FREE PRACTICE: 연습 주행 Art increasingly emphasizes opacity over transparency and the medium now functions beyond means to an end as an end in itself. In an age where art trends as popular culture and is accessible to those with interest, the artist is constantly asked to change the medium both internally and externally. But the change in medium is beyond technique. The artist's intention and process underpin the change, and the final product is the proof of its validity. Inspired by the "Free Practice" sessions in Formula 1 (F1), the exhibition explores the process of artistic experimentation and exploration prior to the completion of a work. Whereas free practice in F1 refers to a series of steps in preparation for the main race, this exhibition focuses on the formative experiments and processes that artists go through during their work. The artists search for new “circuits” to relentlessly pursue their creativity, and the trajectories of their work in this process correspond to practice runs as aesthetic explorations. The artist possesses a maternalistic sculptural language that includes the subconscious and corporeal and closely connects with the medium that he/she has been familiar with for some time. Therefore, a change in medium is unusual, and the transition to a new one invites psychological and cognitive burdens similar to learning an unfamiliar foreign language. However, in the process of acquiring a new medium, the unfamiliar becomes a stimulus– pushing the artist to move beyond his or her comfort zone. In this case, it becomes meaningless to repeat the conventional usage of the existing medium, and the artist is required to experiment more actively. The boundaries of mediums remain ceaselessly malleable per the technological and temporal changes–evidenced in the past by the competition and interaction between painting and photography, and between painting and videography. Today, advances in digital tools further blur the boundaries of these mediums and as such prompts cross experimentation. A shift in medium can be understood as a systematic reconfiguration in artistic thought and expression and not just a technical change. Therefore, artists need to explore and adopt new mediums through experimentation when the ones they occupy fail to fulfill the inherent creative potential. This process allows for both disconnection and new connections for the artist, and shows how art comes to life through its sync with the times. The expansion of the medium is not a quondam occurrence–rather it repeatedly affects the artist's work. As a result, artists are constantly learning, experimenting, and pushing their boundaries.