Johyun Gallery Busan presents Jang Minseung’s solo show entitled “Su-Seong-Sip-Gyeong” starting on July 8th to August 21st, 2011.
Su-Seong-Sip-Gyeong (水聲十景) comes from Su-Seong-Dong-Do, a part of Chosun dynasty artist Gyeom Jae Jeong Sun’s masterpiece Jang-Dong-Pal-Gyeong-Cheop (壯洞八景帖) depicting Suseong-dong (located at the bottom of Mt. Inwang, currently Ok-in dong of Jongro-gu.) Jang Minseung delivers an overlapping of space left behind by men with natural sceneries, not by typical brushes and ink, but with a camera lens which adds a contemporary feeling.
Jang captured interiors of selected 10 households out of 291 within 9 Ok-in apartment complexes that have been in the process of deconstruction since September of 2009, alongside with outside natural sceneries. Gyeom Jae Jeong Sun, who is known for his shan shui landscape paintings, had depicted Jang-dong neighborhood located at the bottom of Mt. Inwang and Mt. Baekak onto a canvas; and now, this particular place having two sceneries existing simultaneously is being reconstructed into its original state as a natural park. Jang Minseung tried his best to eliminate any kind of documentary-like subjects by choosing a unique place. He depicted a coincidence of a reenacted nature with man-made interior materials like wallpapers and pure nature seen outside the windows through his photography that exceeds 60 inches in size. Ultimately, Jang shows almost a surreal-like landscape going beyond limits of vision whilst being very detailed like as if it were a painting.
The artist attempted in bringing in Gyeom Jae Jeong Sun into his work. In his modern reenactment of the landscapes of Mt. Inwang in which past residents of Ok-in apartment complex have admired looking out their windows, Jang gives not a demolition site where traces of life is pervaded, but an unfamiliar and strange landscape. This is beyond record-keeping documentary because it presents a new artistic value of space and nature through subjectivities and consciousness of this place. We are able to stand face-to-face in stillness with this unique place that has been captured by Jang and brings out our sesnses more affluently and delicately.
About the artist
Building his art career in various fields such as cinema music, furniture design, and exhibition director, Jang Minseung received his bachelor and master degree in sculpture at Choong-Ang University. He started with designing furniture, alongside being part of a rock band, a music coordinator, and movie producer; recently, through his contemplation in language of design, he started to observe cultural context of buildings and furniture and make an image of it. Jang had solo shows including (One&J Gallery, 2010) and (Art+Lounge Dibang, 2010), and his latest group show (Seoul Museum of Art, 2011) showed Seoul city’s life phase and its hidden side through the artist’s unique and various perspectives.
