JUNE KOREA
is a New York–based visual artist who uses photography as a bridge to invite viewers to his constructed fantasies. As a visual artist and storyteller, his goal is to create his imagined narrative and translate it into the real world. His hope for his work is that it will serve as a catalyst that stimulates to remember what people have lost and what they once believed in.
2017.03.21 01:42
Still Lives: Eva
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Still Lives: Eva
“This is not about a sex doll, but all about us, all about our loneliness.”
“So how much is it?”
“$10,000. She is expensive,” Brian, a representative of a silicon sex doll company in Japan, told me on the phone. “However, she’s not going to leave you behind or die. She’s going to stay there with you forever as she looks now.”
A month later, I received a giant box from a sweating FedEx deliveryman. I sat down in front of the box with a box cutter. My hands were trembling slightly as the cutter went along the taped line. I eventually opened the box. It was Monday afternoon, December 29, 2014, the very first day I met her.
“Eva, your name is Eva.”
I began photographing dolls in 2001 to listen to their voices, and see their secret lives once again as I did in my childhood. And after a few years of inviting them into a photographic world I staged, I started asking myself, “Why do I really photograph dolls?”
It was loneliness. I know what people want, how to make them happy, and how to enjoy moments. I talk, drink, and sing with many people all the time. However, I find myself home alone when I wake up in my bed. I always face emptiness when I come home from work or parties. I feel lonely in the crowd. I feel the loneliest in my biggest moments of happiness. This is because I now am afraid of what comes next. I believed in eternity when I was an innocent child. I had a faith that my family, friends, and love would go on forever and with me, as long as I did my best for them. However, people, moments, and memories I wanted to last forever have left, died, or disappeared, and I know the rest of them will do the same. Seeing them leave me does not get easier no matter how many times I experienced.
That loneliness is why I became interested in photographing dolls. I know human-like but inanimate objects are not going anywhere. But then I questioned myself again. “What if I create an artificial eternity? What if I give a doll a new birth with a new identity? What if I make the one stay with me forever in the fantasy world I construct?”
For the project titled “Still Lives: Eva”—named after two words, “forever” and “Eve,” who were the first woman according to the creation myths of the Abrahamic religions—Eva and I have an uncanny relationship that began the day she came of out a box. We sleep and wake up together. We go shopping, dining, driving, and even travel together just like ordinary people do in their real lives. We laugh and cry, we feel happy and lonely. In this artificial eternity I constructed, I hope for myself and viewers who are struggling with different types of emotions everyday, that we can find more meaning by sharing stories of the solitary existence in our lives.
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ⓒJune Korea
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ⓒJune Korea
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ⓒJune Korea
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ⓒJune Korea
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ⓒJune Korea
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ⓒJune Korea
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ⓒJune Korea
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ⓒJune Korea
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ⓒJune Korea
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ⓒJune Korea
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ⓒJune Korea
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ⓒJune Korea
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ⓒJune Korea
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ⓒJune Korea
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ⓒJune Korea
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ⓒJune Korea
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ⓒJune Korea
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ⓒJune Korea
Still Lives: Eva
“이것은 섹스돌 이야기가 아닙니다. 이것은 우리에 대한, 우리의 외로움에 대한 이야기입니다.”
“그래서 얼마죠?”
“미화 $10,000입니다. 그녀는 비싸지요.” 일본에 위치한 단백질 인형 회사의 담당자, Brian이 전화기 너머로 대답했다. “하지만 그녀는 죽거나, 당신을 떠나지 않을 겁니다. 지금 그 모습 그대로 당신 곁에 영원히 함께 있을 거예요.”
약 한 달이 지났고, 나는 땀을 뻘뻘 흘리며 계단을 올라온 FedEx 배달원으로부터 커다란 상자 하나를 수령했다. 나는 절단용 칼을 들고 상자 앞에 앉았고, 매우 조심스레, 떨리는 손으로 테잎이 붙은 선을 따라 칼날을 이동했다. 십여분이 흘렀을까. 마지막 테잎을 잘라냈고, 나는 상자를 열었다. 2014년 12월 29일 월요일이었다.
“Eva, 네 이름은 Eva야.”
나는 2001년 이래로 인형사진을 찍기 시작했다. 내가 어린시절 기억했던 그들의 목소리를 듣고 싶었고, 그들의 신비로운 동화 속 세상을 다시 한번 보고 싶었다. 몇년간 사진을 찍으며 나는 나 스스로에게 묻기 시작했다.
“근데, 네가 인형 사진을 찍는 진짜 이유는 뭐야?”
