Jason Wee explores queer desire paths in Changwon Sculpture Biennale installation

Artist Jason Wee created a new installation for the Changwon Sculpture Biennale in South Korea, developing ideas from earlier work on queer navigations presented at H Project Space in Bangkok. Curator Seewon Hyun invited Wee based on that previous exploration of queer desire paths, surprising the artist by skipping more familiar activities. The installation consists of six fabric stands scattered in auxiliary spaces of one exhibition site, positioned as figures waiting near Nam June Paik's permanent installation The Spring of Changwon (2000). Wee's work examines how spaces are queered through movement and belonging, questioning what it means to 'people a place' when collective identity relinquishes categorizations tied to power. The artist walked Bangkok extensively but found Changwon unfamiliar, consulting a Busan bar owner who identified queer spaces in the city as difficult to find and maintain. One biennale site is the Seongsan Shell Mound, an Iron Age archaeological site comprising meters-deep stacks of discarded shells over a thousand years old, unfamiliar to local residents. Wee's conceptual framework distinguishes 'peopling' from 'populating,' viewing the former as action rather than census, where those denied power nonetheless occupy public places. This text appears as part of a series published through ArtReview's partnership with Asymmetry Art Foundation featuring cultural reflections by the foundation's fellows.