Opening: 19.10.2023 / 6 pm
With an opening speech by Lisa Ortner- Kreil

“The Austrian-Korean artist Kaja Clara Joo (born 1991 in Vienna) is showing her new, room-sized installation LURKER at the gallery Smolka Contemporary. The title is borrowed from net jargon and refers to people who read discussions in internet forums or chats but do not actively participate in them. A “lurker” is someone who is present but does not make themselves known as an entity. The concrete form, intention and identity of the lurker remains mysterious and hidden.

LURKER is composed of technically very differently executed works that all refer to each other in terms of content. The narrative material that the artist weaves could not be denser: sculpture, experimental photography and video merge to form an installation that revolves around the Korean mythical figure of Bulgasari.

Transformation and metamorphosis play an eminent role in Kaja Clara Joo’s output. Her works are about making temporal sequences and processes visible, for example with surface reactions, as is fundamental to photography: “Time” as a linear, one-dimensional concept is permanently questioned. Both technique and medium as well as narrative attitude and perspective are in a constant state of flux.

In LURKER, media as well as sensory impressions permeate each other; the project is a veritable full-body experience. The artist once again proves her quality as an impressive storyteller, who merges an ancient plot that has lost none of its topicality with historical and contemporary techniques and our digitally dominated everyday world.” - Lisa Ortner- Kreil