Partial exhibition view of "The Gesture of Image," Pibi Gallery, Seoul. © Pibi Gallery.The Gesture of Image, a group exhibition taking place at Pibi Gallery from August 25 to October 15, examines the current state of young contemporary artists in Korea through the perspective of gestures. The exhibition features work including drawings, paintings, and sculptures by five artists; Dongju Kang (b. 1988), RohwaJeong (b. 1981), Jiyoung Yoon (b. 1984), Hyein Lee (b. 1981), and Eun Chun (b. 1977).
The Gesture of Image examines a group of young Korean artists’ demeanor and gestures in carrying out the creation and the aesthetic values underlying the artworks. The exhibition particularly takes a close look at how the artist’s gestures affect the work in the creative process and how these works build a relationship with the viewers.
The exhibition focuses on the artist’s gestures hidden on the surface of the image of the work. The images of each work could be read by following the artist’s body, actions, and trajectories. The exhibition expects to invite the viewers to look beyond the surface of the work and look at the works from a new and diverse perspective.
Artist Hyein Lee reproduces the landscape unfolded in front of her on the canvas. In the painting, Lee puts the conflictual and harmonious process of leaving her studio and exposing her body to an environment the artist cannot control. The scenery depicted in Lee’s paintings is, in other words, proof of the existence of the artist’s body. Lee envisions the space experienced with her body and presents the experienced space and time to the audience through her works.
RohwaJeong is a duo who works with different media. Based on an understanding of a specific medium, the duo focuses on various relationships with the surrounding environment. By putting the selected medium into the exhibition space, the artwork embraces the surroundings as part of the artwork. For this exhibition, the duo used the canvas as a ping pong table and played ping pong with wet-painted balls to visualize the process of creating the artwork.
Partial exhibition view of "The Gesture of Image," Pibi Gallery, Seoul. Photo by Aproject Company.Paper and pencil are the two main materials used in Dongju Kang’s artworks. Kang depicts the surrounding environment with the two materials but focuses on the relationship between time and space. Kang internalizes physical experiences and expresses them through repetitive actions. The time and place experienced in the past are shown from a new perspective. Thus, the described scenery is rather abstract and poetic in Kang’s works.
Jiyoung Yoon sculptures our attitude toward accepting a certain situation. Yoon asks questions about various belief systems that are invisible but clearly exist through the artworks and shows how these beliefs are revealed through our behaviors and gestures. To emphasize the hidden side of this state, Yoon alters the volume of the sculptural works or puts video works together and visualizes the difference between reality and beliefs.
Mainly working with photography, artist Eun Chun captures the subject with its surrounding situation and environment and attempts to seize the situation up to a certain moment. An early series of Chun’s works are presented in this exhibition. Chun photographed the tools of poly artists and amateur astronomers who used different instruments to reach the senses beyond sight. Through these works, the artist tries to present the extension of senses by using tools and revealing the relationship between the performer and the tool.
