Jeong Zik Seong’s solo exhibition ‘Construction Site Abstract’ was held between July 14 and Aug. 8 at PAGE ROOM8 in Seoul. The artist, who was born in 1976, introduced herself using words such as ‘40s, non-regular worker, woman, mother’. Her work, which evolves along with major life events such as marriage, childbirth, and parenting, reminds us that art cannot be separated from life. In college, she joined a photography club which led her to join another social group, Flying City, which contended with housing and social issues faced by lower income classes. The Semidetached Houses series (2002 - ), which reworked the rapidly-growing urban structures of multi-family, multi-house housing blocks, grew from this point of interest and lived experience. The following project, Constructive Abstract/ Construction Site Abstract (2012 - ) is a project that reflects upon the landscape around the house, which has been turned into a construction site due to redevelopment, and the experience from the constant demand to move in search of a rented house. The gradual procession of abstraction in her work, due to the rising pressure of time juggling childcare and housekeeping is fully reflected in the course of her work.
The director Park Jungwon, who planned the exhibition, read these characteristics and changed the keywords to ‘Structurality, Close-to-Life Abstract, Moving Nature’, and publishing a collection of 600 works since 1997, named ‘Jeong Zik Seong BRICK BOOK’ as a sideline to the exhibition. The 1217-page book, a collection of 21 years of work, resembles the bricks of the row house he painted. Her artistic intention as described in her remark – ‘I want to work vigorously, as fiercely as I hustle’ – can be read in the book.
ⓒBang Yukyung