Critics like to say Korean-born artist Jewyo Rhii “blurs the boundary between public and private.” But there’s nothing private about her current exhibition, “Walls to Talk to,” at the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany. The core of the show is based on her three-year project, Night Studio, where she invited people to her apartment in Seoul to, well, poke around. A careful observer, Rhii responded with drawings, video, and new installation ideas. Now she has reconstructed parts of her Seoul apartment — from the “moving floor” to the chandeliers and lattice fences — and installed them in Frankfurt. It’s as much a month-long residency as it is a site-specific installation.
An intriguing part of the exhibition is a large hand-crafted typewriter that stamps words instead of letters on the wall. A mechanical device made of wooden levers and stone/metal mallets embossed with words is titled “Big Black Man and Small Black Man.” It is operated by the artist, a little like a catapult. (Hint to MMK: film her typing!)
Jewyo Rhii, Typewriter “Big Black Man and Small Black Man”, 2012, Installationsansicht MMK Frankfurt, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Ursula Walbröl, Düsseldorf, Foto: Axel Schneider