Sun Young Kang: In Between Presence and Absence: The Illusionary Reality

Outlook Gallery

Jul 15

My art focuses on the duality fundamental to human existence: of different realities or worlds both in space and time and the tension between them; and of the co-existence of antithetical ideas, how death implies life, how the material realm implies the unsubstantial or nonphysical, and how absence implies presence.

To explore this, I create both physical and metaphorical spaces ranging from large installations to small, intimate books. These spaces visualize the space in between—the boundary that, while separating the two, connects them in that one implies the other. For me, as an immigrant who bridges two cultures and identities, that boundary has a personal and emotional resonance. I consider audiences to be key to my work because I believe that one of the most important roles of art is to elicit emotional connections and empathy. Sharing a physical or metaphorical space of my work with the audience is my way of doing so. Thus, I encourage audiences to immerse themselves in the space I create, allowing them to dwell in uncertainty while being a part of the space, which exists as an experiential metaphor passing between opposites.

In Between Presence and Absence: The Illusionary Reality is created with a paper-cast process using discarded paper I have collected. I paper cast everyday vessels I found around me to visualize the invisible—the parallel to the visual world. By casting each physical object with nothing within, I articulate the essential concept of the container which is the space inside it. I fill up the empty gallery space with those empty vessels and, in so doing, visualize what is non-visual, filling up an empty space with emptiness, articulating a non-describable concept, the inseparability of presence and absence, and the tension between them. The mirror backdrop suggests another dimension that can be added to the space by the presence of an outside passerby in front of the gallery. The audience’s reflection in the mirror is distorted and differs from reality. The mirror serves as a boundary between two realms, material and non-physical, while the physical gallery space itself is filled with emptiness, symbolizing the coexistence of physical and non-physical. This exhibition is a conceptual boundary, the space in between that both confuses and questions our perception of reality.

—Sun Young Kang