Soyoung Chung Solo Exhibition: WATERS
페이지 정보
Date. 2023.01.13 - 03.02페이지 정보
Place. 021galleryContents
Soyoung
Chung Solo Exhibition
WATERS
021gallery is pleased to present Soyoung Chung’s solo exhibition, ‘Waters,’ the first
exhibition in 2023.
Soyoung
Chung pays attention to the time and space we live, i.e., nature and the
universe. The artist works on materializing them by grasping various phenomena
and stories created within nature and the universe on a continuum that leads to
the past, present, and future.
The
title of this exhibition, ‘WATERS,’ suggests a situation in which the realm of
‘water,’ which has been the core element of the marine research she has been
undertaking for the past five years, is conceptualized as ‘multilateral’ when
it meets human society and politics. When water as a substance becomes waters
in a plural form, ‘waters’ become a designator as a category that humans
classify and name. For example, waters are chemical components that play a role
of various moisture in the human body. Waters collectively refer to streams,
rivers, and seas classified according to size or international waters in a
geopolitical context. The artist is interested in the point where ‘water’ meets
humans and ignites the narrative. As geologists infer natural history by
studying fragments of land, the artist explores the world of ‘water’ and draws
out the human history entangled with ‘waters.’
In this exhibition, the artist presents
sculptures and mirror works that capture various situations in which physical
properties are transformed.
The
<Mirrors for Mirok Li> series began while reading 『The Yalu River
Flows』 (1946) by Mirok Li, after Chung sailed the Yalu
River between North Korea and China in 2019. The distance of time and the
difference in experiences between the artist and Mirok Li are embodied as
stained mirror that blurs the boundaries of reality. The geopolitical
uniqueness of the Yalu River is understood differently depending on the era. It
is condensed with the multilayered temporality and placeness of nature. Personal
history and politics the artist imagines leave physical traces on the glass
surface. The mirror, which seems to be stained all over the place, borrows the
method in which chemicals such as silver nitrate and ammonia water cause
chemical reactions, adhering to the glass surface. The silver glass substances return
the glass surface to light. The time of the artist and Mirok Li becomes a
mirror of water and captures the scenery of the exhibition hall. The viewers
are projected onto the water, which can never fully reflect themselves.
The sculptures <Island for Fisherman
VI>, <Sailor>, <The Ugliest Fish>, and the video work
<Drawing Island> are also presented in this exhibition. The artist questions
the invisible boundary of the sea by using the buoys that drifted from the seas
of China and Japan to the coast of Gapado Island. Through the course of a ship
drawing a circle that never closes by casting a rope on the sea, we face the
time of humans that disappear after staying in nature for only a brief time.
Through
shimmering by light, sinking and rising elasticity, squashing and unfolding
pressure, and rising and flowing movements, the artist builds material and
immaterial simultaneously, crossing the boundaries of sculpture.
“...
The form of everything changes depending on the environment. And a sculptor
like me captures that moment. At first glance, the work seems to have a fixed
form, but in fact, the form engraved in memory changes when it passes through
the ideas and perspectives of others. The act of appreciation is a process that
is naturally accepted through the viewer’s interpretation. Through this
sequence, the objects that have been stationary change and expand by those who
receive.”
- From an interview with the
artist