The ghosts of gay bars past and present will roam the halls of the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Feb. 11 as it hosts “Shape of Time: Korean Art after 1989,” an exhibition which, among others, features Korean artist, Inhwan Oh, who looks to his own experience as an openly gay man as inspiration for his works.
His contribution to the exhibit, “Where He Meets Him in Philadelphia,” finds Oh using incense powder to spell out the names of dozens of now-defunct LGBTQ+ establishments in Philadelphia, featuring the names of bygone bars like The Fuel Pump or Drury Lane in the room-sized piece of art.
Oh, who currently lives in Seoul, Korea, completed this piece with information and assistance from The William Way LGBT Community Center, and was gracious enough to answer our questions about his piece in the exhibition.
Why did you choose Philadelphia as the focus of this exhibition?
My incense work, “Where He Meets Him” is an ongoing work. Since 2000, it has been exhibited in many cities, including Seoul, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, etc. My incense work is also site-specific, which lists the names of gay bars/clubs in the city where it is exhibited. These characters of the work are to showcase the gay community that exists in each city, while also conveying the changing, blending, and connecting nature of queer communities across regions and cultures.
So, when the Philadelphia Museum of Art commissioned an exhibition of my incense work, I naturally planned the text of the Philadelphia version of “Where He Meets Him” to consist of the names of gay bars and clubs in Philadelphia. However, there is a difference between the cases of other cities and the case in Philadelphia. In other cities, I only included the names of gay bars that existed in the present, but in Philadelphia, I included the names of gay bars and clubs that existed in the past as well as the present. Since I learned that gay bars in Philadelphia have a long history and I thought that was very significant. I felt that the existence of bars/clubs is an important part of the history of the gay community and is held in people’s memories, and I wanted to bring those memories out through my work. I wanted my work to be a kind of screen for audiences in Philadelphia to project their own experiences, memories, and recollections.
How did your research with the William Way LGBT Community Center affect the vision and the scope of this exhibition?
Without the help of the William Way Center, I wouldn’t have been able to complete this work in its current shape, especially the inclusion of the names of gay bars that existed in the past. There’s a big difference between working with only the names of gay bars/clubs that exist today and working with the names of gay bars/clubs from the present and the past. With the help of the William Way Center, I was able to expand the axis of time in the Philadelphia gay community.
Do you think audiences will pick up on the significance of using something as impermanent and temporary as incense as a media to illustrate the lifecycle of most queer establishments?
It will depend on the audience. However, those who have some experience in the gay community will know the history of the cycle of gay bars coming and going. This cycle of birth, growth and disappearance can be experienced not only through the history of gay bars/clubs, but also through all kinds of relationships such as encounters, love, friendships etc., in our life. Therefore, the impermanent and temporary nature of my work can be thought of in relation to the cyclical history of gay bars/clubs as well as life in the queer community.
What do you think the younger LGBTQ+ generations can do to keep the queer establishments they have left from fading away?
It is difficult for me to answer this question. However, it is known that the number of gay clubs/bars in Korea has decreased due to the influence of the internet. But recently, new bars have been popping up again. I think there may be a cycle going on. I think that the physical space of a gay bar has characteristics that are difficult to be replaced by cyberspace, and I think it is important for queer facilities to explore changes from atmosphere to roles according to the changing times. In particular, I think the role of culture needs to be strengthened in the new space. I believe that the gay community is not fixed, but flexible. The impermanence and circularity of my work is an assertion of this queerness.
What do you hope people who see this exhibit will take away from the experience?
Firstly, I hope that viewing my work will provide an opportunity to reflect on the history of the gay community in Philadelphia.
The names of the gay bars/clubs in my incense work are signifiers, which can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Those who are familiar with the gay community understand immediately that these are the names of gay bars/clubs, but for those who are not, they may be enigmatic letters. It’s all about what we experience and how we interpret it. How we interpret the queer community is not only about the gay community that already exists, but how we interpret and construct the gay community of the future. I want the audience to feel the importance of this interpretation for now and the future. That’s queer aesthetics for me.
And I want audiences to experience a queer sense or a queer aesthetic, which exists uniquely within my incense work. I want all audiences to feel the ephemeral, cyclical, process-driven, inclusive and sustainable values that characterize my work. I want to celebrate the universality as well as the specificity of queerness.
“Where He Meets Him in Philadelphia” as part of “The Shape of Time: Korean Art after 1989,” will be on display through Feb 11 at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy. For more information, visit philamuseum.org.