Jemma Koo “Past Present”

Able Fine Art NY Gallery

This event has ended.

From January 20 to February 2, 2017, Able Fine Art NY Gallery presents the solo exhibition of Jemma Koo, Past Present, in its new gallery on Orchard street. Curated by William Chan, the works exhibited invites the viewers to consider the notion of self and its meaning in relationship to memory and each other.

“Who has not looked up at the sky, in desperation, for a sign, or something,” wrote artist Paul Chan. The search for self and its meaning in relationship to memory and each other have been explored by all types of artists in contemporary art. In this powerful and visceral exhibition, emerging artist Jemma Koo makes use of the personal as an entry point to this conversation. She confronts the search for self so bluntly as if she invites us to go inside her head to hear her inner dialogues.

In Biography – Ryan McGinley, the artist appears as a job applicant, repeating her job interview pitch relentlessly. With each additional repetition, she approaches her threshold to process who she is and who she wants to be. Ultimately, this overt gesture of examining herself only leads to more confusion. The audience experiences this sensation watching the multiple monitors, each displaying one version of this character.

The artist continues to investigate the meaning of self through her subjects’ interaction with others. In Ten Layers, both a performance and video piece, participants are dressed in layers of paper. The sheets represent the masks we wear, to both face others and ourselves. As the participants continue to interact in this performance, each are pushed to reveal themselves by peeling off the paper layer by layer. This raw act leaves each without their masks, exposing their innermost self. However, once the exhilaration subsides, the participants inevitably resume their distance, coming from their need for emotional familiarity.

In all of her work, Koo reminds us of the struggle and confusion in understanding ourselves. With each video building on the previous, the viewer begins to feel the crux of her intention. Koo might ask the questions in earnest but this asking is an orchestrated futile gesture. The artist offers us no viable answers but only her vulnerability and imperfections as a place for us to consider ours.

Jemma Koo (b. Seoul, Korea) is a New York based artist and curator. Koo received her MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media from the School Visual of Arts. Her work ranges from exploration of the Korean-Canadian experience to relationships between moving and still images.
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