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Jim Lambie's “Nervous Track” exhibition at Atlelier Hermes
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia Staff Reporter
With neon-colored strips of tape covering the entire floor of Atelier Hermes, people may wonder if this is a new design for the luxury goods maker's flagship store.
No, it's not. The dizzying, almost psychedelic, strips of color are part of ``Nervous Track,'' Scottish artist Jim Lambie's first exhibition in Seoul on the 3rd floor of the Hermes flagship store in Sinsa-dong.
The Korea Times talked with Lambie Tuesday while he and two assistants were putting the finishing touches to his floor installation.
``The shape of the piece is all dictated by the architecture… The more complicated the space, the more interesting it can look. Even on the simplest space, there are architectural discrepancies that can send ripples in the room. Every space is different, so I am always surprised at how it looks,'' he said.
Lambie's signature floor installations are called Zobop. The artist, a graduate of Glasgow School of Art, first introduced Zobop at his first solo show at the Transmission Gallery in Glasgow late in 1999.
``The question was how to empty and fill up the space at the same time. It was a challenge for me, so I decided to use the floor area to do that. At that time, I've been making sculptures with tape, covering things with tape, so I thought I can cover the space with tape. The idea developed, I started to think about the shape of the space, and use the tape to navigate the shape and edges, add another layer to the piece. I thought about color and thought this was the opportunity to do the most colorful piece I can imagine,'' he said.
His Zobop installations have covered the floors of the Duveen Gallery at Tate Britain, Tate St. Ives, Oxford's Museum of Modern Art and even the catwalk for Louis Vuitton in Paris.
As for the name Zobop, it was something he got from a graffiti tag. ``I don't know who (Zobop) is, but he seems to be very popular,'' Lambie laughed.
Wearing a black jacket and jeans, Lambie was easy-going and relaxed, but has that indescribable ``coolness'' about him. He is also a DJ and musician, playing in a group called The Boy Hairdressers, and now part of a new band called Arthur Black (although he admitted his band only has two songs and has yet to play a gig because of his busy schedule).
Titles of his works are usually taken from song titles, prompting many to speculate about how music influenced him. But Lambie thinks it's the other way around.
``My work never started from a position of trying to explain or talk about music. My concerns are mainly sculptural and the fact that the rhythm is in the piece. I think it is more about my everyday life and my interests that bleed into the work rather than as a starting point. I've never made a piece of work trying to talk about or explain music. It just seeps in. I'm happy about that. In a way it adds another element to the work,'' he said.
The exhibition title ``Nervous Track'' was taken from a club tune, but it is also the name of Lambie's new film work. He filmed an almost empty bottle (filled with tiny amounts of his own body fluids) rolling around in the back of a van while driving around the hills near Glasgow.
Also at the exhibit are oil paintings of flowers placed on top of posters of musicians like John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Billie Holliday and the Ramones, as well as ``Psychedelic Soul Sticks'' (bamboo sticks with various objects covered in yards of thread).
When it comes to the ``meaning'' of his works, Lambie wants viewers to bring and take away what they wish. ``I don't think of myself as a teacher, I don't have hard-edged meanings for the works, I like to think the work is much more democratic than that. Anyone should feel relaxed and be able to bring their own thoughts to it,'' he said.
Even though he was short-listed for the prestigious Turner Prize in 2005, the 45-year-old Lambie says it didn't really affect him. He is still surprised at how successful his art career turned out.
``I never sold my first piece until I was 37. At that stage, I wasn't expecting anything. It was just nice that people liked my work, anything else was like a bonus,'' he said, with a wry smile.
Lambie's show runs through Aug. 9 at Atelier Hermes.
cathy@koreatimes.co.kr
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