“Prayers from the Peak”

Recently, Faction Seoul extended an invitation for me to participate in their new program entitled “Prayers from the Peak”.

On August 9th I will be giving an Artist Talk on the theme of “Storytelling Beyond Photography”.

Last week, in a preliminary meeting, Curator Yerin Joo shared some of her guiding ideas for the program. I was particularly interested in her notion of “peak”, which refers not to a hard-won summit but rather to a turning point in one’s life and artistic practice. In other words, the emphasis is not on triumph per se, but on those junctions when our decisions reflect a desire to reach for a deeper sort of meaning and self-recognition. I asked about her notion of prayer as well. And she framed it as different than religious ritual. Prayer in this framework is the essential leap of faith with which one embarks on a new project.

When Yerin situated the talk as storytelling beyond photography, I understood it as an opportunity to explore an aspect of artistic practice which is seldom examined: where projects originate and how they weave together over time, speaking to the core identity and abiding concerns of an artist.

Over the next few days leading to the talk, I will share a few images on Instagram (@jaime_permuth) and a brief synopsis from each of the projects I plan to discuss at Faction:

Manhattan Mincha Map, YONKEROS, The Street Becomes, Olmedini el Mago and BLINDNESS.