Ju Se Kyun: Notional Flag #5-B
Chapter II Yard is pleased to announce ‘Notional Flag #5-B’, a solo exhibition by Ju Se Kyun (b. 1980), from 13th May to 27th June, 2020, for its inaugural exhibition in Seongsu, Seoul. Ju, who has dealt with multiple media including installation, sculpture, drawing and video to manifest his investigation into skepticism about implicative aspects of symbols and structures of the public system which perceived as social conventions. The exhibition is an extension of his previous show at Chapter II in Yeonnam in 2019 and presents his new works Notional Flag #5-B and Text Jar Series.
There are multicolored flags on the floor. Borrowing the format of common flags of all nations occasionally appeared in parades, 110 flags are carefully placed side by side on the floor of the exhibition space. These flags actually consist of colorful sand the artist dyed by himself. The entire pattern is achieved by the elaborate process of sprinkling the particles on the floor. This ‘delicately sprinkling’ progress which signifies the artist’s disciplinal performance is carried out depending on the sole external force⎯gravity, and this meticulously intended original form is maintained throughout the exhibition.
As the title of the exhibition, ‘Notional Flag’, suggests, the patterns of the flags do not exist. Each A3-sized image depicting nonexistent objects and substance is interpreted as an actual flag, since it meets requirements of national flags’ fundamental elements such as patterns, emblems, colors and appearance already imprinted on our recognition system. The artist’s initial aim for the exhibition, establishing and displaying the fictional flags and stimulating association linked them, is selectively achieved depending on viewers. In other words, their background knowledge about certain flags, for example, their own countries’ or widely known flags frequently exposed in media, plays a role of a standard point which distinguishes the real ones from imitations. Nevertheless, it does not guarantee an accurate assessment of the originality of the flags, because the images on the flags seems very plausible.
A pile of sand in the corner of the exhibition space is a new element of this exhibition. It is rare case, the materials of the work appears together in the installation, but in this exhibition it helps reasoning about the logical foundation flowing through the base of the exhibition and the exhibition title.
Numerous norms, definitions and meanings that we constantly come across in an ordinary circumstance inevitably inhabit somewhere between reality and notions. For the artist, the “Notional” always has potential to be inverted into the “National”; at the same time, it implies that the existing norms, definitions and meanings can be overturned in any time. An organization and institution, or any form of social organization, symbolized by flag, is “temporary" in view of time permanence as if the relationship between Notional Flag 5-B and the pile of sand is not about order of time or dependency but relative to time and choice. Thus, the action of shifting the flags into sand by sweeping with brush at the end of the exhibition stands for a complete stage of his work rather than implying an extinction of the work. It is right to understand that act of the transition from a temporary state to a more permanent state in conformity with entropy laws.
According to the artist, he recalled the word, ‘belief’, at the border of flags, in that both any exclusive community in which one country shares the abstract meaning of sovereignty and the form of being separated by a border with another, are the sum of subjective beliefs. These beliefs at the national level are formed when people are under the influence of the same history in a particular region, or the accumulation and sum of similar reactions to a particular issue are fulfilled. Text Jar Series visualizes Ju’s interpretation that the basic unit of belief is a family who live with and dine together. He applied the form of Hangul (Korean) to new works, Pond with a Belief (2020) and Fill a Plate with Belief (2020).
The new works are derived from artist’s faith that various forms of beliefs eventually come into being through the act of ‘dining at home’, which directly relates to survival of family members who share the same tableware everyday.
Ju Se Kyun received a BA and an MA in Sculpture from Kookmin University, Seoul and he also did his sub-major in Ceramic. He has consistently presented his practice at diverse internal and external major institutions including OCI Museum of Art, Seoul; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; SeMA Nam-Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul; Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul; Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan; Korean Cultural Center in China and Taiwan Ceramics Biennale. His work is included in the collections of prestigious museums such as Victoria and Albert Museum, UK; British Museum, UK; Seoul Museum of Art, Korea; Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Korea; and OCI Museum of Art, Korea.
