The succinct title sets off a stream of associations – revolving, spinning, accelerating, unveiling, but the French word 'rPve' (dream) is not far away either and easily fits in with the dream-like atmosphere of the video. Layered images of cityscapes, of penetrating realities gliding past or pushing each other out of the way. A glazed revolving door forms a kind of coda in which movement, reflection and transformation are captured in one image. Mirrored worlds open up in the acceleration or deceleration of a continuous field of tension between camera/subject and the world in flux. In turn the subject stands still as the world swirls around him like a liquid torrent, then it is the subject who sets the world in motion. Human figures appear on screen as shadows only to quickly escape again and dissolve into a fleeting light. Thus Cho places the subject in an urban landscape. A landscape with a sometimes terrifying beauty, a beauty from which the subject is alienated, but which inevitably sweeps him along. This alliance is powerfully reflected in the montage of the images. Smoothly flowing images are interspersed with ostensibly staccato 'stills' spliced together which give a suggestion of movement. When the camera/subject comes to a standstill, the 'still'/world immediately takes on the movement and comes to life. There is no permanence of position and the observer is continuously swept back and forth between stasis and movement. All concept of time is irrelevant and 'real time' becomes 'dream time', both detached and overwhelming at the same time. 'Rev' is a complex combination of visual and sound montage, in which Cho's almost abstract images and the windblown sounds of Stephen Vitiello's soundtrack complement each other effortlessly.
– Geert-Jan Strengholt
|
Music: Tracy Leipold, Stephen Vitiello, Sound mixing: Seungho Cho, Bill Seery, Thanks to: Liz Kim, Production: Namsik Kim
Seoungho Cho ° 1959, PUSAn (Korea)
Lives and works in New York (USA)
|
|
1 9 9 8 
