OH MY GODS : Church of Chonsa

Sculpture, film, installation art - hand illustration, fabric printing, 3D printing. Youngeun Museum / Seoul Culture Station 284, Korea (2014).

Artwork : The Bite Back Movement (Alexander Augustus / Seung youn Lee).

OH MY GOD is a future forecasting show that takes academic predictions of the future of religion and manifests them into an imaginative world of future worship. The show focuses on the role of religious buildings, ceremonial fashion and prayer products. Every work in this show is based on skilled hand illustration and printing, and involves fashion, film, photography, screen prints, 3D printing, and a guidebook explaining the context and details of future Christians in Korea informed by foresight research.

The work overall is a comment on socio-religious relations in Korea in the present day.

Sister project to: The Burning Couple

Exhibition interview.

Youngeun Museum, Korea. 2014.

“By examining the future of Christianity The Bite Back Movement have not only discussed religion, but have created an entire world in which their story is presented. This Art piece gives you the opportunity to experience this duo’s unique and powerful imagination in action.”

— Seoul Culture Station 284

The Church of Chonsa is the expression of an extremely individualistic religious culture of the future. Each of the members of this church has their own set of rules and moralities based on their individual experiences. This is why their costumes look like cocoons, within which they pray alone and protect their individual identity from institution and outside contamination. The praying ritual, which involves capturing water from a mountain stream and drinking it from a special miniature steeple in isolation, is a process which implies the meaning of the church. Their existence is largely a reaction against the corruption of Protestant churches in Korea which have been plagued by fake Messiahs; and the denomination is influenced by European branches of the Islamic religion.