“Take My Money / Take My Body” at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions is Narei Choi and Nicolas Orozco-Valdivia’s conceptually ambitious curatorial debut as a collaborators. As contemporary Korean pop music was expressly manufactured to generate the global fanaticism and revenue it now commands, the show presents K-pop as an opportunity to examine macro-level systems of manipulating allegiance and desire. To what extent can we claim ownership of our ostensibly heartfelt, individuating feelings where objects of, and options for displaying, devotion are orchestrated as methods of social control?

“Take My Money / Take My Body,” 2019, installation view. Courtesy of LACE. Installation view. Photo: Chris Wormald

The cross-referential strategies used by pop culture, commerce, politicians, the military and news reporting to elicit rapt attention through emotional persuasion are variously highlighted by an international group of artists. Jiwon Choi’s video Parallel (2017), referencing the 38th parallel north dividing North and South Korea, anchors the show; intercutting footage pertaining to the Korean War with K-pop bands’ use of military-style uniforms, tight synchronization and formulaic band member roles, the video illustrates how (un)willing conformity and devotion are similarly commanded in the military and pop culture. Mike Grimm’s Dear Virgil (2018) highlights another parallel strategy through its presentation of ready-to-wear fashion in the context of readymade art; generic rocks on pedestals, evoking the allure of art objects, are arrayed beneath hanging shirts, reminding us that utilitarian clothing (and pop “idols” and political ideologies) become culturally legible and coveted through packaging or authoritative promotion.

Take My Money / Take My Body, 2019, installation view. Courtesy of LACE. Photo: Chris Wormald

Levi Orta’s videos of politicians publicly singing (Singing Alone, 2014) and Olivia Campbell’s life-sized cardboard cutouts (Untitled, 2018) flanking visitors walking by show how pop culture draws and lends power through strategic manipulations of the distance between fan and star, including total collapse into the same role. Han Sol Ip and Chung Qin’s surreal bedroom installation at the gallery entrance (Objet petit a, 2018) situates viewers as contemporary fans (who primarily consume music through screens in their bedrooms), and works by Gelare Khoshgozaran (U.S. Customs Demands to Know, 2016-ongoing), Peggy Ahwesh (Lessons of War, 2014) and Ahmet Öğüt (Untitled, 2016-17) weave in anti-war advocacy. The show also featured multicultural dance group Nuna (“older sister” in Korean), a political fan-fiction workshop led by Gloria Galvez, and a panel presented by GYOPO, an LA-based coalition of Koreans in the arts, on K-pop’s homages to, or appropriations of, black and world cultures.

“Take My Money / Take My Body,” January 3 – February 24, 2019, at LACE, 6522 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90028. welcometolace.org