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KWANG-YOUNG CHUN: AGGREGATIONS, NEW WORKS 2011. 06. 10 ~ 2011. 09. 04 Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN -
Conny Dietzschold Gallery is very pleased to announce a major solo exhibition by the Korean artist Chun, Kwang-Young. This is Chun’s fourth solo exhibition in Australia and will include a number of his acclaimed Aggregation pieces. Chun’s work is immediately recognizable and lends itself to endless scrutiny. The artist folds Korean mulberry paper covered with Chinese language characters on small polystyrene forms, and then combines them on a board where he creates a surface of large scale hybrids of sculpture, printmaking, and painting called Aggregations. The text sometimes includes well wishes for the viewer.
The works alternately undulate, bristle, erupt or appear flat and puzzle-like. Their large scale makes the presence of the pieces magnetic and absorbing, as their surface and texture elicit close observation. As the viewer approaches a work, it becomes progressively a threedimensional field, an accumulation of forms and an endless litany of text. Inspired by childhood memories of how herbal medicines were kept in small sacks and hung from the ceiling, wrapped in mulberry paper and tied with string made of the same material, the wrapped triangles in Chun’s construction resemble tradition and his contemporary expression.
Chun is orchestrating thousands of units to produce variations of surface
texture and composition and speak on many levels and on universal terms. Chun’s
work, characterized by an apparent minimalism from a distance and marked by an
incredible intricacy up close, has strong affinities with 20th and early 21st
century artistic practice. The world’s finest mulberry paper is made in Korea
from the pulp of the mulberry tree, and its use extends far beyond the
medicinal.
Korean artist Kwang-Young Chun began work on his series
of Aggregations in the 1990s. Today, he is recognized internationally for these
sculptural forms. The basis of his work is individual, triangular, Styrofoam
shapes. Individually, these shapes are minuscule. Taken together, however,
their visual impact is immense. This concept of the aggregate is what informs
Chun’s work.
The Styrofoam shapes are covered in Korean mulberry
paper. In Korea, the paper is a mainstay and has many utilitarian uses from
floor and window coverings to candy and medicinal wrappers. It also resonates
with personal meaning for the artist, who recalls trips to an herbalist as a
small child. Medicines wrapped in mulberry paper hung from the ceiling of the
shop, the paper protecting the contents from dampness and insects.
Chun uses pages
recycled from old books to cover the geometric forms. These pages are covered
in Korean and Chinese characters, adding another layer of cultural and personal
meaning. He hand ties the paper over each shape, twisting pages into string to
complete the wrapping. In this way Chun is able to integrate traditional
materials into a contemporary context. Curated by Susan Moldenhauer. Funded in
part by the national Advisory Board of the UW Art Museum and the Wyoming Arts
Council through the National Endowment for the Arts and the Wyoming State
Legislature.
