Tracing the faded time of those who once turned the pages of Chŏng Yagyong(1762-1836)’s Chil Shil Gwan Hwa Seol (On Viewing Paintings from the Dark Chamber). In a dark room of their own, they steep tea, mend fragments with thread, and enfold them in cloth - crafting a cinema that was unseen.

Pierce a small hole in a dark room and light projects an image of the outside world. This is the camera obscura - latin for "dark room." The modern word "camera," with the obscura dropped, simply means "room." Therefore, capturing a photograph or making a film is fundamentally akin to filling one's own room with an image. Historically, the camera obscura was used across both Eastern and Western cultures as a sketching aid to achieve greater realism in painting. Following his encounter with it, Chŏng Yagyong famously described the projected image as a landscape painting in his essay, Chil Shil Gwan Hwa Seol (On Viewing Paintings from the Dark Chamber). A Dark Room pictures a woman who may have encountered the camera obscura or read Chŏng Yagyong's essay during that time.s essay.

2025 제22회 서울국제실험영화페스티벌 코리안엑시즈어워드