Inevitable Blues – Contrabass, 2025, 4K digital video, color, sound, signage, framed, 4 min. 18 sec. (loop), 222 × 128 × 6 cm, Ed. 1/5, A.P. 2

Inevitable Blues presents the vitality and rhythm of life that cannot be seen but can be heard and felt through the body, conveyed directly through music, particularly the blues. Yeondoo Jung finds in this genre—born in the mid-19th century among African Americans in the southern United States—a self-reflective yet humorous mode of imagination that enables one to navigate unspeakable circumstances and inescapable hardship. The work consists of performances by five musicians, each carrying their own story and engaging in a loose, polyphonic ensemble. The open structure allows the audience to experience each sound both individually and collectively, visualizing the essence of improvisation and resonance that lies at the heart of the blues. In Inevitable Blues – Contrabass, composer Ray Soul performs the contrabass, having advised on the twelve-bar structure, instrumentation, BPM, and chord progression that shape the work’s musical foundation. The performance is marked by a deep immersion that draws emotion to its fullest. The work extends this emotional range through digital technology, translating the subtle vibrations of the performer’s fingertips into sequences of sound data and light. Jung explores the intersection where the physicality of the analog instrument meets the mechanical language of digital systems. The contrabass’s deep resonance transforms into pulsations of light and vibration, allowing the audience to experience the body of music itself and affirming that even in the digital age, the tremor of the hand and the rhythm of improvisation remain at the core of artistic expression.