Earth, Consuming Myth: Dakyo Oh, Gee Song
We all live inextricably rooted in the land. As the source of life, the earth has long been central to our history and existence, embodying both our beginnings and our ultimate end. Yet in our contemporary era, this once-mythic presence is increasingly commodified and reshaped. We treat nature as a purchasable concept and reduce it to an object of consumption, sometimes overlooking its deeper implications. Earth, Consuming Myth delves into these tensions and contradictions through works by two artists, Dakyo Oh and Gee Song, who each present a distinct visual language to illuminate the intersection of nature and myth amid the forces of material consumption in modern society.
Dakyo Oh interprets the earth as a primordial entity bearing the imprints of life and time. This exhibition features her Reflective series, which explores the intersection between the earth and human existence, depicting the cyclical play of vitality and impermanence. Employing elemental materials such as soil, sand, and charcoal, Oh conveys the tactile sensation and moist quality of the earth, reflecting the liveliness of natural light, wind, and humidity to evoke a more primal awareness of the ground beneath us. Here, “Reflective” refers not just to the act of observing; it signifies the process of self-realization that takes place through our interaction with nature. As droplets seep into the earth, outlines shimmer in the rain, and traces of life fall onto the surface; these fleeting impressions offer a renewed view of nature as a modern myth.
Gee Song, on the other hand, sees earth as a complex symbol intricately interwoven with history, culture, authority, and consumerism. In her work, the earth is no longer a static entity but expands into a domain of placeness, perpetually consumed and reconfigured in the digital age. Structures reminiscent of ancient Greek temples, palm trees invoking exotic locales, and the radiant hue of red minerals—cultural markers of holiday and escape—detach from actual geography to form immaterial, virtual landscapes. Through digital layering and reproducing colors translated as RGB, Song deftly navigates between past and present, reality and fiction, capturing the shifting attitudes toward earth in a technologically driven world. Her practice calls into question how we consume nature in our digitized society and challenges us to reassess our own perspectives on it.
Earth, Consuming Myth examines how our understanding of earth continues to evolve in modern life and how the very modes through which we consume it contribute to the creation of new mythologies. Dakyo Oh and Gee Song both move beyond viewing the earth as a mere natural object, expanding it into a vital code for reimagining human existence and social interrelations. Their works prompt us to look again at the profound layers beneath our everyday surroundings and the symbolic connections that take shape upon them. By interpreting nature through both physical and digital lenses, they restore meaning often lost in our routines, inciting reflections on how we understand and inhabit ‘where we are.’ As a result, viewers are invited to engage with the earth as an active presence suspended between nature and humanity, reality and imagination, material and immaterial.
