Lady- Bird –Transformation (Mirage)

I followed a highly prestigious, worldwide call for an art competition, which attracted 106 entries from all continents, 12 countries. It was in its initial stages anonymous, blind peer reviewed by highly esteemed artists and theorists. It is highly unusual for a non-Korean artist to win such a prestigious competition for a work in a flagship building. It boasts the largest free-cantilevered roof ever constructed. The cantilevered ceiling’s changing light patterns, produced by an LED lighting system, are reflected on the sculpture’s surface. BIFF is designed by globally influential, contemporary architects Coop Himmelblau and inaugurated by the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak. It will serve as the home of Asia's largest cinema event which attracted 221,002 visitors in 2012, the Busan International Film Festival. As part of my research about possibilities of sculptural transformation, I developed a sculpture which changes permanently through reflection of light and the viewer‘s position. The conceptual challenge lay in creating a static work that is permanently changing; a static object that refers to the features of the medium film. The highly reflective stainless steel was chosen to immaterialize the monumental sculpture, to reflect the permanently changing light and to make it appear light and dynamic. I decided to propose an object that does not refer directly to the architecture and that creates its own realm, so as not to be in concurrence with the very dominant surrounding, while still complimenting it stylistically. The sculpture is already subject of controversy around public art. My position is to bring form back into the discussion, and to question fixed viewpoints. To make this large sculpture we developed flexible and very precise foam cutting tools and a mixture of substances to achieve a strong and perfect surface. As cast stainless steel usually contains holes from air bubbles, we developed a method to reduce the air pressure, to eliminate embedded holes.