Remote, 2024
4th Ward Project Space. Chicago, IL
March 10 – April 14, 2024
Remote expands Oh’s research into gaming technologies, communication networks, and value systems through a series of new drawings and sculptural installations. The exhibition excavates the poetics of the term “remote,” framing the PC bahng[1]—an archetypal cybercafé that emerged in South Korea during the 1990s—as a site that removes distances and time from social exchanges. Offering the possibility of immersion within a virtual world while in the presence of others, the PC bahng fosters a unique form of sociality premised on simultaneous isolation and connectivity, signaling a radical shift from artist café cultures of centuries past.
Oh explores Neolithic to neoliberal horizons through sculptural gestures and assemblage: carved bones stand in for controllers, hemp fibers contour messy cord systems, and graphite drawings—rudimentary forms of communication technology and the basis of artmaking—simulate computer screens. Capturing digital landscapes generated by the StarCraft[2] game engine, Oh’s gridded drawings are structured like a photographer’s contact sheet and reminiscent of data, seemingly empirical and unbiased in presentation. The grid also organizes a series of keyboard sculptures, upon which Korean-English stickers form text-based compositions. These configurations of characters visualize mistranslations between languages, which accumulate through rapid and repetitive communication between devices.
A constellation of gaming terminals constructed with found objects and drawing, Remote captures a once emergent form of network culture within a state of flux, playing with the cycles of capitalist time that insist upon newness, produce waste, and render commodities obsolete.
Operating from his studio in Chicago, Ed Oh (b. 1992) is a visual artist from Los Angeles. Oh’s work concretizes terminals between material and virtual spaces. His drawings, paintings, and sculptures carry mystic tones found in today’s abstract orthodoxies of interfaced technology, language, and image. He earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Riverside.
[1] “PC Bahngs resemble cybercafés in many other countries, as they typically offer a cheap, high-speed Internet connection. But here, instead of sending e-mail or watching YouTube, most kids play online games either by themselves or in a more social atmosphere. Kids—boys, mostly—sneak out from under the watchful eye of their parents to put in an hour or three blasting away at virtual enemies across the room, across the country, or across the globe.”
Excerpt from The Internet of Elsewhere, Cyrus Farivar, https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-internet-of-elsewhere/id991172900, This material may be protected by copyright..
[2] “STARCRAFT IS KNOWN AS A REAL-TIME strategy game, in which players must collect resources, build military units, and seek out their opponent in the game’s online map.”
Excerpt from The Internet of Elsewhere, Cyrus Farivar, https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-internet-of-elsewhere/id991172900, This material may be protected by copyright..
Text by Nolan Jimbo.
Barely Fair, 2023
Color Club. Chicago, IL
The curated booth at Barely Fair, an annual miniature art fair, is presented by this year’s guest curator, Nolan Jimbo. This mixed media sculpture intricately combines mixed media to create a compelling visual experience. Central to the piece are bone carvings meticulously socketed with remote control buttons, symbolizing an intersection of organic materiality and technological interface. Complementing these are Korean English keyboard stickers playfully placed on “basic” Hydrocal casts, adding a tactile and cultural dimension to the work. The sculpture also incorporates both negative and positive casts of a water jug, which function as a structural rig supporting a loose leaf drawing.
The drawing itself is a grid composition composed of screenshots from the video game Starcraft, reflecting themes of strategy, e-sport culture, and visual fragmentation. Together, these components form a complex dialogue between tradition and modernity, physicality and digitality, inviting viewers to contemplate the work in the booth as a scaled impression of a gaming stall.
Benefit Auction
Prairie, Chicago, IL
October 7, 2023
