With <FUNAMBULIST> I explore the disorienting sense of vertigo experienced in a new home, where the rapid redevelopment eerily mirrors the landscape of my birthplace, South Korea. East London was transformed by massive capital projects leading up to the 2012 Olympics, it now offers a surface veneer of grandeur with its towering skyscrapers. The sensation of vertigo serves as a metaphor for our relentless pursuit of progress and success, reminder on the dangers of reaching too high, lest we risk falling.

On Dr. Davide Deriu’s On Balance: Architecture and vertigo, Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd (24 Feb. 2023), Thomas Brandt explains ‘[h]abituation to height vertigo may occur through repeated exposure, as is observed in steeplejacks, roof-workers, and tightrope artists, who achieve a remarkable degree of postural balance with seeming insensitivity to height’. As towers ascend towards closer to the heavenly sky, they increasingly detach from the realities of the ground. Those looking down from such lofty heights lose touch with the vertigo they once experienced, rendering it irrelevant to their physical and mental state. 

This work, utilizing 18 extreme multiple exposures, encapsulates a visual representation of vertigo, introspection, and reflection. It is inspired by the Korean swear word "18: ssibal".
Special thanks to Catherine Yass.

Photographed between 2023-2024.
Proofings made in 2024.

NOTE:

-CICA Museum, Abstract Mind, 10th International Exhibition on Abstract Art (coming up April 2025)