[Gallery Walk] The Invisible World, 'Gunggu' on the Individual and Community

2024 Kumho Young Artists Part 2 Exhibition: Kang Ikyeong, Wang Seonjeong, Im Seongu
Until the 16th, Kumho Museum of Art, Sagan-dong, Jongno-gu

"What we are seeing is only a part of the world"

Kang Ikyeong, Fragments of Ouroboros Altered Existences in Ouroboros Exhibition View, '2024 Kumho Young Artist' Part 2,
[Photo by Kumho Museum of Art]

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, the Dutch scientist who invented the microscope for the first time in human history, encountered countless living organisms invisible to the human eye through lenses he personally crafted. These included insects, blood cells in a drop of blood, bacteria, moving sperm, and bacteria in a drop of well water. He expressed his awe and emotion by realizing that the world we see with the naked eye is not everything. Through the microscope, he pioneered a new realm of microbiology, revealing another world.

Lee Kyung Kang 'Altered Existences in Ouroboros'

Even without tools like microscopes, the world beyond outer space and the realm of subatomic particles, which humans have yet to understand, remain unknown territories for humanity. Artist Lee Kyung Kang has devoted herself to visualizing spaces that we cannot see but know exist. She has consistently explored the relationship between the digital and the real world, presenting her artistic imagination to the audience under the theme of 'spaces we cannot see' through the fusion of contemporary art genres.

'Gusanpalhae (九山八海)', 2023-24, mixed media on canvas, 91.5 X 183 centimeters (cm).
[Photo by Kumho Museum of Art]

Her new work, 'Altered Existences in Ouroboros,' presented in the second part of the '2024 Kumho Young Artist' exhibition held at Kumho Museum of Art in Sagan-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, until the 16th, reflects her interest in the dark matter of underground worlds and abandoned spaces beneath her feet.

Lee introduces herself as "someone who wants to know the unknown world." She became interested in hidden worlds beneath invisible realities, such as dark matter in the underground world, while participating in the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) residency program in the United States in 2021. The Sanford Research Facility, converted from a mine, is a deep underground space reaching 1.5 km in depth, where physics experiments are conducted to detect dark matter and neutrinos.

One day, while driving there, a glitch occurred in her navigation system, and she saw a momentary glimpse of outer space on the screen. This experience sparked her imagination: "What about the world beneath my feet?" Her ongoing research in cartography, Buddhist philosophy, and cosmology merged with her underground world studies, leading to creations such as the mural 'Welcome to Ouroboros World' (2024) and the installation 'Ouroboros' (2024). In this exhibition, she presents 31 flat works, one mural, and two installations.

Wang Seonjeong, Exhibition View of 'I learned how to fly', Part 2 of '2024 Kumho Young Artist', [Photo courtesy of Kumho Museum of Art]

Wang Seon-jeong 'I learned how to fly'

The works of artist Wang Seon-jeong, who conveys messages of human anxiety and fear through mythological motifs and religious imagery while simultaneously confronting and healing them, also capture attention. She reconstructs scenes of life, events, and emotions she has experienced and perceived into dramatic images on canvas. In this exhibition themed 'I learned how to fly,' the artist reveals 15 paintings expressing scenes from nightmares with vivid colors and distinctive depiction skills, along with two knitted and embroidered works, freely expressing her emotions and aesthetic sensibilities.

"At some point, I began practicing how to fly in my dreams. Experiencing recurring, inescapable nightmares and feeling such vivid pain, I thought it would be better to just fly away. I gradually lifted my feet off the ground little by little, repeatedly falling, and eventually learned how to fly. Then, soaring up, I looked down and felt exhilaration seeing all kinds of monsters searching for me, bustling and clamoring."

In her artist notes recorded during the creative process, Wang honestly confesses her vulnerability and anxiety. She adds that she has also learned how to face and overcome these moments.

As seen in 'For You' (2023), recurring images of birds, angels, and half-human half-beast figures, as well as figures with twisted bodies suffering yet painting, represent the artist’s will to rise above a reality dominated by fear, anxiety, and dread, and painful memories. Her paintings encapsulate both the terror and ecstasy encountered by a human and artist, stimulating deep-seated emotions and sentiments within the viewer.

Im Seon-gu, 'Wind Wall', 2024, paper, sand, graphite, and mixed media, variable installation. [Photo courtesy of Kumho Museum of Art]

Im Seon-gu 'A castle built of dust'

Im Seon-gu’s work, which gathers, crushes, and connects papers from various sources to build castle walls, seems to unfold the relationships of human groups constructing the world in subtle interactions and overlapping territories. As the title 'A castle built of dust' suggests, the artist weaves personal experiences, memories, and stories of others and communities into layered dramas based on paper and graphite.

Traces and images left on fragile paper intertwine to complete a castle. Recently, the artist has focused on the process of papers becoming lumps, moving beyond crumpling, tearing, and patching paper drawings. This work, starting from the exhibition theme of castle-building methods, is the result of gathering, crushing, and connecting papers from different sources to build castle walls.

The large-scale installation 'Leaning Walls' (2024), consisting of 17 paper walls supporting each other, created by repeatedly crushing and clumping paper fragments, and 'Wind Wall' (2024), a paper wall with holes through which secretive drawing collages can be seen, overwhelm the exhibition space with a width of 13 meters.

In this exhibition, where paper, always the foundation, takes center stage, the massive paper castle walls occupying the space reflect countless scenes of the world existing on the edges of self and others, posing reflective questions about life to the audience.

The Kumho Young Artist program, operated by Kumho Museum of Art for 20 years, began with its first open call in 2004 and has formed a significant axis in the art world by discovering emerging artists who seek new directions and focus on young perspectives. Through 21 open calls, it has selected 95 artists and supported solo exhibitions for emerging artists.