Jinhan Ko
Tell me what you want to hear
November 2024
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Thanks to all who came out to the closing celebration on November 29—Jin came all the way from South Korea, and was thrilled to be surrounded by old and new friends.
Thanks also to everyone who has stopped by ECHO-ECHO this month, and all who joined the online screening of his Vol. 996: A collection of short works, presented by sleep and her brother death.
Photo: Rachel Topham Photography
A special thanks to Artistic Practice in Community students at KPU, and teacher Jessica Gnyp, for welcoming Jin and OHCE-ECHO/sleep and her brother death, to speak in November, and Studio Social student organizers at ECU, for welcoming Jin to speak in December.
Photo: Rachel Topham Photography
A floorplan and list of works can now be downloaded as a PDF, with a text for the occasion to follow.
Photo: Rachel Topham Photography
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Jinhan Ko is a founding and consistent member of Instant Coffee, a service-oriented artist collective since 2000. Instant Coffee's Urban Disco Trailer, a modified camper with furniture, lights, and sound system, was acquired by the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2004, including the individual purchases of all artworks inside, contributed by artists invited by the collective. Described early on as a collective that has "faith in people's ideas and their earnest desire[s] to communicate them," Instant Coffee, with gracious volunteer moderators, continues to provide free weekly listservs for arts events in Toronto and Vancouver—an archive of bylines since 2008 will be installed above the ECHO-ECHO reading room in November.
Jin graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1993, and as "the sole member" of Jin's Banana House, made performances and videos as a "personal practice, which deals with failure"—Tell me what you want to hear was produced during an artist residency at the Banff Centre in 1996.
Since 2019, Jin has lived and worked between Andong and Seoul, where, with Sunny Lee, he cultivates rice and produces works and events across Korea and Japan as Instant Coffee. From South Korea, he joined the online screening of Vol. 996: A collection of short works, and will travel to Vancouver for the closing celebration on November 29.
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Thanks to the artist, and to Instant Coffee, for support of this exhibition and screening. And, thanks to VTape, Toronto, distributor of video works by Jin's Banana House, for lending the compilation Vol. 996: A collection of short works, including the short video Tell me what you want to hear.
For technical and equipment support, many thanks to Western Front, and all staff, with a special thanks to Technical Manager, Ben Wilson, for making the VHS presentation possible through their digitization services program, and a personal thanks to artist Hazel Meyer for a still-sealed VHS tape. Additional thanks to Catriona Jeffries for lending plinths, and to VIVO Media Arts Centre for the VCR. And, thanks to Michael Klein of MKG127, for his ongoing support and representation of Instant Coffee.