Michelle S. Cho and Ian Ha “Shifts and Echoes”

Fragment

[Image: Michelle S. Cho "Triremes" (2022) (detail)]

This event has ended.

At their core, Cho and Ha are preoccupied with the notion of surface. Cho in the skins of tires, cast into almost abstracted geological formations of metal. Her works fossilize patterns of motion in their pewter castes, transforming refuse into new commodities. The sculptures call forth legacies of transportation, migration, and their respective craftsmen, the value of pewter held not in its alloy of metals, but by how it is touched. Meanwhile, Ha’s relief-style painting gives his viewer an optical illusion of movement and a new fantasy that has been woven from images of everyday life. His paintings signal motion between the constituent parts of the dreamscapes he creates, providing commentary on how the media bombards its recipients without filtered control. In a cultural moment where linear narrative and a straightforward storyline—through thousands of media outlets and mediums of receiving information—are not guaranteed, physical form and color themselves become the pulse that guides the viewer.