Verified Absence
Caption
Yun Hohyeon, <Verified Absence>, 2026, Single-channel video, color, sound, 1min, mixed media, dimensions variable
Yun Hohyeon, <Verified Absence>, 2026, Single-channel video, color, sound, 1min, mixed media, dimensions variable
Verified Absence examines how authenticity is constructed in contemporary culture. The work begins with a pair of sneakers purchased by the artist. Although the attached cable tie serves little practical function, it has become a decisive marker of authenticity within the secondary resale market. After removing the cable tie, the artist experienced an unexpected sense of uncertainty—as if the shoes, despite being genuine, would somehow require proof of their authenticity once again.
From this experience, the work asks a simple question: What defines authenticity—the object itself, or the records that surround it? Rather than treating authenticity as an inherent quality of material objects, Verified Absence considers it as something produced through systems of documentation, verification, and circulation. In doing so, the work explores how value, trust, and authenticity are continually constructed and maintained through the structures that validate them.
From this experience, the work asks a simple question: What defines authenticity—the object itself, or the records that surround it? Rather than treating authenticity as an inherent quality of material objects, Verified Absence considers it as something produced through systems of documentation, verification, and circulation. In doing so, the work explores how value, trust, and authenticity are continually constructed and maintained through the structures that validate them.
Exhibition: Ach Arc Ark
Venue: Multi-purpose Auditorium, Exchanging space, Seoul Museum of Art, Art Archives
Dates: June 17–21, 2026
Exhibition View - AA SeMA
Process
Verified Absence consists of two interconnected elements: a single-channel video and an installation. While the video visualizes the structures of documentation and verification, the installation examines how a physical object acquires new meaning through systems of record and authentication.
The Off-White cable tie, presented as the central object, is deliberately displayed without emphasis. Although it differs little from an ordinary cable tie in either material or function, its value is transformed by the system that surrounds it. A cable tie exists to fasten objects together, yet once tightened completely, it can no longer perform its original function. In the very act of fulfilling its purpose, it simultaneously loses it. This paradox recalls Jacques Derrida's notion of the death drive: the desire to preserve inevitably carries within it the possibility of disappearance. In this context, the cable tie retained as proof of authenticity is no longer alive as a functional object; instead, it is reconstituted as a powerful marker within the realm of documentation.
The transparent acrylic box that forms the primary structure of the installation functions not merely as a pedestal but as a vessel for preservation and record. Theodor W. Adorno famously compared the museum to a mausoleum—a place where objects are preserved even as they are removed from living contexts. Echoing this idea, the installation employs hollow acrylic boxes whose empty interiors emphasize absence rather than containment. Scattered throughout the structure are ordinary cable ties, occupying the space like ghosts. Unable to acquire institutional authority or symbolic value, they linger around the Off-White cable tie, quietly exposing the mechanisms through which authenticity is assigned rather than inherently possessed.
Installation View
Photography: Courtesy of Seoul Museum of Art, Art Archives © Sustain Works
In Exhibition
Photography: Kim Junghoe