KEYSOOK GEUM
reception october 4th 6 – 9
MOVING OR DANCING Intricate and allusive, artist Key-Sook Geum's sculptures and installations capture paradoxical qualities: presence and absence, form and negative space, reality and imagination. Based in Seoul, Korea, Geum has exhibited these virtuosic etudes of metal and air in Berlin, Vienna, New York, Chicago, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, among many other cities around the world. As if to channel Jim Dine's iconic robes through the rich traditions of Eastern aesthetics, Geum sculpts robes, waistcoats, dresses, and other symbolic garments, creating them out of paper-covered iron wire. Sometimes she affixes other elements such as coral, beads, and ribbons that tremble and flutter slightly as viewers walk by, evoking the life-energy known as "qi" in traditional Asian thought. "I am a person of curiosity," Geum says. "I express my thoughts using my favorite forms and materials." These thoughts often center around the complexity of human interactions with nature and technology. Specifically, the filigree of metal webbing in her sculptures relates to the "World-Wide Web" that has increasingly brought Western and Eastern cultures together. There is a delicate, minimalist poetry in the shadows the pieces cast and the play of light on the colored beads, which Geum says remind her "of dewdrops in the morning, reflecting a message of optimism and hope for the future." Suspended by nearly invisible wires, the sculptures seem to defy gravity, floating like thistledown, despite the process-driven arduousness of their execution. In the gallery, the museum, the collector's home, these works delight the eye, inviting 360-degree viewing, while spurring conversation as to their many layers of meaning. There is a fairytale-like glamour to their luxuriant silhouettes, which is offset by their deconstructionist method. Their literal subject matter-the garment-is essentially utilitarian, yet is transfigured by the romanticism of the artist's approach. The pieces imply human presence but are ghostly and cipher-like, leading the viewer to question the relationship between the real and the simulated. These paradoxes, central to current debates in contemporary art, underlie the sheer gorgeousness of the sculptures' visual appeal.
exhibition dates: october 1 – 28 , 2008 st
th
reception: saturday, october 4th 6 – 9 pm Front Cover: Moving White, 31 1/2" x 41", wire and beads
RICHARD SPEER
Moving Legend 0808 13 3/4" x 43", wire and amber beads
Legend Jacket 0801 19" x 17", wire and coral beads
Moving Legend 0802 35 1/2" x 47", wire and beads
Moving Legend 0809 31 1/2" x 43", wire and amber beads
Enlightenments 0801 & 0802 82 1/2" x 78 3/4", wire and beads
518 julia street, new orleans, la 70130
Moving Legend 0806 13. 3/4" x 43", wire and coral beads ARTWORK © KEYSOOK GEUM 2008 CATALOG © GALLERY BIENVENU 2008
504.525.0518
www.gallerybienvenu.com