Installation view of 《Ping》 ©KICHE
KICHE presents a two-person exhibition 《Ping》, by Nam Seokwoo and Lee Sihyeon, on
view through February 28.
The exhibition title, “ping,” is an empty
signal. Carrying no meaning, it is an a priori tapping that tests whether a
relation can be established at all. As the title suggests, instead of
positioning painting as a means of statement or assertion, the exhibition
approaches it as an act that sounds out how a relation to the world might
remain open.
What ping evokes is not the production of
meaning, but a way of working that takes uncertainty itself as a condition,
where meaning may or may not arise.
Installation view of 《Ping》 ©KICHE
Nam Seokwoo’s
paintings, rather than starting from what lies before the eye, take shape from
images sourced from within. What concerns Nam is not the conversion of ideas
into visible form, but the labor of handling images, turning and working them
like clay, thinking through touch.
Unreal figures appear in unfamiliar
settings that evoke medieval mystery play stages or darkened antique furniture
shops, drawing attention to the conditions that surround objects and the quiet
pressures they bear.
Lee Sihyeon
through the articulation of color and plane renders perceptible the invisible
layers that underlie human experience. The abstract forms that appear on the
canvas are drawn from familiar spaces, yet Lee is not concerned with
reproducing forms or pursuing formal inquiry.
Rather, the artist attends to the ways in
which the ambient layers, lingering traces of interactions, and social rhythms
elicit perceptual responses before it surfaces into consciousness. Lee’s
paintings explore the non-conscious phase embedded in the act of seeing itself.
Installation view of 《Ping》 ©KICHE
For both artists, the canvas is less a
window that represents the world than a reflective surface that receives the
signals the world sends back. It comes before intervention, assertion, or
interpretation, marking a simple check of what is there. Rather than attempting
to speak, it functions as an earnest ping, checking whether a connection can be
established between the self and the world.
Participating
Artists: Nam
Seokwoo, Lee Sihyeon
