Time captured at Deoksugung museum
We make a habit of saying that we have no time, although we feel and experience the presence of time through various changes like the seasons and our physical state.
Inspired by this irony, Kim Nam-in, one of the youngest curators at the National Museum of Art, decided to offer the public an opportunity to take a closer look at the passage of time and so organized the exhibition “Passing Hours: Moon is the Oldest Clock.”
The exhibition is currently underway at the National Museum of Art, Deoksugung, which Kim thought would be the perfect venue to feel time flying by.
“I often find it peculiar that there is this old palace and garden in the middle of Gwanghwamun, one of the busiest places in Seoul. If you looked down from the sky, it would look like a tiny breathing hole,” said Kim.
“I had a chance to look at the original plan for the palace while organizing the exhibition. I was surprised to see the place looked exactly the same, from the walls we can tear down and the walls we can’t. Deoksugung is one of the rarest places in Seoul where we can really see the different layers of time piled up.”
Time-themed paintings, sculptures, video and installation works by 11 Korean contemporary artists, including some of Korea’s best known -- Kang Ik-joong, John Bae and late video artists Park Hyun-ki and Paik Nam-june -- are on display.
This is the first time such contemporary works have been on show inside the Deoksugung museum, which used to exhibit more calm and traditional works.
Categorized into four sections -- “River,” “Water,” “Moon,” “String” -- each of which is a metaphor of flowing time, the modern exhibits fit in beautifully with the Korean traditional palace.
Among the exhibits, Shin Mee-kyoung’s soap sculptures are probably the most time-sensitive. She installed six outdoors and six indoors, which will be left in the hands of nature during the exhibition period.
“Even I don’t know how they will end up. I’m eagerly looking forward to seeing the results, too,” said Shin.
The rest of the exhibits may not dramatically change during the exhibition but are still interestingl.
Kim Ho-deuk hung white sheets of traditional paper above a shallow dish 4 meters wide and 18 meters long filled with black Chinese ink for the “River” section. Under the dim lights, the ink makes shadows on the paper, which waver like the river.
Han Eun-sun displays how water and paint smudge on the canvas as time goes by through her paintings at the next division. She also showcased practise paintings she did before creating the final piece in a small room to show another trace of time.
The “Moon” and the “String” section showcases quite old and familiar works like Paik Nam-june and Park Hyun-ki’s video arts or John Bae’s wire sculptures. But seeing them in Deoksugung, under a significant theme, they appear somewhat different.
The exhibition runs through July 4 at National Museum of Art, Deoksugung in central Seoul. Tickets are 5,000 won for adults and 2,500 won for adolescents.
After the Seoul show, the exhibition will also be held in The National Gallery for Foreign Art in Bulgaria and The National Gallery in Prague, Czech, from August through October to commemorate 20th anniversaries of the relationships between those countries and Korea.
For more information, call (02) 2188-6062 or visit www.moca.go.kr
By Park Min-young (claire@heraldm.com)
 |
| A soap sculpture by Shin Mi-kyung (National Museum of Art) |
The exhibition is currently underway at the National Museum of Art, Deoksugung, which Kim thought would be the perfect venue to feel time flying by.
“I often find it peculiar that there is this old palace and garden in the middle of Gwanghwamun, one of the busiest places in Seoul. If you looked down from the sky, it would look like a tiny breathing hole,” said Kim.
“I had a chance to look at the original plan for the palace while organizing the exhibition. I was surprised to see the place looked exactly the same, from the walls we can tear down and the walls we can’t. Deoksugung is one of the rarest places in Seoul where we can really see the different layers of time piled up.”
Time-themed paintings, sculptures, video and installation works by 11 Korean contemporary artists, including some of Korea’s best known -- Kang Ik-joong, John Bae and late video artists Park Hyun-ki and Paik Nam-june -- are on display.
This is the first time such contemporary works have been on show inside the Deoksugung museum, which used to exhibit more calm and traditional works.
Categorized into four sections -- “River,” “Water,” “Moon,” “String” -- each of which is a metaphor of flowing time, the modern exhibits fit in beautifully with the Korean traditional palace.
 |
| “Storyteller’s Dilemma” by John Bae (National Museum of Art) |
“Even I don’t know how they will end up. I’m eagerly looking forward to seeing the results, too,” said Shin.
The rest of the exhibits may not dramatically change during the exhibition but are still interestingl.
Kim Ho-deuk hung white sheets of traditional paper above a shallow dish 4 meters wide and 18 meters long filled with black Chinese ink for the “River” section. Under the dim lights, the ink makes shadows on the paper, which waver like the river.
Han Eun-sun displays how water and paint smudge on the canvas as time goes by through her paintings at the next division. She also showcased practise paintings she did before creating the final piece in a small room to show another trace of time.
 |
| A room features many paintings Han Eun-sun went through before creating her final version of the “Water Going Up.” |
The exhibition runs through July 4 at National Museum of Art, Deoksugung in central Seoul. Tickets are 5,000 won for adults and 2,500 won for adolescents.
After the Seoul show, the exhibition will also be held in The National Gallery for Foreign Art in Bulgaria and The National Gallery in Prague, Czech, from August through October to commemorate 20th anniversaries of the relationships between those countries and Korea.
For more information, call (02) 2188-6062 or visit www.moca.go.kr
By Park Min-young (claire@heraldm.com)
trackback from: claire의 생각
답글삭제달은 가장 오래된 시계다 Time captured at Deoksugung museum We make a habit of saying that we have no time, although we feel and experience the presence of tim..