99 Teapots, Pink Light, and a Steam Performance: Nikita Gale’s Dreamlike First Seoul Solo
Creatrip Team
4 months ago
Nikita Gale’s first solo show in Korea, “99 Dreams,” at Barakat Contemporary in Samcheong-dong transforms a dark gallery into a dreamscape. A staircase glows fluorescent pink and leads to an underground installation filled with 99 antique-style teapots set in soft pink material. Dried mugwort (ssuk) stems protrude from the spouts, and several teapots sit on burners that periodically release steam, creating a performance without visible performers. Gale, an American artist with degrees in anthropology (Yale) and new genres (UCLA), says she recreated a scene from a dream and incorporated elements from life—mugwort recalling Korean-style bathhouses run by Korean Americans in LA. The number 99 symbolizes the unconscious outside orderly systems; the installation questions who or what performs by shifting focus from a visible performer to the stage itself. The show runs through January 4.
