Ritual - media - karma Je Baak
This catalogue is published by HADA Contemporary to accompany the exhibition:
JE BAAK RITUAL-MEDIA-KARMA 14 AUGUST - 26 SEPTEMBER 2014 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.
Ritual - media - karma Je Baak
JE_:/BAAK
RITUAL - MEDIA - KARMA
HADA Contemporary is delighted to present the second solo exhibition with the gallery by critically emerging ar tist, Je Baak (b. 1978). This exhibition will showcase his new works that leap beyond his previous methodological investigation of deconstruction through manipulation of ready-made objects and values towards the ritualistic process of creation. The act of creating a line and a dot is the foundational moment of creativity in the process of painting. For the first time in Baak’s ar tistic oeuvre, he creates a calligraphic line on a paper and repeatedly photographs the identical process on the same sheet in Karmic Diary (2014). As the title suggest, the work is a karmic record of the ar tist that he will continue periodically for life, the process that vaguely recalls the Today series by On Kawara (1933 – 2014). Withstanding the weightiness or the burden of the karmic process of creation embedded in the act of creating ironically a simple line, the repetition of his photographed brushstrokes are sedimentation of multitude of time and spaces reflecting the ever-changing perspective of the ar tist, at the same time his karma. Each works consists of a brushstroke yet accumulation of many disparate others simultaneously conjoined together by the photographic medium, which was previously explored methodologically in his work, Stupa (2013) by creating two dimensional stupa from photographic images. In Eastern philosophies, the process of repetition is vitally significant as the consciousness and awareness is achieved through the repetitive routine of all practices that can ultimately lead to the enlightenment. Thus the repetition of the lines and its transformation into images and objects through the photography is the ar tist’s endeavour to realise the awareness analogous to the meditative 108 bows to become aware of your body and self. Similarly, in Karmic Play (2014), he photographs a coloured paper that he often played with as a child and re-photographs the image continuously. The innocence, purity and perfection symbolised by the primary colours and squares - referencing the values sought by Mondrian and Malevich that were also dealt with in the Petito Principii series - are blurred through out-focusing and transformed into vague imageries that are liberated from the discrepancy between the seen and the perceived. In connection with but significantly different with his previous series, rather than questioning through the manipulation of the values of the others, he decisively creates his own colours, lines and shapes. If Petito Principii series focused on the patternisation of images to act as the metaphor of the multiplication and segmentation of oneself, Karmic Play fur ther adds the accumulation and documentation of his karma. Through these attempts, he aims
to experiment how behaviour structures formed by critical logic becomes conscious through the repetition creating contradictory process of constructing meanings and meaninglessness. In Prayer (2014), the ar tist imprinted wide black surfaces on the gallery wall using woodblocks which are materialisation of a par t of The Diamond Sutra ( Vajracchedika , 금강경, 金剛經). As a child, Baak suffered a rare malignant tumour that resulted in series of heavy surgeries over the course of two years. The bizarre absence of the memories of these years in contrast to the vividness of his mother seated calmly and practicing copying The Diamond Sutra (사경, 寫 經) buoyed the realisation of the prayer and yearning into black surfaces. As the most universal form of ritualistic practice, the ironic transformative process of the intangible and abstract prayer into the physicality fundamentally modifies the core essence creating disparate meanings questioning the integral means of communication - the media. Baak’s ar tistic practice has long been ritualistic in many ways taking the form of questions and comments rather than answers and conclusions examining the significance of the mediafication and the restoration of the subjectivity. As the title of the exhibition suggest, it marks the turning point in his life in which his ar tistic journey as a karmic ritual investigates its relationship to the media and the media governed societies and values. Je Baak (b.1978) received MA in Communication Ar t & Design at Royal College of Ar t London and BFA in Visual Communication from Seoul National University. He exhibited internationally such as National Museum of Contemporary Ar t Seoul, Saatchi Gallery London, Busan Museum of Ar t, British Film Institute London, Asia House London, Ar ti et Amicitae Amsterdam, Gallery Hyundai Seoul, Gallery Jungmiso Seoul among others. He was awarded with The Grand Prize by Joongang Fine Ar ts Prize 2010, Chris Ganrham Memorial Award by Royal College of Ar t 2010 and shor tlisted for Mangroup Photography Awards and selected as Young Korean Ar tist 2013 by National Museum of Contemporary Ar t, Korea.
