2017 Sulwha Cultural Exhibition Once upon a time

A Fairy’s robe is recreated with a lilac-colored skirt and a cream-colored top, which allude to the women’s clothing in the Silla period. Also an overcoat (‘Poe’) with wide, slack sleeves worn by the ladies of the court (‘Noeui’) during the Joseon Dynasty symbolizes the celestial robe of the Fairy. By adding colors to the Fairy garment, often expressed in white, the work gives a colorful touch, and the beauty of the three-fold overcoat and the splendor of the gold patterns make it possible for us to meet the dynamism and elegant mood of the Fairy.
Hye-ja Koo, the Master of the No.89 National Intangible Cultural Heritage. Chimseonjang (Needlwork) was granted with the title in 2007 after teachings from her mother-in-law who got the same title earlier. She has taken part in various exhibitions such as a needlework professor in Korea Traditional Craft and Architecture School to pass down the source of traditional Korean culture.

Yong Ju Lee uses computer algorithm to visualize the fairy’s fluttering robe when she left the earth for heaven. Wing Tower features a computer-generated dynamic image of a rotating tunnel, portraying it as a medium to bridge the heaven and earth. As the cylindrical tunnel moves up, it opens up, breaking into triangles. The rising and splitting space represents the sad visage of the fairy and the despair and frustrated dream of the woodcutter. The tower simultaneously puts visitors in the perspectives of the fairy as well as the woodcutter.
As a member of American Institute of Architects (AIA), he served as a partner of New York based E/B Office from 2009 to 2014. He was appointed as a public architect by the Seoul Metropolitan Government in 2015 and is principal of Seoul-based Yong Ju Lee Architecture. He participated in group exhibitions such as Data Curation (Seoul National University Museum of Art, Seoul, 2013) and won competitions in Korea and abroad including Myeonmok Fire Station Design Competition (2016), eVolo Skyscraper Competition (2014), the Teton County Library’s Public Art Competition (2012).

Jeong Hoon Lee reenacts a surreal moment, where the woodcutter was furtively looking at the fairy and puts it in an everyday context. In Twisting wires, triangles that comprise a hexagon create three vanishing points for the heaven, earth and the middle world. The stretching of wires that keep the triangles from extending infinitely embodies the tension between the divine fairy and the earthbound woodcutter. Reflections on the metallic surface allow visitors to become the subject of peeking and an object of viewing by blurring the border between the artwork and its surrounding.
Jeong Hoon Lee, the principle of JOHO Architecture, devises new forms of architectures through an analysis of materials and philosophical thinking. He worked for Zaha Hadid Architects. As an architect D.P.L.G. (France) and K.I.R.A. (Korea), he was appointed as a public architect by Seoul Metropolitan Government and represents JOHO Architecture. He has undertaken many architectural projects including Platform-L Contemporary (2015) and won the 2010 Korean Young Architect Award (Minister’s Award, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) and second prize in Sejong National Museum Masterplan Contest (2016).

Like Odysseus, the woodcutter sets out to the sea, the border between heaven and earth, with a small sail boat named Ithaca to reunite with the fairy. Ithaca highlights the beauty of manual labor, with which the woodcutter creates a boat to reach the fairy, a symbol of absolute beauty. The little vessel floated in Dosan Park is a workroom and a medium of expedition for woodcutter.
As a sculptor and carpenter, Jae Hoon Jung has created sculptures, installations and planar pieces through productive manual labor. He won the Excellence Award at the 2010 JoongAng Fine Arts Contest hosted by the JoongAng Daily and awarded Daegu Art Museum’s Y-Artist Project in 2012. He had solo exhibitions such as ESQUISSE (Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, 2014) and participated in group exhibitions such as APMAP 2015 Yongin (Amore Pacific Museum of Art, Yongin, 2015) and The Divide between Relations (Project Space Sarubia Dabang, Seoul, 2013).

Suki Seokyeong Kang uses a robe of feathers as a medium between heaven and earth. Tender Meander portrays a robe of feathers as a symbol of nomadic freedom and longing for reaching the heaven. Precarious stacks of objects and randomly shaped frames capture the fairy’s anxiety and agony, while the warm colors and flowing shapes recreate the fairy’s happiness in the earthly world. The little tool of hope situated in Dosan Park brings people closer to hope and contemplation.
Suki Seokyeong Kang employs various mediums such as painting, installation and video. She had a solo exhibition titled Foot and Moon (Audiovisual Pavilion, Seoul, 2015), and participated in group exhibitions such as the 11th Gwangju Biennale (the main exhibition hall at Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, 2016) and Group Mobile (Villa Vassilieff, Paris, 2016). She won the 13th Songeun Art Award in 2013.

Myeongbeom Kim interprets the folktale with day-to-day images. Mirage features an uprooted street lamp exposing its roots of electrical wires, alluding to the woodcutter deserted by the fairy and their children. Just as street lamps define the landscape today, so did trees in the past. The street lamp is analogous to the woodcutter’s critical role in the society.
Myeongbeom Kim blends personal objects in his daily life to present the overarching values of our life such as nature and city. Kim had 14 solo exhibitions, such as Insights (Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2015) and One (Doosan Art Center, New York, 2009) and also participated in group exhibitions in Korea and abroad including Volta 9 (Basel, 2013).

