Suki Seokyeong Kang (b. 1977) has expanded the fundamental visual language of painting through various mediums, including painting, sculpture, installation, video, and performance. In the process of these visual experiments, the artist reinterprets narrative elements drawn from her body and personal history, as well as traditional Korean concepts and methodologies, into her own unique visual language.

One of Suki Seokyeong Kang's notable works, Grandmother Tower (2011–2013), embodies the frail figure of her aging grandmother in the form of a tower. This sculptural piece, which appears precariously on the verge of collapse yet remains upright, takes the shape of a life-sized tower constructed from objects the artist collected from her surroundings.

Discarded items such as metal plates and drying racks are interconnected with materials like metal frames, thread, and leather, transforming into a new sculptural entity. Internally, the contrasting colors, shapes, and textures of the individual components create a sense of dissonance while simultaneously forming vertical harmony. The work encapsulates the artist’s personal narrative in the form of a singular object.

By reassembling discarded objects with differing contexts and functions to create sculptural balance, Suki Seokyeong Kang's work carries stories deeply connected to personal emotions. Her piece MaeMaeJong 邁邁鍾 (2013), presented at the 13th SONGEUN Art Award exhibition, also explores an emotional narrative derived from the small object of a bell, expressing it in a sculptural form. 

This work originated from the artist’s chance encounter with a dining bell shaped like a human figure and an illustration of a woman ringing a bell at a door. Reflecting on the sound of a bell, Kang described it as “both a signal of life and an object imbued with the emotion of waiting, a desire to hear that sound or signal.”

In this context, Kang conceived an exhibition composed of installations and paintings that intertwine a bell’s sound with a verse from The Book of Odes, specifically the poem “Baekhwa (白華, White Flower),” which conveys longing for a departed lover and the sound of a bell ringing in his house. Regarding the integration of objects and poetic verses in her work, Kang explained that it was “an attempt to realize an ‘abstract sculptural logic’ and simultaneously present this emotional resonance as an organic rhythm.”

The intermittent ringing of bells in the exhibition space, paired with the vertically arranged objects, conveys the layered meanings of a bell—waiting, longing, and anxiety. Alongside this, the precariously stacked objects wrapped in yarn, the repeated patterns of lines in her paintings, and the artist's traces that fill unstable gaps all serve as sculptural gestures addressing the notion of "balance."

By building narratives that cannot be fully explained through words into abstract sculptural logic, Suki Seokyeong Kang creates her own sense of balance, organically unfolding her works in forms that blur the boundaries between painting and installation. This unique approach is referred to as "paintallation," a term combining "painting" and "installation." 

The painterly elements in her works exist beyond the confines of traditional frames, often extending into the surrounding space. Individual paintings may stand precariously on the floor, be separated from their original frames to take on various forms, or even be represented by empty frames installed on the wall.

Suki Seokyeong Kang’s paintallation unfolds around the concepts of ‘Jeong (井)’ and ‘Mora.’ In linguistics, ‘Mora’ refers to a unit of sound shorter than a syllable, and in Kang’s work, it signifies a visualized unit of time where narratives accumulate. 

The ‘Mora’ series, created as a painting project, involves repeatedly layering and saturating paper or silk with paint. The resulting surfaces of the ‘Mora’ works reveal the passage of time through the accumulated traces of paint layers built up over extended periods. In Mora on the Black Mat, which features 27 ‘Mora’ pieces created over five years and arranged atop a ‘Black Mat’, the dimension of spatiality is integrated into the work. 

For Kang, painting is not a medium representing a finalized form but rather a unit that constitutes her unique sculptural logic. It is subject to variation and expansion within diverse contexts and environments.

The ‘Jeong (井)’ series, a structural work composed of square grids, draws inspiration from the Jeongganbo (井間譜), a musical notation system invented in the 15th century during the reign of King Sejong alongside the creation of Hangul. Referencing the Jeongganbo, which uses square grids to denote the length and pitch of sounds, Kang reinterprets this structure as a conceptual framework that captures sound and movement while illustrating the operation of time and narrative. 

The grid-like ‘Jeong’ series serves as a framework for spatially expanding painting. It functions as a basic structure for segmenting space, allowing viewers to perceive both the square form and the scenery beyond it simultaneously.

First presented at the 11th Gwangju Biennale, Black Mat Oriole (2016–2018) not only extends the spatial components of painting but also incorporates the continuous movement of the body within it. This work is conceptually grounded in the Chunaeng-mu (春鶯舞), a solo court dance from the Joseon Dynasty. Chunaeng-mu is a restrained form of dance performed within a confined space of approximately 2 square meters, marked by a traditional woven mat known as a hwamunseok.

Suki Seokyeong Kang reinterpreted the traditional dance Chunaeng-mu through her experimental approach to paintallation. In this work, the hwamunseok mat is transformed into the ‘Black Mat,’ constructed as a grid—a foundational element of traditional painting and a basic logic of the plane. This ‘Black Mat’ serves both as the space allotted for the dancer’s movements and as a framework that regulates and constrains those movements. 