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Karmic Diar y 0.0.0.1 | Giclee print in wooden frame with glass | 46 x 184 cm | 2014
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Karmic Diar y 0.0.0.2 | Giclee print in wooden frame with glass | 46 x 184 cm | 2014
Karmic Diar y 0.0.0.3 | Giclee print in wooden frame with glass | 46 x 184 cm | 2014
Karmic Diar y 0.0.0.4 | Giclee print in wooden frame with glass | 46 x 184 cm | 2014
Karmic Diar y 0.0.0.5 | Giclee print in wooden frame with glass | 46 x 184 cm | 2014
Karmic Diar y 0.0.0.6 | Giclee print in wooden frame with glass | 46 x 184 cm | 2014
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Karmic Diar y 0.0.0.7 | Giclee print in wooden frame with glass | 46 x 184 cm | 2014
Karmic Diar y 0.0.0.8 | Giclee print in wooden frame with glass | 46 x 184 cm | 2014
Karmic Diar y 0.0.0.9 | Giclee print in wooden frame with glass | 46 x 184 cm | 2014
Karmic Diar y 0.0.1.0 | Giclee print in wooden frame with glass | 46 x 184 cm | 2014
Karmic Diar y 0.0.1.1 | Giclee print in wooden frame with glass | 46 x 184 cm | 2014
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Karmic Diar y 0.0.1.2 | Giclee print in wooden frame with glass | 46 x 184 cm | 2014
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Karmic Play - Black 001 | Diasec in wooden frame | 40 x 40 cm (each) | 2014
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Karmic Play - Blue 001 | Diasec in wooden frame | 40 x 40 cm (each) | 2014
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Karmic Play - Red 001 | Diasec in wooden frame | 40 x 40 cm (each) | 2014
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Karmic Play - Yellow 001 | Diasec in wooden frame | 40 x 40 cm (each) | 2014
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JE Baak CHUN KYUNGWOO
b.1978 Lives and works in Seoul, South Korea EDUCATION 2010 MA, Communication Art & Design, Royal College of Art, London, UK 2003 BFA, Visual Communication, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, Honor graduate SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2014 Ritual-Media-Karma, HADA Contemporary, London, UK 2013 Poetic Obsession, Gallery Royal, Seoul, Korea 2012 Petitio Principii, Gallery Jungmiso, Seoul, Korea 2012 Petitio Principii, HADA Contemporary, London, UK 2011 Gong, Soomdo, Seoul, Korea 2010 Prelude, Art Club 1563 by SUUM, Seoul, Korea GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2014 Je Baak & Ahn Jinkyun, HADA Contemporary, London, UK 2013 Kumho Young Artists 2013, Kumho Museum, Seoul, Korea Crystallize, KBEE 2013, Old Billingsgate Building, London, UK Chung Heeseung & Je Baak, HADA Contemporary, London, UK Young Korean Artists, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea The Viewer, disparu, MOT Gallery, Taiwan, China 2012 Korean Eye, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK When I spoke its name, it came to me and became a flower, Paris, France Solid Illusion, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea Korean Collective 2012, HADA contemporary, London, UK 4482 : Map the Korea, Barge House, Oxo Tour, London, UK As Small as a World and Large as Alone, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea Life, no Peace, only Adventure, Busan Museum of Art, Busan, Korea Belt Selected Artist, Artside, Seoul, Korea 2011 The Korean Miracle: A Cultural Evolution, Asia House, London, UK Embracing the Void, Hada Contemporary, London, UK More than Tastes, Art Space Hue, Seoul, Korea Point against point, Arti et Amicitae, Amsterdam, Netherlands 2010 The Garden which has two roads never meet each other, Museum of Art in Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea Screening, Seoul Square, Seoul, Korea The Plaza Principle, The Leeds Shopping Plaza, Leeds, UK Moving Image for London Fashion Week, Eun Jeong S/S Presentation Wonder Room, Selfridges, London, UK Akwaaba Astronomy, Launchpad City, Science Museum, London, UK Acoustic Images, British Film Institute, London, UK
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Joongang Fine Arts Prize - Selected Artist Exhibition”, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea Degree Show, Royal College of Art, London, UK Present from the past, Korean Cultural Centre, London, UK 4482, Barge House, Oxo Tour, London, UK Wrong Love, A Foundation, Liverpool, UK 2009 Work in Progress Show, Royal College of Art, London, UK The Cube, Hockney Gallery, Royal College of Art, London, UK Cross Fields, Korean Cultural Centre, London, UK Acoustic Images 2009, 29 Thurloe Place, London, UK On the edge of Life, Bath International Music Festival, Bath, UK PROJECTS & EXPERIENCE 2002 Degree show “Free Falling”, “Lee Sang”, Seoul National University, Korea 2000-2003 Project Group “Anida” - Installation Project in Subway Line No. 6 “Together”, Korea - Installation Project in Seoul National University “Oasis”, Korea - Teaching Project in Kwacheon High School “Designing Life”, Korea - Art Therapy in Youngdong Hospital, Korea - Opening Title Sequence for “Human Rights Film Festival”, Korea AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS 2013 Young Korean Artists, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea 2011 Kumho Artist Residency, Kumho Museum Selected Artist, BELT, Art Edition Korea 2010 Chris Ganrham Memorial Award, Royal College of Art 2010 The Grand Prize, Joongang Fine Arts Prize 2010 2009 International Student Bursary, Royal College of Art 2008 Short listed, Mangroup Photography Awards 2002 Tuition scholarship, Seoul National University
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