HYE YEON NAM : SHIFTING DATUM

FIRST WEDNESDAY OPENING RECEPTION: 05/01, 6 - 9 P.M.
artICULATE aRTIST tALK: sUNDAY, 05/19 AT 4 P.M.
 

Hye Yeon Nam’s debut exhibition at BRG, “Shifting Datum,” examines the relationship between relative sea level and the city of New Orleans, much of which sits below it. The exhibition includes three installations, each employing a different media to represent this ever-evolving relationship. Nam worked with Brendan Harmon on this series, who contributed to the data science, modeling, and digital fabrication of the project.

“Shifting Datum I” sees a red laser casting a line across a 3D printed plaster model of the New Orleans cityscape. This line, moved by a linear actuator, marks the projected relative sea level rise, year by year, for the entire century. With “Shifting Datum II,” Nam projects an animation of the changing sea level onto a model of the city printed in transparent resin. Finally, “Shifting Datum III” submerges the base of the city model in cast epoxy, representing the predicted sea level rise at the end of this century with 5°C warming.

“Through the ‘Shifting Datum’ series, I hope my audience will become more mindful about our environment and think about how to coexist with nature,” explains Nam.

Having just joined BRG as an artist member this past Fall, Nam is a digital media artist working on interactive installations and performance video. Through her art, which she approaches as research, she attempts to address social issues she sees as closely tied to her cultural identity, relationships, and responsibilities. As an immigrant to America from South Korea, she is acutely aware of her identity being caught between these two cultures. While struggling to adjust to the culture of her adopted home, she has sought to illustrate her “resistance against the conformities of society by showing variable perspectives and physical dissonance.”

Her work has been showcased in The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., in Times Square (New York, NY), The E3 Expo (Los Angels, CA), and several festivals in China, Istanbul, Ireland, the UK, Germany, Australia, Denmark, and Switzerland. She is currently an assistant professor of digital art at Louisiana State University.

This exhibition is presented alongside the latest works from Judi Betts, James Burke, and Steve Schmidt. All works from these four artists are on view, free of charge, during normal gallery hours (12 - 6 p.m., Tue - Sun) through May 30, 2019.