interview of Young Hae-Chang by Rick Silva

Rick Silva: Do you remember the first time you "surfed the net"?

Young Hae-Chang Heavy Industries: Yes, although what we really remember is the context: a sweltering summer day baking us on the second floor of our little Japanese house in Seoul. The content of the sites we visited at that moment paled in comparison to the heat and humidity.

RS: You've done it! You've created a style... have there been any parodies, or appropriations (other than the one in the Korea W.A.F.) of your aesthetic?

YHHI: To our knowledge, none. This might be because the style itself is so simple, readily identifiable, and easily imitatable, sort of like, relatively speaking, the dripping of Jackson Pollock or the comic-book style of Roy Lichtenstein -- both styles that you either imitate or you don't, but never integrate into another style. There's no way you can be influenced by either of them. You can only look at them and say to yourself: Why didn't I think of that?

RS: By using the Industries title you add a capitalist cloud that hovers over the personal stories you tell in your pieces, why did you choose the industries identity?

YHHI: Well, everyone in Korea, including ourselves, envies the huge multinational corporations that have a heavy industries flagship. We wanted to have our own, too.

RS: Is it ever tempting to incorporate a "big juicy file" of images into a new piece?

YHHI: Yes, we just don't know how to do it.

RS: Did you see Ken Burn's "Jazz," and if so which camp do you side with, love it / hate it?

YHHI: No, we didn't. But if you can tell us what the two camps are, maybe we can love or hate one or both of them.

RS: What language do you speak in your dreams?

YHHI: The language of images, which may be why in our work, after a restless night of primordial virtual reality, to avoid dealing with our innermost selves, we speak in different languages.

http://www.yhchang.com