Culture

None Gallery, 24 Stafford Street

It is difficult to articulate the sense of anguish and pain reflected in Samin Son’s Hammer piece. I felt as though I were submerged inside Son’s subconscious, as if no words would be adequate to describe how such an intense experience affected me.
As though he were possessed, Son moved jaggedly across the gallery space, sonically and chaotically releasing a distorted self-portrait. Son is a Korean-born, Wellington-based artist who is currently completing his BFA at Massey University. He has previously performed this piece at Russian Frost Farmers gallery in Wellington. The performance is, however, site specific, its continuing evolution dependent upon the space in which it is performed. Hammer piece contains fragments of dialogue and contorted physicality drawn from Son’s compulsory military service in the Korean army. Employing both a hammer and a blunt metal object, Hammer piece involved a gestural attack of the installation space, as Son remoulded, destroyed, adjusted and added objects to the space. Son’s endurance, coupled with his haunting physicality and shards of dialogue echoing through the space, created an experience which was altogether unsettling, yet completely absorbing and intimate.
Although improvised, there was a sense of control engrained within Son’s frighteningly sporadic and aggressive movements. Alongside fellow musician Max Trevor, Son created an eerie soundscape, which further drew the viewer’s eye into the distraught spatial environment. Perhaps the most poignant and tenacious moment during the performance was the artist’s interaction with a cage, which effectively conveyed the feeling of being trapped by obligation, being without choice and forced to repress all feeling. Son’s vacant, child-like gaze conveyed horrific brutality. This sense of vulnerability left one wanted to comfort Son, before he suddenly erupted into further destruction of the space surrounding him.
Hammer piece made me feel continuously on edge; I wanted to look away, yet I remained magnetically glued to the figures moving around me. The threat of being injured crossed my mind several times, yet I could not move.