Inseon Park (b. 1982, Gwangju) shows works comprised of both photography and painting. Her Root series depicts half-demolished buildings being suspended in front of a monochromatic, painted background. Fragments of concrete, timber, and wire bars crumble and fall into the void as the house is mercilessly lifted upwards by the hook of a crane. Shack-house shows a house that seems half-reconstructed from materials that were discarded, or were deemed useless: an entire facade made of rusty metal doors and windows. The houses in these works are in fact based on real houses in Gwangju that have since been demolished. The images are then further manipulated through collage and painting by Park, so they seem to literally fall apart and yet hold themselves together in the work.
Shack-house and Root are parts of Park’s ongoing exploration and inquiry into the impact of urban (re)development in a city such as Gwangju. These works also project a larger picture, such as the development of cultural infrastructure, which often goes hand in hand with gentrification. Some of the questions that Park raises with her practice are: What is the artist’s role in these processes of urbanization? What can, and what does art do in these situations? A graduate of the College of Fine Arts, Mokpo National University, Park is concerned with the impact of rapid urbanization and development of cultural infrastructure, and the double-edged role that art, as well as its surrounding ecology and infrastructure, plays in these contexts. MW
self-presentation:
It feels as if the buildings in the city are our own portraits, speaking for the time we are living in. They vary in shape, resulting in complicated, labyrinth-like alleys that remind us of blood vessels. Unidentifiable features and structures make up a form, creating new spaces. Different configurations are made, assemblages of pieces of spaces that have undergone small changes for the residents’ convenience, which again shape different forms. These fuel my imagination. They inspire me and draw me into fantasies in which something more than what’s seen is produced.
Going around certain cities and observing the urban landscape and the buildings, I sense the unique and distinct atmosphere of each place. They are historical places that embrace the changes over time.
Humans lead their lives through interaction with others. There are always conflicts in this life and things break down so easily. We build walls around ourselves to defend against such tension, but at times even they look shaky. Thus, the parts of the world in which human affairs are most exposed seem to be the spaces in our lives that are closely connected to us.
