Literature/Visual Art
Ho Bin Kim
hk1983nyu.edu
Network: ✎
Title: Ep.8 Reality Sandwich: Reality Blinking
Runtime: 13:16
Director: Ho Bin Kim
Starring: Santiago Colombo
Music: Chiara K
Synopsis
In the eighth episode of Reality Sandwich, Ho Bin intertwines his project with Santiago’s Blinks, an ongoing archive of flickering lights and lighting failures that Santiago has been collecting since 2018.
Struck with a fever and unable to speak, Ho Bin communicates with Santiago through handwritten notes. When Ho Bin asks Santiago, “What is Reality Sandwich for you?”, Santiago simply replies, “We have to wait until it gets dark.”
That night, they set out on bicycles toward Hengelo, a neighboring city of Enschede, where they are both in artist residence program. Santiago carries a long metal stick. Upon arrival, he films a blinking streetlamp, then lights candles by a manmade pond. When Ho Bin asks about the meaning of these actions, Santiago offers a cryptic response: “I don’t know yet. Or maybe I already do.”
Later, over dinner, Ho Bin continues to ask questions by passing notes. Santiago grows irritated. After dinner, when Ho Bin persists, Santiago wordlessly sets the note on fire with a lighter.
The episode ends with Santiago cycling back to Enschede with the long metal stick still in hand. At its tip, a faint light flickers in the dark.
Reality Sandwich is a multidisciplinary art project that blends mini-documentary filmmaking, performance, and visual art to explore the subjective nature of reality. Inspired by the title of Allen Ginsberg's book Reality Sandwich, the series invites artists worldwide to interpret what a “Reality Sandwich” means to them, capturing these diverse reflections through immersive, day-long encounters. It is Ho Bin’s way of discovering what Reality Sandwich is—without reading the book—through the perspectives of other artists.
Featuring episodes with various artists and collectives, the series delves into themes of identity, memory, and the construction of personal and cultural narratives. The project seeks to expand contemporary discussions on art, media, and society’s relationship with reality while challenging conventional representations in mass media. Reality Sandwich has been screened and exhibited in New York, Shanghai, Gwangju, Seoul, and Enschede.
Blinks is a collaborative map an archive, if you find a blinking light you can share a video and its coordinates to scolombomigliorero@gmail.com