Installation view of 《Transmutation》 © NOON CONTEMPORARY
NOON CONTEMPORARY presents a group exhibition 《Transmutation》 on view
through November 1.
The three artists participating in 《Transmutation》—Byungho Lee, Chansong Kim,
and Jiyoung Choi—all primarily work with the human figure. Yet they do not
limit the body to the physical form of the human body itself. The human figure
is a form that the works temporarily borrow, through which each work reveals
its own distinct sense of presence.
PLA (resin), colored plaster, paint and canvas, and clay are more
than simply materials that contain the form of the human body. They constitute
the material conditions through which each work physically exists, forming the
body of the work in different ways.
Installation view of 《Transmutation》 © NOON CONTEMPORARY
In Byungho Lee’s work, fragmented and transformed forms emerge; in
Chansong Kim’s, enlarged and cropped parts of the body; and in Jiyoung Choi’s,
the human figure rendered through the traditional language of sculpture.
At times, the forms are clearly recognizable as human bodies,
while at others, they have moved away from familiar representations of the
body. Yet despite these differences, the works cannot be fully understood
through the human figure alone.
Form tells us what a work resembles, while material reveals how it
exists. As we follow the form, the material that constitutes it comes into
view; and as we look at the material, we once again recognize a body and an
image within it.
Installation view of 《Transmutation》 © NOON CONTEMPORARY
The “transmutation” referred to in the exhibition 《Transmutation》 does not
simply mean the transfer of a form from one material to another. Rather, it
describes a process in which works that borrow the image of the human body
reveal their own presence through different material conditions, becoming
perceptually transformed as they move between image and material.
PLA (resin), colored plaster, paint and canvas, and clay not only
embody the human figure but also allow that figure to be perceived differently
through the surface, density, weight, and texture of each material. Image and
material do not replace one another; rather, they overlap within a single work,
at times exchanging places.
As we follow a form, the material that constitutes it emerges at a
certain point, and the familiar body comes to be perceived in a slightly
different way. 《Transmutation》 looks at form and material to ask, through each work, how the body
can take shape and come to us in different ways.
Participating Artists: Byungho Lee, Chansong
Kim, Jiyoung Choi
