FEATURE: WHEN IT TURNS TO THE PAST
When It Turns To The Past by Ted Oonk & Su Jung – £5
When It Turns To The Past is part of the multi-medial project Contour – a collaboration between Dutch and Korean artists, Ted Oonk and Su Jung. The publication is a haunting index of black and white medium, divided by a comforting narrative of twelve short stories, written by Jung.
The short fiction follows nostalgic and romantic discourse surrounding the mysterious phenomenon of islands and the things they are inhabited by. Isolated by their own circumstances, the characters featured in each excerpt explore feelings of loss and abandonment and how the paralleled remoteness of the island, hypothetical or not, enables them to heal.
The textural photography throughout reflects the enforced solitude that islands can gift to people. Reading each page and taking in each image feels like wandering in a lucid dream; vaguely familiar, yet tinged by the angst of being adrift. Images of luring forests, tightly packed cattle and ominous cloud formations echo the foreboding thoughts in Jung’s stories, capturing notions of ageing, loss and choice.
The combined text and photography deal with themes of continuous hardships and introspective discovery. Humans may be genetic vessels whose emotions are mere side effects of this cycle, but it is through the choice of whether to stay or go, despite being free to leave the island, that renders the book’s subjects instantly captivating.
Contour will be screened on our Digital Window Gallery in Mann Island’s atrium space from the 6 July. When It Turns To The Past is also available to buy in our independent shop.
Words by Gina Schwarz