Ju Young Kim's exhibition "Holding Room" at P21 in Seoul transforms deconstructed airline components—such as aircraft wing flaps, a seatback tray-table turned into an actual table, and aircraft window-shaped glass works—into art objects. The show includes stained-glass embellishments on wing flaps, a passenger service unit with an art-nouveau light fitting, and a series of photographs depicting in-flight views, all set within a gallery carpeted in corporate blue with a fictional airline logo.
The exhibition matters because it uses familiar airline parts to explore how objects carry memory and meaning, prompting a Kantian inquiry into 'purposiveness without purpose' as a fundamental quality of art. By blurring the line between functional engineering and decorative art, Kim raises questions about value, perception, and the contemporary viewer's anxiety about arriving at the 'correct' interpretation, making the show a thoughtful meditation on art's relationship with everyday technology.