understand each other while sharing our differences and commonalities. Although we each have very different cultural heritages, we also share a common background: art and photography. The mutual penetration of these differences and commonalities made this project even more interesting.
How did the visual dialog affect your work?
Mari: Coming out from a darker period in my work where my photos were more introspective, organic and low-lit, this visual dialog with Hyunmin made me return to colors and a more playful approach to my work. Seeing the work Hyunmin is doing with his nephew inspired me to work in a more playful manner than usual, perhaps even trying to come in touch with a more childish part of me. I think that is clearly evident from the photographs as they are slightly different in style compared to my previous work.
Hyunmin: I don't think it has a direct impact on my ongoing work at this point. This is because the process of conception of a work and its application to the work proceeds over a long period of time. But Mari's passionate attitude and way of working was a good motivator for me.
How will it affect the way you work, or think about making work in the future?
Mari: I really enjoyed the process of working with someone else, getting feedback for my work and at the same time having a reference to work on coming from someone else’s work. Since this process was highly productive, it’s possible that I will attempt to work with someone else in the future as well.
Hyunmin: I don't know if she would agree, but in my conversations with Mari, I saw the warmth and positive side of her eyes seeing the world. I honestly envy her that way. I also think that I would like to see those aspects appear a little more in my work.