Pith of Cake

EVENT DESCRIPTION

The Korean Cultural Center in Hong Kong presents the 2022 Korean Young Artists Series: Pith of Cake which exhibits 32 artworks, including paintings, installations, and drawings of four artists, Jihee KIM, LEE Young Ho, PHEE Jungwon and SONG MyungJin, selected through Open Call for Artists and Curators 2022 from 19 May to 16 July. Although the artists came together as a group from the Open Call, they all devoted themselves to a series of works that share the same theme. The artists established their unique identity with original materials and techniques.

In the exhibition Pith of Cake, ‘cake’ symbolizes visual art on the outside, whereas ‘pith’ means the core implied in the work that is revealed by visual art. Pithy means ‘simple but implicit’, and is also a keyword that connects four participating artists. The artists do not try to capture too much on the canvas. Yet, there is an implicit pith in the brevity, and the artists’ media or expression methods to pursue the pithiness are not simple at all.

Jihee KIM’s Book Drawing Project, which has been in progress since 2011, will be presented for the first time in Hong Kong. The artist has used the pages of books donated by university libraries, local libraries, private bookstores, acquaintances, and anonymous individuals from London, Seoul, Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Tokyo as platforms and supporters for her drawings. Books have been a privilege to be enjoyed only by certain strata, such as intellectuals and social leaders for a long time in history. Jihee KIM, an Asian female artist, draws pictures on books, getting her body in contact with the grounds of rationality. It reveals the artist’s identity by infiltrating and covering the realm of intelligence. When a book is used as an artistic medium rather than means of conveying knowledge, the audiences get to ponder what the pith and cake are respectively in her series.

LEE Young Ho uses ink, charcoal, and stone powder to create a landscape that ‘reveals what is hidden.’ He captures both the figure and the invisible side of a specific object. The works starts with contemplation of the nature of an object and its surroundings from his perspective. LEE uses natural materials from nature, including Jangji(paper made from mulberry), aleuron, glue, charcoal, and ink, to create his works. First, layers appear by repeatedly applying and drying aleuron, stone powder, alum, and glue on the paper. Through this process, reflective light like salt crystals in the salt pan is generated on the surface of the canvas.

PHEE Jungwon attempts to create original properties by mixing Eastern and Western materials. In the “Untitled: Black Path” series, he composes the black background by combining Eastern ink ‘Muk’ and Western ‘black gesso’. This unique textured cosmic black is both the background and the core element of the work. In addition to PHEE’s black, the materials used in the work are combined with many elements through artificial chemical treatment such as heating, bonding, and solvent. You can feel the artist’s effort for the pithy abstraction, which allows viewers to reflect and identify themselves through his works.

SONG Myung Jin attempts various methods of work and media, such as applying pigments and glaze on white clay, ceramics and celadon clay, or collage and drawing on screen prints. She records the scene of the moment by drawing and restructures the image and form through other media such as pottery and engraving. SONG symbolizes the objects and expresses them as numerous dots. The shape and characteristics of each dot vary depending on the speed of drawing and the force applied. The repetitive act of spearing all the dots one by one with calm breathing is both a process of recording the moment and the continuous present. Dots created by body movement are collected on the surface at different sizes and intensities to express rhythm and movement.

* The “Korean Young Artist Series” hosted by the Korean Cultural Center introduces promising young Korean artists to Hong Kong, the hub of the global art market. Marking its fifth anniversary, the show will be held as a group exhibition of four artists selected from the Open Call for Artists and Curators 2022. Along with the Korean Young Artist Series, the Open Call will continue as one of the main annual projects of the Korean Cultural Center.