"Seen in museum's immaculate surroundings, the installation sends out mixed signals. On the one hand, it is fascinating to be wandering, right here in New York, through a time capsule of a lost era of Chinese culture. On the other, it is disturbing to imagine anyone growing up, as Mr. Song did, in so smothering a physical environment. Finally, it is deeply moving to see the span of one person's life — his mother's — summed up, monument style, in a work of art that is every bit as much about loss as it is about muchness."
-New York Times, Arts section
A good friend Tina came back from NYC enthusiastically sharing about this moving installation Wasted Not by Chinese artist Song Dong at MoMA. New York Times recently had a beautiful article about this exhibition -
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/arts/design/15song.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
Idea of his mother's attachment to collecting/keeping tangible materials which gives her a sense of security and comfort... may relate to some. During one of our (Tina, Johana, Tiffany... and more friends) art conversations, we found much commonality with the artist's mother and some of our parents and grandparents. In contrast to Jean Shin's collection from a general public, Song Don's Wasted Not entails so much personal intimacy and touch of one person - the artist's mother.
Last photo from NY Times of this installation (a literal transportation of the mother's house) illustrates audience's engagement with the piece... it's beautiful for me to even imagine people's responses to the categorized collection of familiar domestic items, scents, and unspoken stories. The way items are obsessively categorized and purposely installed is indeed intriguing as well.
Beautiful,
and moving -
And as I have been cutting my collected cemetery flowers, finding a way to install... I hope to bring forth as much of immediate moving sensation - not only through visuals, but also through a usage and transformation of materials themselves as well.
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North Korea Art Exhibition's last opening reception was this past Friday night with Castleberry Hill's 4th Friday Art Stroll -
Great responses, and rice cake was quite popular with visitors. I hope we had more time to prepare with a lot of PR and support, but hopefully - this start will ignite future possibilities for more exhibitions and further cultural exchanges with North Korean artists. It is just too unfortunate how isolated this country as been... that a younger generation of Koreans, like me, feels almost detached from N. Korea and its people. Through helping out this exhibition, I have learned to sympathize with N. Korea, especially its art and artists as well.
It's opened until Aug. 1st, so if you have not yet seen the paintings, please stop by the gallery during the gallery hours -
For more information, check out http://www.nkartexhibit.com.
Also ArtRelish has reviewed the exhibition. Check out http://www.artrelish.com.
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