JARILAGER Gallery is pleased to host Korean master ceramist Min-Soo Kang and painter Joong-Baek Kim together for the exhibition The Transcendence of White. Min-Soo's radiant glazed moon jars and Joong-Baek's large immersive canvases transform the gallery rooms into tranquil spaces for introspection and contemplation, as viewers are encouraged to explore the intricate details and nuances of 'white' of the artworks. Each piece on display becomes a gateway to the rich spiritual heritage and cultural legacy of Korea. The artists aim to restore the energy of old meditation practices or the beauty of traditional objects into contemporary masterpieces that naturally fit into the daily life of modern art amateurs.
In Korean culture, white, long associated with purity and simplicity, is often seen as a symbol of enlightenment, transcendence, and harmony. Min-Soo Kang and Joong-Baek Kim also explore the use of white in their works. As a symbol of purity and perfection, white is a colour that, nonetheless, undergoes significant transformations. Joong-Baek Kim dyes his canvas with coffee of different concentrations. He then applies multiple layers of white gesso to conceal these stains. During this process, he engages in a simultaneous act of reduction and manifestation, as the coffee stains continue to seep through the gesso, revealing themselves. Consequently, his paintings appear white, yet not entirely so, as the various interactions between the gesso and coffee stains produce unique and unpredictable 'temperatures' of white. Similarly, each moon jar by Min-Soo Kang is a completely unique object, based on its fabrication process and the conditions of its firing. While the artist has control over the shaping process up to the point before it enters the wood kiln, once the glaze is applied and the wood kiln is fired, chance takes the lead. As he places each piece of firewood into the kiln, he finds himself wondering whether its colour and shape will naturally evolve. Even if he always uses the same tone of white—from the same variety of clay that the Chosun Dynasty ceramic masters also used—every jar reveals different 'feelings' of white in ways which go beyond his comprehension.
Absolute perfection is an elusive concept, for it exists only in varying shades of imperfection within its own essence. White is an unstable state of both the soul and artistry, a notion ephemeral in its purity, akin to a transcendental essence that allows itself to reveal imperfections contingent upon the moment and the hand that molds it. Maybe this is, in fact, the very reason of its charm: being so subtly different depending on execution conditions, imperfect in its perfection, white never fails to captivate. 'No matter how many times you look at it, you never get tired of it', states Min-Soo. And he adds: 'when the moon jar moves on the potter's wheel, I dance along with it', as if, through his dance, he had to coax something like a revelation; that is why he feels relieved when he sees the final shade coming to light.
White always appears from the vital conflict between control and openness to hazard, thus embodying a mix of Buddhist and Confucian ideals of meditation. According to Joong-Baek, who believes that true artistic creation requires freedom from all confusion, working with white gesso has a mystical quality, as the repeated practice of erasing helps him enter himself and stay immersed in a state of stillness. Painting the stains white is like a discipline for discarding his attachments. But he points out: 'as the coffee stains keep emerging, I create not alone, but together with the artwork itself'. That is to say, exactly when he reaches the apex of creation, which also represents the apex of concentration and self-control, he also has to embrace that the core of it inevitably slips beyond his grasp. It is within this intricate interplay between concentration and acceptance that one attains the 'ultimate good'.
Min-Soo Kang's and Joong-Baek Kim's artworks communicate and reinforce each other. Despite their different languages and mediums, they both originate from a common source—a shared pursuit of beauty, harmony, proportion and energy through repetition and imperfection. Transcendence is a subtle journey: white, yet not so white.
Press release courtesy JARILAGER Gallery.
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