Artist duo Studio Drift debuts first solo show in Asia in Itaewon

Arts & Design

Published: 14 Dec. 2022, 15:24 Updated: 14 Dec. 2022, 15:37

Artist duo Studio Drift debuts first solo show in Asia in Itaewon

″Fragile Future″ (2019) by Studio Drift [STORAGE BY HYUNDAI CARD]

Studio Drift, an artist duo based in Amsterdam, is known for its kinetic installations, exploring the relationship between nature and technology. The inspiration for these works stems from each artist’s interest in sci-fi and nature.

Now it is debuting its first solo show in Asia at Storage by Hyundai Card, an exhibition space located in Itaewon, central Seoul, created by the credit card company.

Titled “In Sync with the Earth,” the exhibition features four of the duo’s major artworks: the “Materialism” series, “Shylight” (2006-14), “Amplitude” (2015) and “Fragile Future” (2019).

Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta sat down with the press to introduce the duo’s works at the exhibition last week.

A close-up of Studio Drift's ″Fragile Future″ (2019) [STORAGE BY HYUNDAI CARD]

Arguably the duo’s most famous piece, “Fragile Future” comprises of 15,000 dandelions that were collected from all over Amsterdam. A small light bulb has been inserted into each flower. It is on view at the very last section of the exhibition.

“These are real dandelions, and every year in May in the Netherlands it is ‘dandelion time.’ We harvest [...] dry them [...] take them off the stem and take an LED light and one by one we glue them with tweezers [...] so these are recreated natural LED flowers,” Gordijn said.

“So there are many, many, many hours in this installation.”

The exhibition includes a wide collection from Drift’s “Materialism” series, including four new pieces. At first glance, these pieces may remind viewers of Tetris, due to the composition of blocks in all sizes and colors.

“Materialism” was born from the pair’s “curiosity in how the world is made” and the “interconnection between art and the world,” Gordijn said.

The meaning of the pieces extends much farther than how they appear on the outside: Objects like an iPhone or a Barbie doll have been dismantled to their rawest and most minimal forms.

A number of comparisons are provided on the walls of the exhibit, with “Materialism” versions of an iPhone 4S and Nokia phone, Casio and Rolex watches and a Starbucks coffee and McDonald’s Big Mac each shown side by side.

Each block, which represent a material like plastic or glass, maintain the 1:1:2 ratios that the artists explained is “a formative beauty” in terms of mathematics or architecture and how this ratio “has the most possibilities.”

Studio Drift's ″iPhone 4S″ (2018), left, and ″Nokia 3210″ (2018), both part of the ″Materialism″ series [SHIN MIN-HEE]

“You see that the biggest block of the iPhone is the glass, because the screen is the most important thing of the iPhone,” Gordijn said. “While for the Nokia, the most important thing was the plastic, and this was to protect the electronics. So you see that in 10 years there has been a completely different approach [to making cell phones] by the use of materials and the amount of materials.”

The four new pieces are “Barbie,” “Game Boy Classic,” “Game Boy Classic Game” and “Shin Ramyun.”

The works that are part of “Materialism” that depict food actually underwent a conservation process and were dried and pressed together. “Shin Ramyun” portrays the actual noodles, sugar, salt and sauce elements of the famous Korean ramyeon brand.

In“The Artist she/her and The Artist he/him” (2021), the artists have not deconstructed a product, but themselves.

Studio Drift's “The Artist she/her and The Artist he/him” (2021), part of the ″Materialism″ series [STORAGE BY HYUNDAI CARD]

Nauta said that they got the idea after thinking, “Can we take organic objects apart?” and then, “Why don’t we start with ourselves?”

The piece is divided into female and male sections, each of which explore the different stages of life at the ages 0, 4, 40 and 80. The piece includes blocks of water, blood and fat — the sizes of which all vary according to age.

Gordijn and Nauta first met in 1999 when they were studying at the same school, the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. In 2007 they formed Studio Drift and later exhibited their works in places all over the world, including Italy’s Venice Biennale in 2015 and New York, Abu Dhabi and London.

Over the years, the duo has actively utilized a wide range of technology in its artworks, such as “Franchise Freedom” (2017) which saw 300 illuminated drones sweep the skies of Miami Beach, and perform a choreographed routine.

Studio Drift's Lonneke Gordijn, left, and Ralph Nauta pose with the art duo's latest piece ″Shin Ramyun″ (2022), part of the ″Materialism″ series. [STORAGE BY HYUNDAI CARD]

But what makes Drift stand out from other artists that also implement technology in their works is that it doesn’t “take something off a shelf and then make an addition.” It’s actually “the opposite,” Nauta said.

“When there’s nothing like it, we start developing [...] and creating from scratch. It might take 10 years. We create something nobody has seen before.”

“And I think in our work, it’s also our process to understand nature better,” Gordijn added. “Our artistic process is to understand the possibilities and the limitations of humans, and our objective is always to create something that is close to life.”

″Amplitude″ (2015) by Studio Drift [STORAGE BY HYUNDAI CARD]

“Drift: In Sync with the Earth” continues until April 16 next year. Storage by Hyundai Card is open every day except Mondays and the Lunar New Year holidays. General admission is 5,000 won ($3.80).

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]