Exhibition Information

148g
2021 (출처= 레이블갤러리) adhesive vinyl dimesions variable

2021 (출처= 레이블갤러리) dimesions variable

			Traces Laden with Memories

 

Paradox of Praxis (1997) is a noted performance by Francis Alÿs, in which he pushes a block of ice through the streets of Mexico City all day long. The artist put a fabulous subtitle, saying “Sometimes making something leads to nothing.” This performance is intended to denote that everything deemed to have been achieved strenuously is actually something insignificant, futile, and useless that will disappear in the end. Today’s capitalism, however, lays much emphasis on productivity, economic feasibility, effectiveness, and usefulness. Art is also thoroughly tamed by this system. And yet, the true place for art is perhaps the arena of uselessness, meaninglessness, and recklessness that may be found in an artist’s unproductive, uneconomic acts with paradoxical value, while revolting against the notion of usefulness.

Kang Sun Mee deliberately discards conventional art materials. She leaves images or texts behind in an exhibit space or on a wall using tape or cut adhesive sheets. United with the wall, this material without physical solidity, volume, or mass is attached as a silhouette. Minimizing its presence, it is inseparable from the wall. This material is no longer the background or the support for an artwork but a freestanding artwork itself. What matters here is the fact that this material or work vanishes with the termination of the exhibition. This material ends its life after living for a certain temporal term in a specific space during the exhibit period, which reminds viewers of a human’s finite life. Making viewers intensively realize the limitation of time, this enables the artist to maximize the value of her aesthetic experience, perceptual experience, and life experience.

This installation mode involved in and occupying a place temporarily leaves a strong impression in the memory of the viewers who enter the space. This shares its own memory, implicitly keeping some traces made when tape is put and removed in a space. In this art show, Kang reflects on various matters springing from her own life in the same context using not only tape and cut adhesive sheets but also diverse materials and objects, enabling viewers to join these matters with universal emotions. This line drawing work set on the wall is of particular interest in that its calligraphic feel as well as decisive, succinct brushwork stands out. Kang’s work <YouEnteraRoom> is especially impressive with and marked by the beauty of moderation reminiscent of pictorial taste and minimalism as well as the stark contrast of light and dark redolent of potent brushwork and line delineation of ink wash painting. Her work seems to forge its own structure to simplify and suggest complicated things.

Kang’s recent work is particularly marked by the conceptual use of diverse materials. This was meant not to simply address materials but to convey social meaning. This work is conceptual and basically similar to the notion of ‘social sculpture’ that intends to lend meaning to society through art. This work rests on her intention to actively communicate with viewers. An example is her mirror work in which the mirror no longer serves to reflect one’s identity and the viewers are provided with the time of a standstill to read given sentences for a while. Her three-dimensional work <Horizontal Verticality> is characterized by a critical metaphor for an endeavor to pile up trifling things. In <Recurrence> with a drawing on a rectangular wood block the wood mould itself becomes a work of art in a position of the subject. The wood mould that shows traces made by a steel cutting die retains both the marks of raised carving and depressed engraving, disclosing its interior and exterior. This work has parallels in line drawing where a wall itself becomes the content of an artwork. Like this, Kang’s recent work extends to social sculpture and conceptual work intrinsic to the artist. This work raises a wide array of problems derived from her life and couched in her metaphorical, poetic artistic idioms. This is also thought of as being seen from her critical point of view on contemporary people’s reckless desire and from her pathetic point of view on the traces of memories fraught with scars.

By Park Young-taik (Kyonggi University Professor & Art Critic)