The Chinese board game Go, invented over 2,500 years ago, is an abstract strategy game in which two players vie to occupy more territory than their opponent. Using black and white stones, players take turns grabbing up empty spaces on the board, trying to fill as much space as possible or knock each other off by surrounding each other’s stones on all sides. It’s also the basis for artists Ina Jang and Brea Souders – a collaborative duo working under the name “Coramu” – latest exhibition, curated by Yael Eban at Tiger Strikes Asteroid Gallery in Bushwick, NY.
Souders and Jang use the structure of the game to create a competitive photographic dialogue. Images, all printed at the same size, are exhibited in two competing parallel lines stretching around the gallery’s perimeter. While the majority of the images are in ultra-saturated color, each row corresponds to the competing “black” and “white” pieces of the game, and range from wildly abstract to mountainous landscapes, commercially-lit portraits and still lifes of cigarette packages. It’s not always clear whose photos are whose, but the competition to surround and overtake is a constant.
Brea, Jang (aka Coramu) and I corresponded to discuss everything from board games and photo collaborations to the splintering evolution of “post-photography.”
Jon Feinstein in conversation with Brea Souders and Ina Jang.