Loading ...
`The work of Sun Young Kang is currently on display at the Ganser Gallery in Millersville’s Ganser Library. Her exhibit “Filtered Memories,” opened on January 26 and will run through February 25. In addition to her gallery exhibition, Kang will present a gallery talk on February 25 at 5 p.m. The free exhibit is also open to the public, allowing the entire community to come together and enjoy the award winning artist’s latest display.
The exhibit features over a dozen of Kangs pieces of art, including an installation of various sized hanging scrolls. The large hangings of text are burned with incense and transferred onto thick Japanese paper called Sekishu.
The text is a reconstruction from the diary of her late father. Kang explains, “Eight years after my father’s death, my mother sent me his diaries which he began to write when he was my age. I have reproduced selections from those diaries. He has come back as a memory.” The exhibit pays a spiritual homage to her father by silently evoking these emotions through the art. “Filtered Memories” uses light and movement to evoke the emotion of memory coming back to the artist.
Upon entering the gallery, the vision of the hanging scrolls hit by light creates an intense and somewhat eerie feeling in the room. There is an overwhelming, mysterious presence and Kang’s combination of movement, and lighting creates an effective presentation of her culture and ancestry.
Another aspect of Kang’s exhibit is her book art, such as, “In Between Presence and Absence.” The book has hand cut pages (Kozo Natural) that are cut out in the shape of a bottle to create the looks of absence and presence. On the inside of the sculptural book it says, “Presence only exists when absence is recognized.”
This specific type of book art takes a tremendous amount of repetitive work and patience, which Kang notes as her strong point, “I really think that patience is a kind of power of waiting, I believe that I have that and that I’m good at that, so I have to do this labor intensive work.” The workmanship of her art makes “Filtered Memories” stand out as an exhibit to be remembered.
Kang’s patience and meticulous work is visible through all of her pieces showcased at the Ganger Gallery. Another favorite is her “The Way to Be Empty 2,” a piece that has 108 small boxes set within five larger boxes. Kang uses the number 108 in her work because it was a part of her life everywhere when she lived in Korea.
In Buddhism, there are 108 agonies and desires in our human life: six senses, three aspects of time, two characteristics of the heart, and three emotional preferences. This multiplied together equals 108 and is what Kang wanted to represent in her work. Each of the 108 small boxes has an incense burned cover that serves as a page in the book.
The exhibit has received much attention from both the students of Millersville University and the members of the community. Kang’s book art and installations capture the viewer and urges him or her to think outside the norm.
Kang has a way of captivating her audience with her details and effective presentation of her art. Kang is a native of Korea, where she received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Korean Painting from Ewha Woman’s University.
After working as an illustrator for children’s books, she studied Book Arts and Printmaking, receiving a Master’s of Fine Arts from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Kang has presented her works in exhibitions around the world and in museums throughout the United States, Italy, Germany, Scotland, and Australia.
She has also been the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Korean Embassy’s Korean Honor Scholarship in 2006 and the Elizabeth C. Roberts Prize for Graduate Study in MFA Book Arts and Printmaking.
She currently resides in Pittsburgh and works as a conservation technician for the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.
For more information on Sun Young Kang’s “Filtered Memories,” visit the Ganser Galley and take a tour of the exhibit, or go to www.sunyoungkang.com