One reality not enough for two new artists

The artists Jang Yu-jeong and Yun Yeong-hye are interested in illusion. While Yun challenges the viewer’s perception by mixing the drawing of a space with some real space in her installation series “Double Space,” Jang creates an illusion by painting a corner of her studio to make it look as if it exists in two dimensions. She then took a photograph of the painting and applied the print to a canvas.

In another work she created a model of a Korean mountain, patched together with a photograph of the London sky taken by the artist.
“Emerging 7: Gap between Looking and Seeing,” an exhibition by Ssamzie space featuring the work of emerging Korean artists, is an installation that explores concepts of space by altering the audience’s vision.
While Yun’s work explores hyper-realism, Jang, who is a student at London’s Goldsmith College, examines how vision is dominated by past impressions. Her themes, inspired by Baudrillard’s theory of “simulation,” illustrate how images replace reality in an urban sphere, making images look more real than reality.
Her recent projects include still-life paintings featuring dramatic contrasts of lighting that are reminiscent of famous paintings by European masters such as Vermeer or Morandi.
The images depicted in her paintings, which are fueled by images the artist experienced through mass media, is so idealized and staged that it’s more real than a real object.
In “Doll House” she creates paintings of beautiful houses based on her reading of western fairy tales , her study of paintings by Rene Magritte and Victorian-styled houses the artist has seen in London.

by Park Soo-mee

“Emerging 7” starts Jan. 18 through March 11 at Ssamzie Space. For more information call (02) 3142-1693~4. To find Ssamzie Space get off at Hongik University station, line No. 2, exit 5. Admission is free. The gallery is open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.