Anne Duk Hee Jordan

Born 1978 | South Korea
Lives and works Berlin

Anne Duk Hee Jordan’s work explores the interwoven relationships between humans and non-humans. Inside the basement of Horanggasy Artpolygon, a community art space located on Yangnim mountain, Jordan has created a mirrored universe, entitled So long, and thank you for all the fish 2023. The installation stretches over three rooms: a wet room mediating a wing room on each side. The U-shaped layout invites viewers to go back and forth between these opposing and mirroring rooms, which are immersed in black light. The central room contains a pool of water and water plants growing between healing stones, which also resonates with the surrounding ecosystem of Horanggasy. The installation is inhabited by a series of robotic critters, which are a part of Jordan’s Artificial Stupidity (AS) series, 2016–ongoing: a moving eye; right and left oscillating crab arms; an octopus garden; a barnacle, which is reduced into its existing form as a penis; five extraordinary clone brains, and the master brain of James Lovelock. The title of Jordan’s new work refers to a quote from Lovelock’s 2019 book Novacene. Just like the environmentalist and futurist Lovelock, whose magnificent brain she likes to pick, Jordan observes and analyses the environment and possible futures surrounding us, especially the ocean, which she has explored as a free diver from a young age. The installation feels like a deep time, where it all began, and a distant future all at the same time.

Captions

Anne Duk Hee Jordan, Octopus Garden from So long, and thank you for all the fish 2023. Tin can, spring and octopus tentacles. 20×20×20cm. Courtesy the artist, Commissioned by the 14th Gwangju Biennale, Supported by Yanghyun Foundation. Detail, 14th Gwangju Biennale (2023). Image courtesy Gwangju Biennale Foundation. Photo: glimworkers