'다른 시간, 다른 제스처, 다른 세상: 케빈 제롬 에버슨 론' [Another Time, Another Gesture, and Another World: On Kevin Jerome Everson] (MMCA Seoul, 2017).pdf (original) (raw)

2017, Images at an Impasse

Kevin Jerome Everson (b. 1965) is arguably one of the most important audio-visual artists/filmmakers working in the U.S. now. Having gained a global recognition through various retrospectives (Viennale, 2014; Visions du Reel, Nyon, 2012; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2011; and Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2009), his work has been featured at the 2008, 2012 and 2017 Whitney Biennials and the 2013 Sharjah Biennial. His huge filmography of over 140 works constitutes a peculiar monument to the past and present of African Americans, in ways that defy conventional expectations. Written and published in the wake of the first retrospective devoted to his fascinating oeuvre (as well as another significant experimental filmmaker David Gatten's) in MMCA, Seoul, Korea (1.28-2.26.2017, https://www.mmca.go.kr/eng/exhibitions/exhibitionsDetailExh.do?exhId=201701130000521), my essay explores his works in terms of the way they render manifest otherwise invisible 'techniques' (distinct from 'technology') and 'time' (often literally compressed in nondescript inert materials), along with the political ramifications of various 'gestures' in view of 'Black Lives Matter' movement. Referencing, if indirectly, notable contemporary filmmakers such Harun Farocki, Lav Diaz, John Torres, and Khavn de la Cruz, Everson imperceptibly yet decisively revises and expands their ongoing legacy. This article ends by decrypting his curious yet enigmatic suggestion that he does "not need spectators" to show how it supplements his brilliant "sculpting" of everyday gestures and craftsmanship by African Americans.