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KWANG-YOUNG CHUN: Aggregations
Gwenda Jay/Addington Gallery Aggregations.... A single grain is unremarkable. Great deserts inspire awe. The earth's immense oceans began with drops of rain onto a barren world. Individual human lives, great civilizations -- all evolve by specific instants and events that add, each to each preceeding, until complexities and immensities are born. And these add further patterns of their own. In his very choice of medium, and in its culmination as works of art, Korean artist, Chun, Kwang-Young, offers complex subtleties in a minimalist serenity of form. Chicago viewers may confirm it for themselves. "Kwang-Young Chun: Aggregations," a display of eight panels by this artist, is on exhibition until May 30, 2001 at the Gwenda Jay/Addington Gallery, Chicago. Here, the academic catchword, "minimalist," which at first springs to mind, is a deception. The range of color in these works is indeed confined to shale greys, off-whites, myriad flecks of black, and, in some pieces, the ferric reds of iron rust. In most panels, general patterns resolve before the eye immediately: the mathematically regular strata of Aggregation J44; a regular and concentric 'bull's-eye' reverberation in Aggregation 001-Apo38; the varied areas of hue upon a uniform, pebbled ground in Aggregation 143-A. But when a viewer asks just what it is that 'aggregates' -- what are the building blocks? -- a manifold totality comes to the fore. The field of every work consists of small styrofoam triangles covered with mulberry paper, every one a note in lettered calligraphy and each attached by twisted strands fashioned from fragments of similar messages. Although Korea developed its own alphabet over half a millennium ago, Classical Chinese characters are often used for poetic and artistic effect, and this is the appearance here. The Gallery Notes do explain the artist's building blocks:
Such bundles were placed on ceilings to dispel dampness and discourage insects. In these works, Chun selects and chooses varied orientations for each element to underscore its individuality within the context of adjacent parts. But the artist further integrates such individualities within a greater sense of national legacy. Hand-made mulberry paper has a venerable history intimately bound with the Korean past. Traditionally, Korean homes have relied upon it intensively -- as a covering for walls, doors, window panes -- and it has even served as a material for utensils and decorative objects. Mulberry paper was the mainstay for the written word, for painting, and fine calligraphy.
In "Aggregations," Chun, Kwang-Young reflects upon how human societies pattern themselves: the interplay of individual and the role of each in forming a common consensus with others, as well as the tentative and contingent nature of that mutual consent. Nations may be at times molded by geography and circumstance, but their actualities are equally selected from several possibilities by the acts of individuals. These panels do exhibit a consistent expression. They form a distinct body of work. Certainly, Aggregation Joo 172, Aggregation 001-Apo37, Aggregation 98-J32, and Aggregation 98-J44 seem variations on a theme. In each, a mid-central wedge of patterning intrudes and spreads downwards, parting a distinctly different working of the medium's elements out to the right, left and bottom peripheries. And yet, in Aggregation Joo 172, the panel's arrangements focus on the center texturing of elements and its tension with the work's peripheries. In Aggregation 001-Apo37, a regular scheme of horizontal bands, emergent from the elements and most evident within the wedge contour, presents a divergent end result. With Aggregation 98-J32, the now transcendent stratification -- bands organized from beyond the 'building blocks' used by this artist -- more assertively extend beyond the central wedge contour: they are the predominant imposition, emergent and overlying the image as a whole. These four panels offer four unique interpretations, each built up with the very same fundamental element -- the triangular folded paper wish for good health, and each relying on a common compositional approach -- a central and discreet wedge contour. Here, refined differences at start arrive at distinctly different ends. In this exhibition, similarly, one finds a kinship between the pronounced horizontals which resolve within Chun's Aggregation 001-Apo36 and his Aggregation 001-Apo39. In contrast, Aggregation 001-Apo38 stands out all the more: its overall concentric rings dominate the artist's text packet 'building blocks.' In all these works, Chun draws upon specific Korean tradition in choice of materials, but presents in his final work a very contemporary perception of historical process whenever autonomous and personal beings consent to live together as a collective whole. There seems a Buddhist perception at work behind this art -- a rejection of abstract generalization in favor of manifest specifics. In this exhibition, with a bit of time and serious attention, a viewer's effort is well-rewarded. "Kwang-Young Chun: Aggregations" will be on display until May 30, 2001, at the Gwenda Jay/Addington Gallery, Chicago. An essay on Kwang-Young Chun by Andy Brumer may be accessed at http://artscenecal.com/ArticlesFile/Archive/Articles1995/Articles0795/Young.html. A reader may further consult: http://www.centerworld.com/cw/culture/2000/2000_01.htm. --G. Jurek Polanski Jurek Polanski has previously written and art edited for Strong Coffee in Chicago. He's also well known and respected among the Chicago museums and galleries. Jurek is currently a Visual Arts Correspondent for ArtScope.net. |
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