HONG SUNGCHUL SOLID BUT FLUID
The ar tist has developed a wide-ranging body of work in various media incorporating modern technology: interactive video projections, performances, sculptures and installations. This exhibition brings together Hong’s most recent works from an ongoing investigation of the ontological anxiety inherent in our contemporary lives. The focal point of Hong’s oeuvre is the tension originating from the ontological incompleteness inevitable in our lives. However, as in yin yang of Asian philosophy, the destructive force derived from this tension and anxiety creates a complementary impetus in life. His most widely known String series consists of images printed on elastic strings most commonly depicting human body par ts – mainly hands. Hong believes that the hands rather than the eyes forge a gateway to our relationship with the outer world, ultimately symbolising the essence of each individual human being. Evocative of Michelangelo’s ‘The Creation of Adam’, his paintings por tray the struggle against isolation, its ensuing pain and the constant existential search for the meaning of being. Endlessly tangled beads and threads firmly seized by the anonymous hands is perhaps the ar tist’s yearning, prayer or will to search for the meaning of life, in the midst of a digital culture that perpetuates the triumph of the image over substance and banishes real human engagement to the fringes of social interaction. The individual strings are printed upon and placed in regular intervals to create an optical illusion fur ther developing the concept touched upon by both Optical and Kinetic Ar t alluring the viewers to interact and perceive. MerleauPonty notes that:
“Experience is not arrayed before me as if I were God, it is lived by me from a cer tain point of view; I am not the spectator, I am involved, and it is my involvement in a point of view which makes possible both the finiteness of my perception and its opening out upon the complete world as a horizon of every perception.” Hong seduces audiences to build sensorial and physical relationships with the ar tworks encouraging individual perceptual cognitive process, allowing the viewers to form their own reality from their own unique experience. Thus, the hands in the painting become your hands, my hands and Adam’s hands, as they were first touched by God.
Hong Sungchul (b. 1969) lives and works in Seoul, South Korea. He received M.F.A in Integrated Media at California Institute of the Ar ts and M.F.A and B.F.A in Sculpture at Hongik University, Seoul. His works has been exhibited at international galleries including Saatchi Gallery London, Galerie Orem Paris, Erhard Witzel Gallery Wiesbaden, Gwacheon National Museum of Contemporary Ar t, Seoul Museum of Ar t, Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Ar t, Ar t Seasons Gallery Beijing among others.
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String Hands 0915 | print on elastic strings in steel frame | 120 x 220 x 15 cm | 2011
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String Column 0254 | print on elastic strings in a steel frame | 302 x 120 x 60 cm | 2012
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String Hands 0238 | print on elastic strings in a steel frame | 100 x 100 x 14 cm | 2011
String Hands 0552 | print on elastic strings in a steel frame | 120 x 120 x 15 cm | 2011
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String Eyes 1493 | print on elastic strings in a steel frame | 138 x 106 x 15 cm | 2012
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String Hands 4318 | print on elastic strings in a steel frame 100x 150 x 14 cm | 2012
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String Mirror | string, video camera, projector | variable installation | 2003
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String Tongue | single channel video, performance | 4’ 31’ ’ | 2000
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HONG SUNGCHUL ( b1969 )
EDUCATION 2001 M.F.A., Integrated Media, California Institute of the Ar ts, CA 1996 M.F.A., Sculpture, Hong-ik University, Seoul 1994 B.F. A., Sculpture, Hong-ik University, Seoul SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2011 IHN gallery, Seoul 2010 YHD Projects, Seoul 2008 Anxiety and Dynamics of Incompleteness, Kring, Seoul 2007 Perceptual Mirror, Gallery IHN, Seoul Youngeun Ar tist Relay_Sungchu Hong, Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Ar t, Gyeonggido Kwangju 2002 RGB_SHOW, Kumho Museum of Ar t, Seoul 2001 String Tongue, CalAr ts, LA 2000 White Cube, CalAr ts, LA SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2009 From Yeonhui-dong, YHD Projects, Seoul The Magic of Photography, Hanmi photo Museum, Seoul Shooting Image, KOEX, Seoul 2008 Unusual One, Lobby of Hana Bank Head Office, Seoul Contemporary Korean Photographs 1948-2008, National Museum of Contemporary Ar t, Gwacheon Your Mind’s Eye_Digital Spectrum, Seoul Museum of Ar t, Seoul Youngeun 2008 Residency & Open Studio, Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Ar t, Gyeonggido Kwangju First Step: New Ar t from Korea, Ar t Seasons Gallery, Beijing 2007 Mutual Induction, KTF Gallery the Orange, Seoul Text in Bodyscape, Seoul Museum of Ar t, Seoul Look & See, Kumho Museum of Ar t, Seoul 2006 Soft Landing- 7 Ar tists Meet BMW, CAIS Gallery, Seoul EHS project, Sejong Center, Seoul 2005 R-mutation, Seoul Ar ts Center, Seoul Between, Contemporary Ar t Museum of Hongik University Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgar t, Stuttgar t Issues of Criticism, POSCO Ar t Museum, Seoul 2004 Contemporary Ar t Video & Installation, Daegu Ar t Center Soul & Bowl, Gallery IHN, Seoul Alternative Realities, EMAF, Ewha Woman’s University, Seoul 2003 Fake & Fantasy, Ar t Center Nabi, Seoul Beauty, Sungkok Ar t Museum, Seoul 2003 I, You, Us, Sungkok Ar t Museum, Seoul 2002 The 2nd Seoul International Media Ar t Biennale, Seoul Museum of Ar t, Seoul Alchemy, Sungkok Ar t Museum, Seoul 2001 Peer, Gallery 825, LA Immediate Distance, Main Gallery, CalAr ts, LA Great Video Installation, D301 Gallery, Calar ts, LA Have a Cool Summer, Track 16, LA 2000 Ar t Video Screening, Bijou, Calar ts, LA 1994 to 1999 : Par ticipated in more than 15 group exhibitions since in Los Angeles and Seoul
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This catalogue is published by HADA Contemporary to accompany the exhibition:
HONG SUNGCHUL : SOLID BUT FLUID SOLO EXHIBITION 2012 5 - 25 JULY 2012 No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any mean, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without prior written permission from HADA Contemporary Ltd.