Seongsan Art Hall

Chung Seoyoung, I don’t know where it came from, 2022, bronze, sculpture, approx. 240 × 61 × 44 cm, Courtesy of artist and Barakat Contemporary

A sculptural work based on a drawing from Chung Seoyoung’s Fists vs. Fingers series, I don’t know where it came from invites us to reflect on the overall process and different moments through which the inherent temporality of a drawing takes on the materiality of a sculpture. For this exhibition Chung completely transforms the training room of the Seongsan Art Hall into an entirely new space. Creating an attic-like effect bye extending the raised floor — originally used as a broadcasting studio — the artist establishes this as the appropriate eye level for viewing the sculptures. In orchestrating an encounter between space and sculpture on a new scale, this transformation also invites the viewer to superimpose the sculpture against the indoor and outdoor spaces reflected in the dark glass.

 

Seongsan Art Hall

Chung Seoyoung, Cotton Field, 2011, wood, light fixture, glass cup, leather belt, approx. 140 × 350 × 150cm

The title Cotton Field is borrowed from In the Solitude of the Cotton Fields, a play by Bernard-Marie Koltès. In it, two people who are unable to identify themselves or one another experience conflict amidst their transactions and exchanges. Much as these unknowable subjects mix and collide in the play, Chung, in her own words, “brings into being” that moment when white light shines through the darkness, sending objects and space mixing and colliding.

 

Seongsan Shell Mound

Chung Seoyoung, The World, 2019, two channel video, 10min 25 sec, dimensions variable, filmed by Jeongsik Ham, sound by Ryu Hankil, Courtesy of artist and Barakat Contemporary

Using various mediums that span sculpture, drawing, video, and more, Chung Seoyoung bears witness to sculpture, moments and scenes as-yet-uncaptured, facing them in the realm of the real. The two walnut pieces that appear in The World were cast in earthenware and placed in the space. Little by little, almost imperceptibly, these walnut sculptures reveal different aspects of themselves depending on the light, sound, and hour of the day. In this exhibition, The World is connected to the time of the Seongsan Shell Mound, effectively creating yet another explosive moment that encompasses space and sound and the expanse of time between the Samhan period and today.