그건 외로움이었다. 나는 사람들이 원하는 것, 사람들을 즐겁게 하는 대화, 그리고 그들과 함께 순간을 즐기는 방법을 알고 있다. 나는 노래하고, 춤추고, 마시며 어울린다. 항상 많은 친구들에 둘러 싸여있고, 나는 그들에게 행복한 사람이다. 유쾌한 사람이다. 외로움과는 너무도 거리가 먼 사람이다. 하지만 그렇게 흥겨운 시간을 마치고 돌아온 현관문 앞에서 나는 주저한다. 그리고 힘겹게 밀어낸 방문, 그 너머에서 나를 기다리던 공허를 만난다. 눈을 뜨고 일어난 침대 위에서 나는 여전히 혼자다. 가장 행복한 순간이 가장 두렵다. 사라질 것을 안다. 이 다음에 약속한 듯 찾아올 슬픔과 적막을 안다. 나는 어린시절 영원함을 믿었다. 내 가족과 친구들, 그리고 나의 연인, 모든 것이 나와 끝까지 함께 할 것이라 믿었다. 하지만 어른이 되어가며 알게 되었다. 살아있는 것은 절대 영원하지 않다는 것을. 그들은 떠나고 죽고, 사라졌다. 그리고 나는 지금 남은 그들도 그렇게 꼭 같이 할 것이라는 것을 알고 있다. 누군가를 떠나보내는 것은, 삶 속에서 아무리 많은 시간을 반복했어도, 나에게 절대 쉬운 일이 되지 않았다.
그 외로움이 나를 인도했구나. 사람을 닮은 이 작은 인형들은 아무데도 가지 않을 것이다. 나를 떠나지 않을 것이다. 그리고 나는 스스로에게 다시 한번 질문했다. “그렇다면 내가 영원함을 창조하면 어떨까? 내가 한 인형에게 새로운 생명과 정체성을 선물하면 어떨까? 그리고 그 인형을 내가 만든 동화 안에서 영원히 나와 함께 머무르게 하면 어떨까?” 나와 그 한 인형이 만들어 나가는 새로운 이야기 “Still Lives: Eva” (“Forever”와 “Eve,” 두 단어에서 도움을 얻어 그녀의 이름을 지었다) 속에서, 우리는 세상의 시선에 어쩌면 많이 생소할 수도 있는 기묘한—하지만 사실은 너무도 평범한—관계를 시작한다. 상자 안에서 그녀가 나오는 첫날을 시작으로, 우리는 같이 눈을 뜨고, 밥을 먹고, 양치를 하고, 쇼핑을 하고, 울고, 웃고, 또 함께 잠이 든다. 거창한 이유는 없다. 외로워서 시작했다. 나도 외롭고, 세상에 외로운 사람들이 정말 많은데, 내가 이 작업을 통해서 외로움을 공부할 수 있게 되면 나와 같은 감정을 공유하는 당신들에게 내 동화가 작은 위로가 되어 줄 수 있지 않을까.
Still Lives: Eva
“This is not about a sex doll, but all about us, all about our loneliness.”
“So how much is it?”
“$10,000. She is expensive,” Brian, a representative of a silicon sex doll company in Japan, told me on the phone. “However, she’s not going to leave you behind or die. She’s going to stay there with you forever as she looks now.”
A month later, I received a giant box from a sweating FedEx deliveryman. I sat down in front of the box with a box cutter. My hands were trembling slightly as the cutter went along the taped line. I eventually opened the box. It was Monday afternoon, December 29, 2014, the very first day I met her.
“Eva, your name is Eva.”
I began photographing dolls in 2001 to listen to their voices, and see their secret lives once again as I did in my childhood. And after a few years of inviting them into a photographic world I staged, I started asking myself, “Why do I really photograph dolls?”
It was loneliness. I know what people want, how to make them happy, and how to enjoy moments. I talk, drink, and sing with many people all the time. However, I find myself home alone when I wake up in my bed. I always face emptiness when I come home from work or parties. I feel lonely in the crowd. I feel the loneliest in my biggest moments of happiness. This is because I now am afraid of what comes next. I believed in eternity when I was an innocent child. I had a faith that my family, friends, and love would go on forever and with me, as long as I did my best for them. However, people, moments, and memories I wanted to last forever have left, died, or disappeared, and I know the rest of them will do the same. Seeing them leave me does not get easier no matter how many times I experienced.
That loneliness is why I became interested in photographing dolls. I know human-like but inanimate objects are not going anywhere. But then I questioned myself again. “What if I create an artificial eternity? What if I give a doll a new birth with a new identity? What if I make the one stay with me forever in the fantasy world I construct?”
For the project titled “Still Lives: Eva”—named after two words, “forever” and “Eve,” who were the first woman according to the creation myths of the Abrahamic religions—Eva and I have an uncanny relationship that began the day she came of out a box. We sleep and wake up together. We go shopping, dining, driving, and even travel together just like ordinary people do in their real lives. We laugh and cry, we feel happy and lonely. In this artificial eternity I constructed, I hope for myself and viewers who are struggling with different types of emotions everyday, that we can find more meaning by sharing stories of the solitary existence in our lives.