“Even in the most meaningless and superficial actions, humans express their entire selves. In other words, there is no habit or human action that reveals nothing.”

                                                Being and Nothingness, Jean-Paul Sartre

​ 

Everyone experiences moments of fundamental choice, whether consciously or unconsciously, leading to outcomes. Through encounters with such events, we create, possess, and exist. Therefore, every moment becomes a significant event that transcends the moment itself, permeating the whole.

Even in the 'breathing' moments of daily life, we experience countless temporal and spatial openings and closings. These experiences form numerous clichés within us, which manifest themselves through sound or form.

​

Gallery JJ is pleased to present Breathing, Lingering, the inaugural exhibition where we contemplate the moment of breathing. We live and perish in that fleeting moment between exhaling and inhaling without any obstacles. The exhibition unfolds the stories of three artists, Kim Si-yeon, Jeong Gyu-ri, and Ham Yeon-ju, who delve into such meaningful moments of daily life. These artists approach their work with extremely personal, everyday materials and spaces, sometimes encompassing feminist implications due to their female perspectives, ultimately producing expanded meta-meanings. These seemingly trivial, perishable things gain life and live with us.

​

Kim Siyeon borrows materials from her surroundings to tell deeply personal stories in everyday spaces. Items like the ivory soap used to bathe her child, eraser shavings from teaching letters, a clear glass of milk on a slightly depressing morning, and substances like detergent and salt are all materials that any woman might find familiar. Furthermore, her canvases are filled with the interior of a home. However, the home she depicts is so tidy and refined that it creates a precarious tension. The home, which should provide a solid shield for us, seems on the verge of collapsing or disappearing at any moment. Beginning with Depressed House and extending to series like Barricade, Thread, and Yellowish, she discusses the precarious and sharp nature of the home and life within it. Nonetheless, her space is beautiful, making us dream of a home once more.

​

Chung Curi's cubes, which seem to float in a surreal space, actually represent the here and now where we live. The world she sees appears to float freely but in reality, it is a closed space where things collide, bend, and break. This leads to an obsession with breaking free from these constraints, but ultimately, one can only revolve within them. The figures in her works are mostly people around her, and everyday objects like candles, cakes, and clocks have multi-layered meanings of joy, limitation, and disaster. The candles pouring into the lovely pink screens might be sunshine to some, raindrops, or even tears to others. Recently, a change began in her work as she endures the given realities. Her canvases break and merge with the world, revealing spaces between the frames and life, where the images come alive. She no longer curls up, doesn't look for a path, but becomes the path herself, as an artist.

​

Ham Younjoo, known for her use of real hair, employs materials like cubes, springs, and wires, connecting them as lines to create living entities that grow infinitely through small repetitive units. She meticulously gathers and continues these seemingly insignificant hair strands, immersing herself in the beauty of small, light things and the large, blooming spaces they create. Her work, starting with Soft Tension, evolves to express elements like feathers and wings, gradually advancing to Soft Hope. Twisting wires and linking nickel threads resemble a spider’s movements, initially appearing as a feminist approach but ultimately revealing a human space with a tactile warmth of 36.5 degrees Celsius. Ham enjoys fairy tales, interesting miniatures, and marvels at the beauty of a single gladiolus blooming in a corner of the yard one spring day. Her canvases follow her aspirations, blooming like seeds into flowers, shining and spreading.

​

In this exhibition, which consists of various genres such as photography, painting, and mixed media, you will especially encounter the latest works by the artists.

​

Juyeon Kang, Gallery JJ Director

translated by Brett Lee