Installation view of 《HEP》 ©GALLERY2
GALLERY2 presents a solo exhibition 《HEP》 by artist Donghyun Son, on view through
April 18.
Donghyun Son has persistently sought to
expand the boundaries of Korean traditional painting by bringing the signs of
contemporary visual culture into traditional painting styles. This solo
exhibition, 《HEP》, cuts across
his past methodological tendencies to attempt a flexible transition of form and
medium.
Installation view of 《HEP》 ©GALLERY2
Breaking away from the schema of
completeness or consistency, he executes sudden calls akin to a jazz musician’s
vocal interjection, intervening in the existing melody to drive rhythmic
variation.
Son borrows order and meaning from
tradition: the display format of the dabogyeok (a traditional compartmented
curio-cabinet for prized objects), the symbolism of the sipjangsaeng (the Ten
Symbols of Longevity), and the peripherality of clouds. What occupies their
interior, however, are objects, signs, and fragments captured from the artist's
surroundings.
Here, classical form operates as a typified
frame, and by acquiring its archetypal quality, it clashes the heterogeneous
and synchronic elements within against established orders of the past. This is
a strategy that moves beyond a simple juxtaposition of tradition and popular
culture, transplanting the structure of traditional painting onto today’s
materials and propelling its origins and contexts into variations of form and
medium.
Installation view of 《HEP》 ©GALLERY2
Ultimately, 《HEP》
is a practice of stationing drifting fragments at specific
coordinates, exploring new possibilities in the relationships they form, and
investigating an autonomy that dismantles the rigidity of form and medium.
Here, the discontinuous signals that cross the exhibition like the exclamatory
shout “Hep!” intentionally withhold referential meaning and momentarily evoke
an improvised rhythm.
Consequently, the objects and forms placed
in 《HEP》 do not adhere to fixed
definitions but become a hap (合)—a synthesis—that calls
out a brief hep, setting in motion a momentary, open-ended state.
