My art concerns distance – the distance between distant lands, between times, between people, between languages, and between analog and digital. Distance always presupposes two or more factors. Therefore, considering distance means considering relations: how far or close you and I are, where the untranslatability of language translation lies, how pixel and quantum can be inter-metynimized, and whether the past and the future are close like the present or distant like time.

I delve into these questions through my art practice, which encompasses performance, installation, digital and analog imagery, text, and video. The distance between the artist and the viewers is sometimes unreachably far, making the backend of the art untranslatable. An art piece serves as a mediator, or more precisely, a translator between the artist and the viewers. However, this translation by the art piece differs from that of languages; it’s more akin to the transduction of data. Transduction involves translating between different data formats. When data format A is translated into data format B, there's inevitably a loss of data, and often, this loss leads to unexpected, yet interesting glitches. I believe these glitches are what make the process of transduction, translation, and art exciting. By embracing and celebrating glitches and untranslatability in my work, I aim to uncover the poetry beneath them.

Sae Oh, 2024

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