New Philly art museum exhibit showcases powerful experiences of Korean artists

FAIRMOUNT - There’s a new exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art that must be seen. The Shape of Time: Korean Art After 1989 showcases the work of 28 contemporary artists of Korean descent in a unique display of living works.

From photography to virtual reality video and material-based installations, there are a wide variety of mediums on display which also speak to the exhibition’s major theme of time.

"This is really a rare opportunity for people to dive into a vibrant Korean art scene in Philadelphia. It’s really a major exhibition that opened in 15 years on the same subject in North America," said co-curator Hyunsoo Woo.

"With American interest in K-Pop, K-Drama and especially Korean food, this is a wonderful opportunity to learn about this wonderful and rich culture to make sense, with deep knowledge, about a country we really don’t know much about," said co-curator Elisabeth Argo. "Here’s an opportunity to see fine art and also just learn about this incredible history of South Korea."

"Seoul Home" by Do Ho Suh is a floating house suspended from the ceiling of the Williams Forum depicting the artist’s own home. It’s an exact one-to-one scale recreation made of silk organza.

"This is a house the artist actually grew up within as a child. The house still stands in Seoul, Korea and it’s a Korean-style house, that’s what we call ‘hanok’," said Woo.

Crimson ground incense shapes the piece "Where He Meets Him in Philadelphia" by Inhwan Oh. The color symbolizing the city and country’s openness to queer culture and spelling out the names of dozens of Philadelphia bars and clubs.

"When you do your incense sticks to do your yoga or meditation practice, imagine them being hand ground into a powder. These words are the names of Philadelphia-based queer bars and clubs, and we did the research alongside him to find out what the names of those clubs are, and they date back to the 1920s and 1930s," said Agro. "When he’s made this work elsewhere and he’s made it in different parts of the world, for example, he’s done it in his own city of Seoul, he has done it in the color green which is a more traditional color of incense and that represents a culture that’s quite closed to queer culture."

The work "What You See is the Unseen" is often mistaken to be a photograph, but Woo said the material is actually thick embroidery hand-stitched by North Korean artisans.

The two panels depict chandeliers as a symbol of the instability sown in Korea at various stages of its nationhood by other countries.

"So, the design was created by South Korean artist whose name is Kyungah Ham. She brought this through a middleman to North Korea and asked them to finish her embroidery," said Woo. "The North Korean artisans who embroidered, they cut this up in pieces because in a communist country, gathering a large group of people is always a very dangerous act.

Some of the works change over time. Artist Meekyoung Shin built sculptures made of soap titled "Eastern Deities Descended," transcending the boundaries of time, culture and material. Her work is displayed outside on the West Terrace of the museum and will dissolve over time.

"Evanescent Landscape" by Juree Kim models a partially ruined South Korean neighborhood made of unfired clay. It captures the neighborhood in transition undergoing rapid urban development, commenting on gentrification.

"Water is mainly thought of as a sign of renewal and life; she’s using it as a form of destruction. The artist presses the clay into a mold she’s made herself and then builds these houses by piecing them together building them up as a structure," said Argo. "We then water the work almost every day, and there are times throughout the run of the show we’ve actually added a lot more water. So, the dry clay will absorb it. It makes a noise, and it comes to life as it sucks up the water into the building. Slowly these houses have been melting over the run of the show."

There are many more thought-provoking displays available for the public’s viewing. Shape of Time at the Philadelphia Museum of Art runs through February 11.