“MATTERS” Poster ©OCI Museum of Art
From June 15 to July 15, the OCI Museum of Art will present MATTERS, a solo exhibition by So Jeong Kim (b. 1993), an artist selected by the 2023 OCI YOUNG CREATIVES, a program to support emerging artists.
So Jeong Kim references representational methods such as line, footprint, and folding screen as well as documentation such as royal regalia and processional maps to express scenes that barely hold their place in everyday life or protests where crowds gather. The artist paints only the intact form of things but does not explain their essence. The crowds gathered on the canvas are only outwardly present, with no facial expressions. The banners, flags, and placards they hold have only a form, no message, content, or argument, and are composed of monotone colors and lines that do not speak to a concrete reality.
Disasters and catastrophes, wars and conflicts, tensions and militancy, crime and corruption, discrimination and exploitation, loneliness and addiction, poverty and disparity – the list of broken places around us grows but there are more people who break things than those who fix them. Those who want to fix it because they can’t stand to see it remain broken, crowd, form wills, open their eyes and ears, speak out, and act.
However, all of them are accused of rebellion or disrupting society and are fined, ostracized, and isolated. So the artist covers their faces. It’s easy to be ostracized and isolated with a burden and a sin that can’t be fixed. Still, the crowds go out into the streets, and the artist looks at the first steps they take to fix the broken places. If we don’t give up and keep going, they will correct our misguided gaze and point out what we should be looking at and what we should be listening to.
