British artist Ed Atkins, widely known for moving-image works created with high-definition computer-generated imagery, has turned to photography, frottage and everyday objects for his latest exhibition in Seoul.
Gladstone Seoul is presenting Atkins’ solo exhibition, 1 day in space, at its new location in Hannam-dong, Yongsan District. Opened on August 31, the exhibition brings together a moving-image work assembled from thousands of photographs, frottages made from family beds and sculptural works incorporating objects from domestic life.
At the center of the exhibition is 16th of April 2026, 19.21′30″ (Passive Mech), a 30-minute video shown on the gallery’s lower level. Atkins installed a large temporary cardboard set in the garden of his home in Denmark and photographed it at one-minute intervals for about a month, producing 42,300 images.
Presented sequentially, the photographs form a moving image in which the cardboard structure is gradually altered by weather as winter gives way to spring. Wind and rain slowly break down the temporary set, while recordings gathered from the artist’s everyday surroundings accompany the images.
While Passive Mech records the passage of time through light and photography, Atkins’ frottage works preserve physical traces through direct contact.
After his children left for school, the artist placed sheets of paper over their empty beds and rubbed graphite across the surface, transferring the folds, creases and impressions left in the bedding onto paper.
The figures themselves are absent, but evidence of where their bodies had been remains. The works extend the exhibition’s attention to family life, the rapid growth of children and the difficulty of preserving moments that continually disappear.
The exhibition also includes objects made from materials encountered in the artist’s domestic life, including cereal boxes and animal flashcards used by his children. Positioned alongside the frottages, these ordinary remnants of family life become another means of examining time, loss and the relationship between lived experience and its representation.
1 day in space is the inaugural exhibition at Gladstone Seoul’s new Hannam-dong space following its relocation from Gangnam, and marks Atkins’ first solo exhibition in Seoul. The exhibition runs through October 31.
SayArt.net
Jason Yim yimjongho1969@gmail.com
