Installation view of 《To Sculpt, Purely》 © Perigee Gallery
Perigee Gallery presents a solo exhibition 《To Sculpt, Purely》, by artist Seo Hae Young, on view through November 21.
Seo Hae Young works with sculpture as a language of form-making
and, going further, is interested in how sculpture comes to be made. Through
research that examines the process of sculptural creation, she has continually
attempted to reveal the essence of sculpture. In addition, another thesis of
her work is to examine how artistic action becomes connected to her own life.
In 《To Sculpt, Purely》, Seo returns
to sculpture as a practice of observing and representing objects before her.
The mountain and sea sculptures placed on opposite sides of the exhibition
space are cast from clay works made while observing actual subjects, focusing
on the surfaces and forms of objects that can be apprehended through the
artist’s gaze.
Installation view of 《To Sculpt, Purely》 © Perigee Gallery
Yet this is not simply a return to the starting point. Even when
she looks at the same subject and sculpts it in a similar manner, the “self” of
the present is different from the “self” of the past.
The experiences accumulated over time permeate her sculptures,
prompting the artist to reconsider the distances and differences in sensation
that have emerged between herself and her subjects, herself and sculpture, and
between one sculpture and another.
Although the artist reproduces actual landscapes, she does not
arbitrarily fill in or exaggerate what lies beyond what can be seen. Within the
range of what she can perceive, she focuses on the surface of the subject and
immerses herself in the acts of applying, removing, shaping, and carving away
clay.
Rather than defining a particular meaning in advance, the
exhibition unfolds by suspending meaning as much as possible. What ultimately
remains in the exhibition space, therefore, is not discourse or narrative, but
the presence of Seo Hae Young and the act of sculpting.
Installation view of 《To Sculpt, Purely》 © Perigee Gallery
The small bronze sculptures scattered throughout the exhibition
space, along with the mountains, sea, and fog, create relationships across
varying distances.
Differences in front and back, high and low, near and far, large
and small, modeling and casting, and the presence or absence of pedestals
reveal how each sculpture exists as an independent work while simultaneously
taking shape through its relationship with the others.
Viewers connect these relationships through their own gaze,
composing the artist, the subjects she observes, and the sculptures that emerge
between them into a constellation.
《To Sculpt, Purely》 does
not offer a definitive answer to the essence of sculpture. Seo Hae Young
continues to desire something that cannot yet be reached through sculpture.
For her, “pure sculpture” does not refer to any particular
subject. Rather, it is an attitude toward the relationship between sculpture
and life, as well as a process in which the sculptures created by the artist
encounter the viewer’s gaze and generate new relationships.
Within a distance that seems almost within reach yet remains
elusive, that seems to narrow yet never quite closes, sculpture continues to
emerge as an independent presence.
