Jiwon Song

mutant Maker

mutant Maker is an art project team founded in 2024. Inspired by science fiction and dystopian worldvies, the team explores diverse concepts through exhibitions and visual art projects.

more info : mutant.maker

mutant Maker’s Wunderkammer

The exhibition <mutant Maker’s Wunderkammer> is inspired by the long-term E. coli experiment, which demonstrates how mutations enhance adaptation to extreme environments. In a post-apocalyptic world, a sole survivor becomes the “mutant Maker”, creating grotesque figures from his memories by blending human, living, and inanimate elements. His isolated underground home is filled with cherished objects and serves as a protective shell against the harsh outside world.

K. H. Strobl’s idea that terror and humor are extremes of the imagination forms the foundation of the exhibition. Similar to Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”, which explores the shock and isolation following mutation, “mutant Maker’s Wunderkammer” depicts human mutation in isolation due to external changes. The story is created in the “Cadavre Exquis” style, reflecting the unpredictability of mutations and ensuring an exciting development.

mutant Maker zero

The project <mutant Maker zero> is created using a reversed version of the ‘Cadavre Exquis’ technique. Starting from the ending of the previous project, the story is written backward, gradually reaching ‘mutant Maker zero.’ Relying on limited sentences, the story, created by five people in random order, becomes fragmented, failing to clearly explain why he created the Wunderkammer or the cause of the end of the world. However, the story steadily progresses toward its predetermined end, re-creating scenes of ‘terror and humor’ as described by K. H. Strobl.

This exhibition covers the story of a scientist before the end of the century and before the advent of mutation research. In the world before the end, he conducts long-term experiments on E. coli in his laboratory. His lab, filled with items reflecting his taste, is also laden with salt. The dryness of the salt contrasts with the dampness of the underground space and serves as both a nutrient for the growth of E. coli and a primary component of the destructive substances, facilitating chemical reactions. The large amount of salt spilled onto the floor symbolizes the end of the world, marking the transition where the only surviving scientist begins his life as the ‘mutant Maker.’

The <mutant Maker zero> exhibition looks more like a broken space rather than a well- controlled laboratory. In the exhibition space covered with scattered work and salt, the remnants of the world’s joy and the despair of being the sole survivor coexist. Through the story of his progression from the end to becoming the ‘mutant Maker’ and the world he created, we can experience one person’s hope, despair, and survival.

How to _____ Baby

Frankenstein did not give his creature a name. Is that ‘Being’ a monster, or just big baby without name. Didn’t Frankenstein care about it? How about us? We think a lot for our work, including its content, value, form, materials, and the title. However, the work that is born from the artist’s hand becomes something independent from that moment. And it functions quite often differently from its original intention. Because too timid to explain, because of language and cultural differences, because it is metaphorical, and etc. In the face of various reasons and situations, the work is interpreted differently and may even interfere with the artist’s intention.

So work is always new, ever-changing, unpredictable, timid, and yet very important. Just like a baby! What should we do with this difficult and precious ‘Baby’? We have no choice but to try to understand each other by going through numerous errors and changes. Since we can’t treat accurately yet, we’d rather leave it blank: How to ____ Baby

Conceptually, the work of the five people is quite loosely connected. But rather, it is what makes this exhibition possible. Instead of showing ‘work’ and ‘subject of work,’ we want to show errors and misunderstandings surrounding the work. In this space, the work can freely make errors and be misunderstood. The canvas is never hung on the wall, the video is uncomfortable to watch, and the sculptures…they are even difficult to tell whose work belongs to whom. It looks like a playroom that babies have messed up. This confusing and comical scene makes the space feel like a moving and changing process rather than a complete place. In the face of this unfamiliar exhibition scene, what is important is no longer accurate answer. Rather, find your own words to fill in the following blank space‚ ‘How to ____ Baby.‘

Yor are always right

If Michel Foucault’s discourse on the “disciplinary society” characterized “not allowed” and “cannot” as a form of the other’s negation, then in today’s “achievement society,” where the emphasis is on maximizing productivity, the focus shifts to “I can” and “I am able.” Forced labor has disappeared, and the subject encouraging the individual to realize their full potential has become ourselves, thereby transforming into a form of self-affirmation. What neoliberalism brings is not liberation or free will, but rather, a new form of constraint. It manifests as the relentless self-compulsion aimed at achieving “self-realization” in a competitive environment.

In an information-overloaded society, everything around us seems to be accelerating at double speed. Rationality drives us to habitually assign value to every task on our to-do list. We lack the patience to finish reading an entire book, TikToks get shorter and shorter, and coffee is consumed not for enjoyment but for stimulation. Eight-minute relationships are formed through value matching on dating apps. Rationality has a divisive power—it distances individuals from others, causing relationships between people to become increasingly distant. Loneliness and exhaustion now form new compartments, shaping the current state of our mental landscape.

However, the evolution of the office seems to be a history of the exploitation of the working class. From the early counting rooms to later structures like the Larkin Building, while the office landscape has seemingly been improved and optimized, it has not resolved the internal contradictions of work or employees’ emotional states. In fact, the office doesn’t have to represent boredom; it can become a space of escape, a space filled with imagination, a place for deep contemplation, and a space where one can sense the needs of the body and life.

Room 0C34 is a community kitchen transformed from a meeting room, offering us the possibility of shifting identities. Perhaps it is through these repeated, differentiated transformations that the work emerges in moments of serendipity. It is not a purposeful mechanical repetition—something may have happened, or perhaps nothing at all.