Exhibition Information

Press release (English)

Back and Forth presents new and recent work of Richard Jochum, an Austrian media artist who currently lives in New York.

The following works are on display:

Survey is a large-scale wall installation presenting viewers with an imaginary choice about their projected attitude toward the world around them. The piece is a political statement that examines the emotional undercurrent that leads people to fall for a demagogue. It highlights the critical importance of social imagination by challenging participants and viewers to reflect on their own perceived future. Survey was initially conceived as a silkscreen print in English. The work then developed into a mail art project with participants responding to the questionnaire. Survey has been translated into a number of languages. Alongside the wall installation, gallery viewers are encouraged to share their own thoughts on the postcards provided. Feel free to participate!
Postcards; Wall paint, vinyl foil; 3.23 meter, South-Korea 2018

Tug of War is a multiple channel video installation showing a boy and a girl struggling to pull on the same rope from either side. Tug of War is performed by identical twins. The video is recorded in 15 increments, each monitor showing a single slice of the recording. The installation at Gallery Bundo shows the full 15 monitors installation for the first time. While representing a self that is forcefully conflicted, the installation embodies polarization within the self rather than in the other.
Video projection with 15 monitors, 15 stands, and 15 Rasperry-Pis, Chicago/New York/Daegu 2018
Co-producer: Ted Hardin. Thomas Martinez. Taekyung Kim
Performers: Liam and Adrian van der Bijl, Gianna and Olivia Aquilina

In Catch, which alludes to the childhood game, two people toss cell phones between each other. The videos recorded by each of the two phones during the playful game will be shown next to each other as a projection. Referring to a pervasive selfie culture, the recordings capture the players and their environment in topsy-turvy slow motion. -- Catch is a two-channel video projection depicting two people tossing cell phones between each other, alluding to the childhood game of the same name. The videos were recorded in slow motion by the two cells phones that are being tossed, presenting the perspectives of the cell phones. Catch takes place in Central Park in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Views of the green scenery of Central Park contrasting the urban skyscrapers of the city can be seen behind the two players. Referring to a pervasive selfie culture, the recordings playfully capture the two performers and their changing environment in topsy-turvy slow motion.
Video mapping project, New York, 2017
Performers: HC Huynh & Richard Jochum

Atlas was the Greek God and Titan who led the protest against Zeus for which he was condemned to bear the heavens on his shoulder. The video installation shows the latest development of the artist enacting Atlas by doing headstands on mountain tops and several other locations, later turning them upside down. In Atlas. The Load is Getting Heavier, the performer is being shown squatting, playfully alluding that the weight is becoming increasingly difficult to bear.
Video performance, Athens, 2018
Performer: Richard Jochum

Crossword Project is multi-media installation inspired by crossword puzzles and the type of questions they address, which are answerable by providing short clues. The Crossword Project goes beyond that and offers questions without clues. The outcome is an array of questions, unanswerable at large, absurdist or rhetorical at times, often exploratory, almost always soliciting responses that won’t fit into a rubric or short word. The project was developed as a video animation built in Cinema 4D from which large scale digital prints have been devised.
Video, New York, 2018
Digital fine art prints, archival, New York, 2018
Poster, New York, 2018

The Bandaid series explores vulnerability. It exists in three modes: as a series of photographs showcasing a performer covered in bandaids; as physical objects; and as a video documentation of people attaching bandaids. The series considers the juxtaposition between “skin” and “surface,” “hidden” and “exposed.” The installation with spheres is the newest extension of the multi-media project at Gallery Bundo.
8 Spheres, 3 Prints, 1 Movie

Ashes to Ashes, Stones to Stones is a video performance that consists of a performer throwing stones and watching them plunge into the water. The video presents a playful ritual that is being loved by children and adults alike. The procedure of throwing stones is poetic and simple. It is based on a childhood imagination that we can look into our future by watching the movement of the rippling water pan out. The energy that goes into the throwing of the stone determines the size of the splash in the water. The short video is edited in a way that shows the performer bow in front of her imaginary audience at the end of the ritual. The video is accompanied by a digital fine art print that showcases the performer in an ambiguous pose.
Video performance (3 min 14 sec, looped)
Digital Fine Art Print

Rock Candy is an installation consisting of 30 giant stones gift-wrapped in silver and green metallic foil, much of which came from first-aid emergency blankets. The installation is confined by and placed on a large metal plate. Rock Candy offers a visual gift. It makes a promise it cannot fulfill; it playfully makes a visual gift instead. A small Rock Candy installation with 40 small stones wrapped in gold and purple foil on an elevated platter repeats the offering at a different, much smaller size.
Rock Candy, large stones, metallic foil, metal plate (200 cm)
Rock Candy, small stones, metallic foil, elevated platter (70 cm)

Artist Bio:
Richard Jochum is a media artist with a strong focus on video, installation, performance and conceptual photography. He is a studio member at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts and an associate professor of art and art education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He has worked in various media since the late 1990s and has had 200 international exhibitions and screenings. Richard received his PhD from the University of Vienna (1997) and an MFA in sculpture and media art from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna (2001). He has been awarded numerous grants and prizes. One of his latest large scale art installations has been a 30,000 square feet collaborative video mapping project onto the Manhattan Bridge.
See also: http://richardjochum.net

Richard Jochum, “Back and Forth”
Gallery Bundo, South Korea
July 2 - 21, 2018