Sang Gyun Kim pays attention to social and spatial gaps between the woodcutter, an earthly being, and the fairy, a divine creature. The difference is manifested by the heavenly palace and a commoner’s house. The cement sculpture, Scene_宮_2017 creates a visual balance in a circular structure with conflicting elements - male & female, yin & yang, rich &poor, the artificial & nature, and the present & past. The heavenly palace secretly hidden in the depth of Dosan Park is viewed from a distance but appears inaccessible to visitors, who find themselves in the woodcutter’s lonely and poverty-stricken reality.
Sang Gyun Kim has been working with architectures in the context of cities, history, society and individuals. Using grout, a construction material, he presents a new perspective of space through sculptural interpretations of contemporary architectures. Sang Gyun Kim had 12 solo exhibitions including Sculpture Exhibition (Gallery Baton, Seoul, 2015), The Artificial Paradise (Art Side, Beijing, 2008) and participated in group exhibitions such as Extension.Kr (Triumph Gallery, Moscow, 2016).

Jaeoon Rho creates a virtual loft in a space split between heaven and earth. A loft is mainly found in the city located right under a roof. The loft captures the nature of a folktale, which hinges on reality but borders on fiction. Loft symbolizes the narrative strata of a folktale in the surrounding of the park. As part of his Interface series, Rho asks the meaning of a folktale today, where virtual reality technologies merge the real and virtual worlds while making the border vague.
Jaeoon Rho combines various images and videos to create an interface, crisscrossing between online and offline spaces. Among his major projects are Vimalaki.net and Aegipeak. He had solo exhibitions such as Mulian Mulian (Atelier HERMÈS, Seoul, 2011), Black Gold in Switzerland (Art Space Pool, Seoul, 2006) and participated in group exhibitions such as Mediacity Seoul 2014: Ghosts, Spies, and Grandmothers (Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, 2014).

On their way to heaven, people come by Garden of Memories to leave their memories and emotional baggage to flowers and heal their spirit. Memory Garden features a cross between morning glory and calla lily, which each represent ‘love in vain’ and ‘eternal love’. Lee recreates flowers by painstaking manual work putting together glass shards from car crashes. A visit to Memory Garden provides mind-healing experiences with emotional cleansing.
Sungmi Lee has been teaching as an assistant professor at Sculpture Department of Hongik University. She uses versatile and dematerialized materials for installation works and sculptures. She had seven solo exhibitions including Empty to be filled (Gana Art, Seoul, 2012) and participated in group exhibitions such as Artist File 2015: Next Doors (the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon; the National Art Center, Tokyo, 2015), Bearable Lightness…Likeness (P.S.1, New York, 2006). She was named as the Artist of the Year in 2012 by the Kim Jong Young Sculpture Museum and awarded various fellowships in Korea and abroad.

Sang A Han sees heaven as a space of separation. stranger than paradise comprises the drape of silk randomly thrown down, which features an abstract portrayal of heaven, and hand-drawn animated images projected on it. The dichotomy between heaven and earth manifests itself in black and white, blurring the border while clearly separated and mixed. The woodcutter and the fairy make futile attempts to reunite by sending paper boats out to sea. The look of the heavenly world and the despair in the air create an ambiguity, making visitors ask what heaven is really like.
Sang A Han incorporates papers and ink stones, the most basic elements of oriental painting, into drawing, painting, installation and animation. Sang A Han won the Grand Prize at the 2012 New Artist Contest organized by Seongnam Arts Center. She was awarded a grant from the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation in 2017. She had solo exhibitions such as About the Night (Gallery DOS, Seoul, 2014) and Adaptation (Cube Art Gallery, Seongnam Arts Center, Seongnam City, 2013) and participated in group exhibitions such as The Home (Unité d'Habitation, Firminy, 2017).

Dallae Jin & Woohyuk Park creates a non-existent structure and visualizes it as a channel between the heaven and earth, interpreting heaven as a surreal space unbound by rules of the reality. blurry and shiny presents the lost functionality of a corridor, filled with two ad balloons which is so narrow that hardly one person can pass through. A walk through the narrow corridor enables visitors to experience new sensory stimulation and orders of a surrealistic world.
The artist collective Dallae Jin & Woohyuk Park is active in design, installation, video and publication fields. The duo has been driving the art project, Archive Annyeong, a repository of questions about orders, rules, norms, practices, and patterns behind objects and phenomena. The duo had solo exhibitions such as Specific Examples (Sarubia Dabang, Seoul, 2016), The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (D PROJECT SPACE, Seoul, 2015) and participated in group exhibitions such as The Unexpected (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, 2016) and APMAP 2015 Yongin (Amore Pacific Museum of Art, Yongin, 2015).

Jung-Ouk Hong is teaching painting at Hongik University. He works across variable mediums such as multi-dimensional works and installation through a restrained visual language based on his interest in fundamental principles and notions that underpin visual forms. He had eight solo exhibitions such as INFILL (Sophis Gallery, Seoul, 2017) and participated in group exhibitions in Korea and abroad such as The House (OCI Museum of Art, Seoul, 2017) and 別★同行行 (OCI Museum of Art, Seoul, 2016).
<unfailing> Jung-Ouk Hong has created an abstract form of wings, reflecting the woodcutter’s longing to meet the fairy and their children. The object is hung from the gold frames, a key architectural element. The Woodcutter’s Wish features six geometric objects carved out from cherry blossom wood and represents the irony of the wings that cannot fly. The object connected with a spring wire makes delicate movements through interactions with the surroundings such as people or winds, projecting the woodcutter’s sorrow and futile hope.
<faith> This work visualizes the star-studded path to heaven. As visitors climb the stairs, they get closer to stars. The changing colors of stars show the mystique of heaven. Dodecahedron, the structural basis of the work, cannot mathematically create a ball shape, symbolizing the difference between ideal and reality. It symbolizes the failure that the woodcutter faced in his pursuit of perfection, beauty and ideal that belong to the divine. The work shows how closely ideal and reality coexist.