Jihyun Jung “Cases of Finding a Whale in Mountain”
Doosan Gallery
This event has ended.
DOOSAN Gallery New York presents Jihyun Jung’s solo exhibition, “Cases of Finding a Whale in a Mountain.”
The title of this exhibition is based on the event of the sudden sinking of a battleship in South Korea in 2010. Even with imperfect evidence, the government announced that the incident was due to North Korea’s torpedo attack, sinking the ship by explosion. One scientist compared this conclusion to “finding a whale in a mountain,” which is where Jung derived his title.
Koreans born after the 1980s have enjoyed unparalleled economically bountiful times. However, as the world’s only divided nation, there is opposition between left and right ideologies due to extreme tension between old and new generations. Underneath rapid economic development, it is a time of assuming the after effects of widespread corruption and collective egotism.
Therefore, these young Koreans live with frustration rather than hope, accepting that their reality will be much more impacted by injustice and lies rather than justice and truth. Jihyun Jung’s works contain the artist’s look at these realities as well as his anguish towards them.
This exhibition will comprise of works featured in various group shows in Korea, installations and kinetic objects Jung created in residencies, and finally, new drawings he created in New York.
“Window Drawing” series started out with the contradictory notion that what Jung sees out through his New York studio window is a continuation of other windows. He then began drawing what he saw outside. This tile-like drawing is composed of pieces of paper suitable for the artist to complete on a daily basis. Instead of thinking of the whole product, the artist focused on specific details. This process of drawing the landscape meshes well with the way the artist sees his spatial surroundings. Using graphite, the artist draws, then disturbs the trace of the pencil line with an eraser. Working and reworking is significant for Jung’s practice, as how one continually adjusts what one sees gives depth to the scene being portrayed. In that same strain, he created luster with graphite in Distant Rhythm and the writing for “Thames.”
In addition, the artist often collects and uses found, discarded objects in his installation works. The reason being that discarded objects have qualities of chance, anonymity, as well as of deficiency. The works to be shown such as Night Walker (2013, light work), Skin Paster (2014, video), Paper Drop Device (2014, kinetic), along with Words Left Unsaid (2010), Away From Here (2011) are all made through collecting and assembling. In other words, the artist collected the object then mended its damage, or combined the object with another in a new arrangement. The works come together through construction and erasure.
Like having “the streetlight on, but it is still bright as day” or when one “begins to utter a word but cannot complete the sentence,” the artist shows us situations that we cannot categorize in a specific domain. Therefore, Jung’s work reveals the life of a young artist living through this difficult time, and his inner anguish in a lyrical metaphor.
Jihyun Jung (b. 1986) received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from Korea National University of Arts. He has held solo exhibitions at Sindoh Art Space (2014, Seoul, Korea), Insa Art Space (2013, Seoul, Korea), Project Space SARUBIA (2011, Seoul, Korea) and Gallery Skape (2010, Seoul, Korea). He has also participated in group exhibitions at Seoul Museum of Art (2014, Seoul, Korea), PLATEAU Samsung Museum of Art (2014, Seoul, Korea), DOOSAN Gallery Seoul/New York (2013/2014, Seoul, Korea/New York, NY, U.S.A.), Cais Gallery (2012, Seoul, Korea), and KT&G Sangsang Madang (2010, Seoul, Korea).
Media
Schedule
from May 21, 2015 to June 25, 2015
Opening Reception on 2015-05-21 from 18:00 to 20:00