팩트 리버풀(FACT Liverpool)에서 오픈한 생일 정원(Birthday Garden)은 커미션 작업으로 물려받은 역사, 지리, 생물학 및 문화에 의해 우리의 자아감이 어떻게 형성되는지 살펴보고 기술이 어떻게 새로운 방식을 탐구하는데 도움이 되는지 질문한다.

생일정원은 프로젝션 맵핑 조형물 시리즈로 구성된 몰입형 수중 정원이다. 대안 미래속 고고학 유적지컨셉으로 물 속의 생일정원을 통해 얄루는 한국에서 자라면서 자연스럽게 체화한 제례의식(생일 미역국), 민속촌 등에서 만난 민속 문화의 요소, 한국대중문화 (K-pop, K-beauty, K-drama) 요소를 혼합 차용하여 생일 정원을 구성한다.

프로젝션 맵핑 설치물은 미역 장승, 연못, 및 시트마스크 형태의 생일 전당, 춤추는 미역요정이 담긴 괄사캡슐이 있다. 얄루는 정원의 '관광 안내자' 역할을 하며 세계적으로 소비되기 위해 거래되고 판매된 한국 문화의 파편을 발굴하면서 관객과 함께 자신의 새로운 길, 정체성을 스스로 개척하고자 한다.


작가: 얄루
음악: 예츠비
음악보조: 송하민
제작보조: 우혜진
모션캡쳐: Carlos Marfill
코리오그래프: Anna Franco, David Hitchmough
그래픽 디자인: 김보배, 곽은정, 듀킴, Charlotte Horn
사진: Rob Battersby, 얄루
전시 기획: Carrie Chan
전시 제작: FACT

Installation environment with multi-channel video, sound, sculpture Yaloo is a visual artist from South Korea who uses digital media and technology to create interactive installations. In Birthday Garden, Yaloo invites us into an immersive underwater garden inspired by her coming-of-age story and symbols of Korean culture. The work follows her journey through memories, experiences and global cultures to explore identity and gender roles in our consumer-driven, hyperconnected world.

Set in an undiscovered archaeological site from the near future, the underwater garden connects stories told across generations of a fictional Korean family to aspects of contemporary Korean culture. The installation is divided into a temple-like gateway, a pond and a shrine to seaweed. Seaweed has long held an important position in Korean culture, particularly as a comforting ritual repeated across generations, with families eating seaweed soup every year as a nutritious birthday meal. Yaloo weaves these memories together with a glowing altar in the shape of a sheet mask, and images of guardian fairies dancing to K-Pop, choreographed with members from the University of Liverpool's K-pop Society and a group of young people from Liverpool.

Acting as a ‘tour guide’ to this shrine, Yaloo invites us to excavate fragments of Korean culture which have been traded and sold for global consumption. By merging these fragments with both her own and her family’s experiences and memories, Yaloo reclaims their meaning: forging her own path through the world.

Commissioned by FACT. Supported with funds from Arts Council England, Liverpool City Council, and Korea Culture Center, UK

Birthday Garden premieres as part of two person show, < My Garden My Sanctuary >


Artist: Yaloo
Sound: yyetsubyy
Animation assistant: Hamin Song
Production assistant: Hyejin Woo
Mocap: Carlos Marfill
Choreography: Anna Franco, David Hitchmough
Graphic design help: Bobae Kim, EunJung Kwak, Dew Kim, Charlotte Horn
Photo: Rob Battersby, Yaloo
Exhibition curated by Carrie Chan
Exhibition produced by Fact