Against the backdrop of a spatial installation composed of objects, fabric, frames, and paintings, an activator (performer) carries out a series of restrained choreography atop the ‘Black Mat.’ The activator interacts with the various elements within the space, generating a new spatial narrative through the dialogue between movement and environment.

Land Sand Strand (2018), presented at the 2018 Liverpool Biennial and the 58th Venice Biennale’s main exhibition, is a work derived from Black Mat Oriole. In this piece, the ‘Black Mat’, which functioned as the hwamunseok mat in Black Mat Oriole, is reinterpreted using the framework of the traditional musical notation system Jeongganbo.

The newly created ‘Black Mat’, modeled after the grid format of Jeongganbo, is presented as a movement manual, or dance score, serving as the foundation for abstract movements. In this work, the grid becomes a “land” of infinite possibilities, capable of constant transformation and expansion. The audience’s bodies, moving around and interacting with the space, resemble grains of “sand”, colliding and engaging with one another to form fluid “strands” of motion and connection.

Subsequently, the ‘Black Mat’ evolves in Kang's work, not only serving as the role of the hwamunseok mat but also as a sculptural element that contains movement. The ‘Mat Black Mat’ series, derived from the ‘Black Mat,’ functions as a more fluid “land” and is often presented in various forms: hanging like a painting on the wall, suspended in the air like feet, or folded and rolled up in transformed shapes. In this way, the ‘Mat Black Mat’ is varied and adapted to different contexts, evoking the movements and rhythms of the body transformed into the grid of Jeongganbo, expanding the abstraction of painting.

Additionally, to create these works, Kang collaborates with artisans from Ganghwa Island in South Korea, which borders North Korea. Using natural materials grown in this region, the ‘Mat Black Mat’ carries the time and history of a place marked by years of division, as well as the efforts of countless individuals who have sought to find their place within that history.

Meanwhile, Kang's recent ‘Mountain’ series, which has been ongoing since 2020, originates from her interest in traditional jinkyeong sansuhwa, or “True-View Landscape Painting.” Unlike gwannyeom sansuhwa (idealized landscape paintings) based on imagination and ideals, jinkyeong sansuhwa is a traditional form of painting that depicts actual landscapes seen and walked through by the artist.

Kang has recreated the unique atmosphere of the mountains in four seasons with sculptures made from materials such as iron, metal chains, thread, and silk. Viewers can wander through the mountainscapes representing the four seasons, experiencing firsthand the passage of time and the changing scenery of each season.

In this way, Suki Seokyeong Kang summons the past, traditional time, into the present to create a new space-time. Within this space, sculptural elements with different forms and modes of existence connect and interact, weaving a narrative of solidarity. Through this, the artist presents a "true landscape" of individuals in contemporary society, who recognize each other’s existence and "place," continuously adjusting imbalances and conflicts, and forming relationships.

"Through these beautiful things, through this 'moment of square space,' I want to throw a small pause to tell the story of the present we live in." (Suki Seokyeong Kang, BAZAAR interview, May 10, 2019)

Suki Seokyeong Kang studied Korean Painting at Ewha Womans University, Seoul, and Painting at the Royal College of Art, London. She is currently a professor of Korean Painting at Ewha Womans University.

Recent her solo exhibitions include 《MARCH》, Kukje Gallery, Seoul, (2024); 《Suki Seokyeong Kang: Willow Drum Oriole》, Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul (2023); 《Square See Triangle》, Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul (2019); 《Black Mat Oriole》, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2018); 《Foot and Moon》, Audio Visual Pavilion, Seoul (2015); 《Polite Owl in the Valley 鴟鴞鴟鴞》, Gallery Factory, Seoul (2013); and 《GRANDMOTHER TOWER》, Old House, Seoul (2013).

Kang also has participated in various group exhibitions, including Venice Biennale (2019); Shanghai Biennale (2018); Liverpool Biennial (2018); Gwangju Biennale (2018, 2016); 《As the Moon Waxes and Wanes》, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon (2016); and 《Groupe Mobile》, Villa Vassilieff, Paris (2016). She was awarded the Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel in 2018 and the 13th SONGEUN Art Award in 2013.

References

• 강서경, Suki Seokyeong Kang (Artist Website)
• 스페이스 캔, Grandmother Tower (Space CAN, Grandmother Tower)
• 리움미술관, 강서경: 버들 북 꾀꼬리 (Leeum Museum of Art, Suki Seokyeong Kang: Willow Drum Oriole)
• 헬로! 아티스트, 강서경 (Hello! Artist, , Suki Seokyeong Kang)
• 송은, 제13회 송은미술대상전: 강서경 (SONGEUN, 13th SONGEUN Art Award Exhibition: Suki Seokyeong Kang)
• 아트조선, 한 개인의 좁다란 자리, 베니스비엔날레로 확장되기까지, 2019.05.08
• 국제갤러리, 마치 (Kukje Gallery, MARCH)
• BAZAAR, 강서경 작가의 전통과 미술사이, 2019.05.10