Installation view of 《Once Upon Now》 © Gallery SP
Gallery SP is presenting 《Once Upon Now》, a solo exhibition by Chris Ro, through September 30. The
exhibition traces the memories and traces accumulated within a single building,
revealing the multilayered temporalities and sense of place embedded in the
space through graphics and installation.
With a background in graphic design and
architecture, Chris Ro has focused on the ‘intangible qualities’ that
constitute a space but remain invisible, such as air, temperature, and sound.
For the artist, these ‘intangible qualities’ are forces that shape a place, yet
they also constitute a reality that cannot be fully preserved through records
or information alone.
Installation view of 《Once Upon Now》 © Gallery SP
To mediate these intangible qualities, he has
explored places firsthand and conducted research into a range of materials,
developing various media—including video, installation, and painting—based on
graphics.
Moving between two and three dimensions, his
graphics take the form of thin and lightweight structures. Yet the rough
surfaces of the printed ink generate a sense of vibration and movement,
allowing viewers to sense the traces of motion and time embedded within a
space.
For this exhibition, Chris Ro expands his
practice into the history of the building that houses Gallery SP. Completed as
a residence in 1997, the building has accommodated various occupants and
functions over the years, accumulating diverse stories and traces, while
relatively little of its history has been officially documented.
Installation view of 《Once Upon Now》 © Gallery SP
The artist collects fragmentary traces—including architectural
plans and records related to the building, urban development documents, and
oral histories—and connects them through imagination, revealing anew the sense
of place accumulated within the architecture. Scattered traces of the past are
transformed into thin graphic forms and architectural structures, supporting
one another as they come together to form a single space.
The exhibition title, “Once Upon Now”, refers to a cycle of time
in which the past is revisited from the present, while the past in turn
constitutes the present. The exhibition unfolds as both a fictional archive
housing records that have remained at the margins of history and a space where
different times and places converge.
Moving through an exhibition in which the actual history of the
building intersects with the artist’s imagination, viewers encounter the
invisible layers of time embedded in the site through a renewed sensory
experience.
