Mind the Gap is a famous audible warning phrase to take caution of passengers while crossing the gap between the train door and the station platform. It was first introduced in 1969 on the London Underground in the United Kingdom. After I moved to London, I hear this phrase several times almost every day. In contrast to Seoul or Hong Kong where I grew up, mobile communication service is completely cut off in London underground tube lines. It is also different from LA where I spent several years in which subway service is extremely limited. In London tubes, neither cell phone conversation nor SNS message is possible. Even though lots of people are still holding their smartphones, the main function of the device; the worldwide connectedness is ineffective. The sudden disconnection from the outside world and the peculiar silence dominating the commuting space is quite unfamiliar to me. Repeatedly hearing the same phrase “Mind the gap” leads me to think about the implication of the words.
MIND THE GAP, projection mapping installation, dimension variable, 5' 08", sound, black and white, 2014
It somehow feels like a warning message to people that we need to mind about the “Gap” that exists in the every aspect in our life. Gap does exist in everywhere; relationships, societies, families, etc. In this video installation, I play with the double meaning of the phrase. This minimal video installation articulates the notions of distance or a gap between people in a metaphoric way by morphing simple papers into virtual spaces. The simple paper hung on the wall in a curved shape is a metaphoric window. The first part of the video gives the audience a feeling as if they are in the moving train. Then the outside scenery starts to move and the passing landscape turns into the abstract images at some points. Moving images become geometrical shapes and create reflections on the floor as well.
The sound in the installation is recorded by myself in the rush-hour tube. If people carefully listen to it, they can realize that it is actually very quiet that they can clearly hear the phrase, “mind the gap”. With the sound and video together, I try to transform the white cube into an imaginative space in which people think about the gap in a figurative way.
MIND THE GAP
Slides show, Click to enlarge the images
MIND THE GAP
Slides show