…ism project space

‘The Calling’ is a triptych video installation in which the physical absence of an island is celebrated. The project is part of an ongoing multi-disciplinary collaboration between the Dutch artist Ted Oonk and artist Su Jung from South-Korea. By establishing a fictional anonymous island, the artists produce hypothetical narratives to explore the conceptual influence of division, categorisation, alienation and conflict. These notions illuminate the dark sides of our civilisation, closely connected to polarizing issues, such as discrimination, immigration, refugees and social isolation. As the artists live many miles apart from each other, growing up with an entirely different cultural background, the collaboration addresses uncomfortable questions about our biased ways of thinking. In terms of media, their project embraces photography, installation, video, audio, objects, publications, letters and other undefined experimental outcomes, including conversations. Thus, their commitment to the project has steadily developed into a thick volume of visual research in which islands start to move.