Exhibition Information

Sim Cheolwoong Machine Learning Studying Art History_01
2023 Single Channel Video
(Source = CICA)

			Media Gallery, CICA Museum

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The solo show of Cheol-Woong Sim will be held at the CICA Museum from April 26th to May 14th, 2023. The show will feature Sim’s video works and print works that utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to process slide images of works from the Western Art History textbooks. Sim is an influential Korean new media artist and a professor of Painting at the Seoul National University, Korea.

Sim’s “Machine Learning Studying Art History” series was generated from the machine learning process on the Western Art History. The works reveal textures that new technologies created, which seem true but distorted, and realistic yet eerie. His works reflect power struggles in art academia in a rather light and remote way, in spite of the heaviness of the subject matter.

“Faces of AI” and “Heart of AI” serieses are monotone abstract loop video works. Through constant implication of faces and movements of breathing, the works create an odd yet humanlike liveliness of “uncanny valley.” When seeing works generated by AI and machine learning, I personally feel the startling coldness of machines yet find beauty in it at the same time. Starting from commands, AI and new technologies are endlessly being active and evolving, and remain alive in a new way.

The artist Sim pinpoints crucial matters of theoretical and historical discourses in Contemporary and New Media Art. Furthermore, rather than showing them explicitly, he chooses to conceptualize and abstract the matters to give viewers room to ponder. Sim pioneers new directions of Korean Contemporary Art through his works and careers.

Leejin Kim, PhD
Art Director of CICA Museum
March 25, 2023

(Source = CICA)