Locations
Seoul
Lehmann Maupin
Frieze Seoul, Booth C17
For the inaugural edition of Frieze Seoul, Lehmann Maupin will debut a new work by Erwin Wurm rendered in Augmented Reality (AR) at the fair and our gallery in Seoul. Ghost (2022) will be presented via CollectAR—the gallery’s recently launched AR platform—allowing collectors and art fair goers the ability to experience the 3 meter work digitally in high resolution and to activate the work at the booth, as well as at the gallery’s location in Hannam-dong neighborhood. The physical work is made of aluminum.
“What once was an impossibility is now a reality for us at Frieze Seoul,” explains Emma Son, Senior Director at Lehmann Maupin Seoul. “New technology allows artists to enhance the viewing experience of an artwork, while offering collectors an equally attractive proposition: to view an artwork anywhere in the world without shipping and complicated logistics. It’s not only environmentally conscious, but also an extremely practical sales tool for myself and my team.”
At 3-meters high, Ghost features a flattened and anthropomorphized set of clothing and shoes (sans a visible body), with a subtle and animated breeze rippling through the clothes. Wurm’s CollectAR collaboration expands the artist’s sculptural practice into the realm of technology, and continues his engagement of themes crucial to the artist’s visual and conceptual language: absurdity versus the mundane, clothing as a second skin, and the body as sculptural medium. At the crux of these concerns, and especially in digital format, Wurm probes the definition of sculpture itself, pushing the possibilities of the medium and questioning how the quotidian objects we use define us.
Much like Ghost, Wurm’s new marble sculptures, Doubt (Icons) (2021) and Sublime (Icons) (2021), on view at Frieze Seoul, also play with perception, blurring distinctions between identifiable objects and unfamiliar, abstract forms. Nearby, Wurm’s One Minute Sculptures are on view at K11 Musea’s annual Art Karnival (through September 11th), alongside more than 20 international and local artists.
The release of Wurm’s Ghost builds on the success of the gallery’s CollectAR platform—offering immersive viewing experiences which expand the artists’ practices into new dimensions. The platform most recently launched Tom Friedman’s nearly 33-foot-high sculpture Looking Up at different sites across Hong Kong, including Hong Kong Times Square, Harbour City, and Art Basel Hong Kong; in Seoul, at Storage by Hyundai Card, Space K, and Lehmann Maupin Seoul; and in New York, outside of the gallery’s Chelsea headquarters.
About CollectAR
The project is rendered with sophisticated technology that allows users to find and activate the work through a QR code or through the gallery’s website—no app is required. CollectAR was born as a partnership between the gallery and entrepreneur Laura Lehmann, who has worked with HUE.LIVE to develop models and 3-D renderings. At the heart of this initiative is the shared goal of expanding engagement with contemporary art.