SPACE March 2023 (No. 664)
Installtion view of ‘Things(Door)’ (2022) / Image courtesy of Ligak Museum of Art
The architecture occupying urban spaces is eventually dismantled for a variety of reasons. The process is sometimes indiscriminate and even blind. ‘Architectonics’, now on show at the Ligak Museum of Art, examines the traces and scars left by development in architecture’s pursuit of stability and permanence. Before developing her work, sculptor Hong Euyoung witnessed the demolition of her apartment complex in Banpo due to a reconstruction commission. As her home was being torn down, she began to explore the elements that make up place and space. For example, everyday objects such as glass shards, chunks of concrete, furniture doors, cut wood, and ceramics generated during the dismantling of buildings are reconstituted in her work in a state of elaborate disorder. Upon entering the exhibition, the sculptures and installations cluttered on the walls and floor create an unstable atmosphere. ‘Things (Door)’ (2022), a bizarre assemblage of cut-outs from furniture, stands alone, while ‘Elaborate Oblivion’ (2022), a heavy, rough concrete mass cast in urethane, a light, flexible material, has been displayed like an archaeological artifact. The construction site-like setting of the exhibition mirrors the scars of sudden changes wrought by the process of deconstruction. Rather than concealing and stitching up the wounds, they make them visible, encouraging the viewer to feel the cracks. Faced with a system that has suddenly collapsed in a place that is more unpleasant than pleasant, what hope can the viewer find? The exhibition will be open until May 8. by Kim Jia