This piece originated as an image that was first produced for the poster of the 1st Demilitarized Zone exhibition, which commenced in 1991. The photograph that serves as the backdrop for the piece depicts the landscape of Maehyang-ri, a fishing village in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi-do, where the U.S. Military established and operated Kooni Firing Range between 1951 and 2005. Large, empty cartridges littered on the beach of Maehyang-ri denote a military landscape that evokes a battlefield, visualizing a measure of the violence that has become an indelible characteristic of this average fishing village. Indecipherable glyphs, which offer a contrast to these documentary-like photos, thereby express illegible meanings yet speak more clearly than explicit language could ever do.
