Calendar
2020
silkprint on paper
290x220mm each
Time is not absolute
but the way we recognize the time is absolute.
Thanks to the progress of science, everyone knows time is not absolute. However, we still live under the same rule of time because of an unconscious desire for convenience. Also, since this calendar system is strongly accustomed to us, it is not easy to recognize the time is actually a system that dominates our ways of thinking.
What this work attempts on is to expand our perspectives on what underlies our daily lives, the system, particularly about time. I believe art can be an influential methodology to doubt systems we have believed in unconditionally for a long time and to ponder the coexistence of various systems in the society.
This work shows when we have the most confusing calendar systems between countries in real history. Everyone will find strangeness from not only differences between calendars of the same months also disappeared days. In this regard, this work reminds us of the calendar is an agreement that can be changed whenever as need. In the end, it is a beginning of recognizing systems surround us and breaking our unquestioning belief towards them.
To support this idea, I would like to add an evolutionary biology point of view that diversity has contributed considerably to the conservation of species. Now, we are living in an era where not biological diversity, but thinking diversity is more important to survive. The end of humankind on this planet may not be far off unless we are concerned about various systems and their coexistence and tolerance.
French, Belgian and German calendars in December in 1582
Italian, Swedish and Russian calendars in February in 1700
Spanish, Swedish and Romanian calendars in February in 1712
English, Korean and Greek calendars in December in 1895
but the way we recognize the time is absolute.
Thanks to the progress of science, everyone knows time is not absolute. However, we still live under the same rule of time because of an unconscious desire for convenience. Also, since this calendar system is strongly accustomed to us, it is not easy to recognize the time is actually a system that dominates our ways of thinking.
What this work attempts on is to expand our perspectives on what underlies our daily lives, the system, particularly about time. I believe art can be an influential methodology to doubt systems we have believed in unconditionally for a long time and to ponder the coexistence of various systems in the society.
This work shows when we have the most confusing calendar systems between countries in real history. Everyone will find strangeness from not only differences between calendars of the same months also disappeared days. In this regard, this work reminds us of the calendar is an agreement that can be changed whenever as need. In the end, it is a beginning of recognizing systems surround us and breaking our unquestioning belief towards them.
To support this idea, I would like to add an evolutionary biology point of view that diversity has contributed considerably to the conservation of species. Now, we are living in an era where not biological diversity, but thinking diversity is more important to survive. The end of humankind on this planet may not be far off unless we are concerned about various systems and their coexistence and tolerance.
French, Belgian and German calendars in December in 1582
Italian, Swedish and Russian calendars in February in 1700
Spanish, Swedish and Romanian calendars in February in 1712
English, Korean and Greek calendars in December in 1895
Installlation view @ Galerie Fabienne Levy
research
<Removed days for adoptation of the Gregorian calendar> © Yoonjae Lee
So how did we all end up using the same calendar?
To be unified by the Gregorian calendar system for most of the world, it took 341 years from 1582 to 1923. Honestly, the period would be longer as 434 years adding to Saudi Arabia's acceptance of the Gregorian calendar in 2016 with payment of 11 days.
Western countries switched to use from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar to reduce the error of leap days. (Despite the introduction of these new calendar rules, errors still exist and are known to need modifications in the distant future.) Using the Gregorian calendar began in countries such as Italy, Spain and Portugal together deleted 10 days in October in 1582. Then it gradually spread to other countries for various reasons such as distance, religion and war. In particular, it is surprising to know that Asian countries (Korea) had to pay for 55 days because they had used the lunar calendar, not the Julian calendar. Therefore, we can easily guess that the recognition and evaluation of the calendar system would have been quite different from nowadays before when Greece started using the Gregorian calendar in 1932 as the last of the Western countries. Also, we can imagine the situation that even though each region has the same date, there were calendars with different information from this historical fact. Therefore, four different combinations of calendars which look very much impractical present an unusual perspective on a system about time that we have never doubted in our lives or we may always regard as flawless. Therefore, those pieces offer an opportunity to recognize systems surround us and break our unconditional belief towards them.
To be unified by the Gregorian calendar system for most of the world, it took 341 years from 1582 to 1923. Honestly, the period would be longer as 434 years adding to Saudi Arabia's acceptance of the Gregorian calendar in 2016 with payment of 11 days.
Western countries switched to use from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar to reduce the error of leap days. (Despite the introduction of these new calendar rules, errors still exist and are known to need modifications in the distant future.) Using the Gregorian calendar began in countries such as Italy, Spain and Portugal together deleted 10 days in October in 1582. Then it gradually spread to other countries for various reasons such as distance, religion and war. In particular, it is surprising to know that Asian countries (Korea) had to pay for 55 days because they had used the lunar calendar, not the Julian calendar. Therefore, we can easily guess that the recognition and evaluation of the calendar system would have been quite different from nowadays before when Greece started using the Gregorian calendar in 1932 as the last of the Western countries. Also, we can imagine the situation that even though each region has the same date, there were calendars with different information from this historical fact. Therefore, four different combinations of calendars which look very much impractical present an unusual perspective on a system about time that we have never doubted in our lives or we may always regard as flawless. Therefore, those pieces offer an opportunity to recognize systems surround us and break our unconditional belief towards them.