Someone's Chandelier 01

2013
4K video, 75 inch LED display, black wood frame, custom electronics and installation instructions.
Duration: 7:50:16 hours
Monitor: 168.9 x 97.1 x 6.6 cm (66 1/2 x 38 1/4 x 2 5/8 in.)
Frame: 173.5 x 102.5 x 7 cm (68 1/4 x 40 3/8 x 2 3/4 in.)
Signed in ink, printed title, date and number AP1 on a Certificate of Authenticity accompanying the work. 

This work is AP1 from the sold-out edition of 6 + 1 AP.

Please note that the artist’s name appears in Korean order with his surname before his forename.

Estimate
£15,000 - 25,000 
SOLD FOR £22,500

We commence with darkness. A hand holding a lit match enters the frame and slowly lights the candles one by one. For over seven hours the candles of the two-tiered chandelier burn until each one has burned out, returning to darkness. Kim Heewon’s Someone's Chandelier 01 is a stunning video work that represents its subject in actual scale and in real time. This hypnotic work induces a feeling of tranquillity in the viewer as the candles gently burn and the light fades. 

While living in Paris in the early days of his practice, Kim Heewon deliberately turned off his electricity, choosing to live by candlelight. Fascinated by the flickering light and how it made him feel, he embarked on this on-going series, which began with candles then evolved into chandeliers – a larger light source and a symbol of luxury in a bygone era. His use of the latest technologies to evoke certain emotions associated with the past enabled him ‘to connect the past to the present both in function and communication.

The present work is the first chandelier video in the series. The chandelier, featured in the video, was sourced by a European antique collector in Korea and the filming took more than three days: 

The average burning time for a candle is seven hours, but there are so many variables – the wax may melt in the wrong way distorting the visibility, for example, or some candles may burn faster or longer than others – that it takes an extensive amount of additional time adjusting and re-filming.

Kim Heewon is a multimedia artist whose creative output spans multiple fields, including photography, video and design. In 2012 he collaborated with New York's Moss, legendary design mecca, for the Venice Architecture Biennale and his work has been exhibited at Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea. His work resides in various collections, including Rossana Orlandi Collection, Italy and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea.