Friday 19 April, 11:30am
Aotearoa Art Fair, Föenander Galleries
Visit the Föenander Galleries booth for an interactive performance by 박성환 Sung Hwan Bobby Park. Here you will be able to experience wearing the ceramic bullet proof helmets (BTM bang tan mo) personally fitted by the artist.
“As a queer person going through this mandatory conscription in Korea, I experienced first hand how fragile my existence was under the Korean military law 92-6 which criminalized homosexuality. Even though I was wearing this supposedly indestructible protective gear, the threat of violence came within the organization I had to be a part of in order to keep my citizenship which is significant for my identity. I made B.T.M with clay to reflect the vulnerability of the individual’s body and question what we are protecting ourselves from and where the threat comes from.I never spoke about my homosexuality with anybody; I had to lie about it because I didn’t want to go to jail … If I told anyone about this aspect of myself, that sense of protection and identity would shatter. My bulletproof helmet was essentially as fragile as these ceramic ones
Each ceramic helmet features an insignia of the three letters in the series title. It alludes to the iconic South Korean K-pop band BTS (which Park adores) and the abbreviation of “bottom” often used in queer culture. The helmet motif unifies his practice, linking the utilitarian shapes of earlier helmets he created with the flamboyance of more recent additions, which are covered in colourful patterns, artificial hair, protruding eyes and almost cartoonish paintings of faces.
Also, the B.T.M is a representation of the institution and its policies. Establishments and their rules are often regarded as sacred. But if they discriminate toward the very people that serve them, those rules and attitudes must be evaluated and reconstituted. So I invite the idea; those seemingly indestructible and sacred organizations and policies should be broken so that we can build a better one which eliminates discrimination for all people. B.T.M is a helmet for everybody. Celebrate our fragile bodies and our identities, whoever we may be.” – 박성환 Sung Hwan Bobby Park
