JANE BRUCKER, PARK CHEL HO

Buddhist philosophy teaches us that impermanence is key to existence. All phenomena, without exception, are subject to change, coming and going in never-ending cycles of birth, death, and rebirth. Intimately linkedto the concept of impermanence in Buddhist thought is the idea that nothing has an enduring essence, thatthere is no unchanging soul or self, no lasting anything to anchor our human experience. Instead, all physicaland mental events are by nature transient, leading to pain and suffering, for we prefer, as the German poetHermann Hesse so eloquently noted, a life that is fixed in place. Understanding and accepting impermanenceis an important step on the Buddhist’s path to spiritual enlightenment, the profound realisation that everythingarises, changes, and fades away.

The two artists in this exhibition recall these ancient, if often forgotten truths, in works that are at once universal and personal. Park Chel-Ho’s contemplative Ripple (2018) and Circulation (2016-18) series betrayhis abiding interest in nature and its myriad shifting, evanescent events. His delicate, lace-like shapes driftacross the picture plane without weight or specificity, simple reflections, perhaps, of dappling sunlight, orfrothy residue on a watery substrate. Like unstable compounds, these diaphanous forms lead a fleetingexistence, perpetually coming together, hovering for a moment, and floating apart. Together, they evoke timeand movement, like cinematic events that unfold before our eyes, then cease to exist. The natural linen onwhich Park’s forms are printed grounds them, suggesting human manufacture and age-old narratives aimedat giving meaning to a constantly changing world.

Jane Brucker’s Unravel project, begun in 2009, likewise addresses things in flux, focusing on the human activities of doing, undoing, and redoing. Hand-knit sweaters, shawls, blankets and vests in varying shadesof cream and beige are taken apart and re-assembled in a process that mirrors the compromise and changeinherent in life. Arrayed on tiny shelves and organised on the wall like flotsam in a seemingly infinite display,her half-finished clothes are but temporary manifestations, inviting us to ponder grief and loss. Her foundobjects, cast in bronze, suggest our human desire to arrest things, however futile the effort may be. A trainedAlexander Technique teacher, Brucker, in her accompanying Unravel performance, uses gentle touch toguide participants toward letting go of physical and mental attachments and toward the acceptance ofimpermanence as a guiding principle of life. Like Park-Chel-Ho, she reminds us that actions, not things orevents, are the real ‘forms that bind.’ They are, as the ancient Buddhist texts instruct, our only true belongingsand the soil upon which we stand.

Curation and press release courtesy of Claudia Bohn-Spector and Baik Art.