Exhibition Site

In March, Jeong, an exhibition of new works by eight Korean artists, designers and craftsmen, was presented at The Future Perfect, a design gallery in New York's West Village. The exhibition's eclectic collection of artwork and conceptual furniture creates a collective discussion between Korea's indigenous craft traditions and contemporary material culture. From handicrafts rooted in ancient craftsmanship, to the reinterpretation of tradition through new materials and technologies, to working methods that rely exclusively on contemporary technology, "정" moves beyond an examination of cultural identity to a global dialogue about consumerism and sustainability, and a narrative perspective that embraces existential concerns.

Jane Yang-D'Haene's "MINHWA" ceramic series

"Jeong" can be translated as "love," an emotion that refers to an attachment to someone, a connection that causes social reciprocity and a feeling of closeness, togetherness, and warmth. Thus, in the Korean context, "we" is not just a plural of "I", but "I" through "정 "(love) and "you" become one, thus becoming "we". The curatorial concept of the exhibition comes from this Korean cultural value of collective loyalty and strong emotional ties to people and places, and this value, expressed through loyalty, love and community feeling, is easier to experience and feel than definitions and norms.

Jane Yang-D'Haene, "MINHWA" Series Ceramics

Focusing on contemporary artists who are taking Korea's rich craft tradition to new heights, this exhibition features highly personal and universally relevant works, including Seungjin Yang's iconic balloon furniture, Jane Yang-D'Haene's ethereal ceramics, and Rahee Yoon's soft-focus color field sculptures. The works convey the artist's emotionally pungent material innovations and conceptual reflections that inspire.

Seungjin Yang, "LOUNGECHAIR" (Recliner)

Seungjin Yang returns with a conceptual furniture series of balloons, where he subverts the visual experience of balloons by repeatedly pouring colored epoxy resin over fixed combinations of balloons, enabling the seat sculptures to withstand the weight of the human body. By choosing the fragile medium of balloons, he manipulates memories and pleasures from childhood through the design process. Each piece exudes a glassy, playful sheen with a sense of ephemeral sadness, as if asking the dark question: will something designed only for the ephemeral last forever?

The paradox of visual and sensory materiality is an important theme of 정. Yoon's acrylic works combine rigid geometry and soft-focus visual effects with the luminous brightness of holograms and the presence of solids. Yoon excels at blending the raw properties of the material with accidental craft effects to produce a strong and unstable visual sensation. The coexistence of square and circle, real and imaginary makes the calm exterior with the matter inside tossing violently, simple and quiet, expressing itself in a silent way.

Junsu Kim, "ALBO 1" Leather Vase

Junsu Kim works with leather, either layering leather cords or combining leather with objects to create intricate textures that flow like water, yet have the texture of ceramic. The paradoxical relationship of weaving the softest hydroplastic leather into a hard form is like the intricacy of man and his environment, pulled by hidden threads.

Myungtaek Jung, "DUMBUNG" chair

Myungtaek Jung's furniture design is inspired by ancient Korean architecture, with two chairs in the form of bronze monoliths that combine functionality and sculptural beauty to convey a quiet grandeur, as if giving pause to the punctuation of the entire exhibition space. Both Jane Young DeHaan and Jaik Lee's work is inspired by the Moon Jar from the Joseon Dynasty. Named for its full-moon, moonlit form and glaze, the Moon Jar's minimalist elegance has captivated Korean artists and connoisseurs since the 17th century, linking it to the country's indigenous identity. Inspired by this, Jane Young DeHaan has created a series of eponymous spherical vessels that resemble seeds and fruits carved from multiple layers of hand-looped coils, entering into a contemporary dialogue of design by introducing unexpected textures, colors, and elements that open up new interpretations of traditional objects. The fluctuating curved surfaces echo the sinking and shrinking of traditional moon jars during the firing process as the top and bottom of the jars are pieced together with the bronze (deconstructed) vessels.

Chungjae Kim, "NEWBORN SERIES

In his search for a form that accurately represents the life cycle, Chungjae Kim devised a new process in which he hand-molds clay into organic shapes imprinted with the artist's hands, scans and reprints them with a 3D printer. In the process of experimenting with new materials and techniques, he also pursues a consistent beauty of form, and several of the works in this exhibition have the same varied, spiritual and translucent interplay of Taihu stone, with the aesthetics of both architecture and sculpture. The process of mixing hand and computer craftsmanship in these works is also the artist's imagination of the future of craftsmanship in the digital age.

Jingyong Yeon, "PADDED SOFA", 2022

The only hanging object in the space is Jingyong Yeon's work using a large flat quilt, expressing his appreciation for the inherent quality of discarded objects, and a sofa transformed from a stuffed duvet, raising the question of practicality and sustainability. On the surface of the quilts, the NBA logo remains, as if a recurring watermark, pointing directly to the visual language embedded in consumer culture.

"As a gallery, we are always looking to deepen our thinking about design and the resulting discourse." As gallery director Laura Young explains, since its founding in 2003 as one of the most important contemporary design galleries, Perfect Future has been known for its broad vision and strong curatorial philosophy. In addition to introducing highly collectible works by groundbreaking design talent, Perfect Future continues to build relationships with influential artists, designers and artisans from around the world as an industry authority and catalyst. The exhibition "정", which focuses on the new generation of contemporary Korean art, is an attempt to establish a dialogue between the region's local culture and global design.

While East Asian art has often been portrayed as ancient or mysterious in the past, in recent years ancient, modern and contemporary East Asian artworks and their cultural significance and extended value in exhibitions are becoming open for discussion. After the democratization movement of the 1980s in Korea, a new generation of artists no longer pursues the dominant issues of the past, but shows a return to everyday life and actively employs non-traditional materials and processes to express a new artistic self-consciousness. This self-consciousness completes a dialogue with the world and the times by way of inward perception, and through the resonance of sensibility and experience, it constitutes the cultural identity of the group, which is perhaps the cultural value embedded in "정".

Article Source:艺术与设计

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