2022. 7. 9 – 7. 23
Junyoung Kang, Jaejun Kim, Daeyong Bae, Kihoon Chung

2GIL29 GALLERY is pleased to announce the opening of < Snapping a Chalk Line > (July 9 – July 23), an exhibition composed of a group of four young Korean artists Junyoung Kang(b.1979), Kihoon Chung(b.1987), Jaejun Kim(b.1990), and Daeyong Bae(b.1992). < Snapping a Chalk Line > presents the ways these artists observe, question, deconstruct, and reconstruct the idea of a “house”. Each artist has a different role; Junyoung Kang observes the formation of the very first social boundaries, Jaejun Kim examines the materiality of a house, Daeyong Bae reconstructs the chronicles experienced inside home, and Kihoon Chung questions the forms of a family.

Junyoung Kang expresses his memories and emotions that come from personal experiences and documents them in paintings, ceramics, and videos. In his works, the past and the present are entangled in ways that form layers. That is, the memories of his late father – who was an architect – drawing on the draft board, and the view of his young child playing with clay, continue to intertwine with each other. So he reflects by investigating the idea of “home”, which seemingly flows through the recollections of three generations. Recently the artist has been working on the subject as a place where the very first relationships and social boundaries are formed.

Jaejun Kim’s works enable viewers to reflect upon the possibilities of an anti-structure. The artist, who has pursued his studies in architecture, questions the firm and solid materiality of the cube – the basic form of an architectural structure – and its constituents such as the floor, walls, columns and beams. He has attempted new artistic approaches as creating digital scenery made from data – thus escaping the restrictions of the physical world – and drawing sequences of the cubes’ movements. As a matter of fact, his works focuses the movements of people, which have opposite characteristics to the structures that maintain their firmness and solidity.

Daeyong Bae reconstructs the chronicles that a person experiences inside a house. His drawings, which are like a bird’s eye view or floorplan drawing, make viewers go through the god’s perspective by taking them to the position of a “homo-deus”. Through mapping, the artist documents his stories and emotions that come from personal experiences on paper. However, he records them in symbols, which means the complete removal of subjectivity. To sum it up, the artist strategically selects some moments experienced in between life and death, and transforms them into new kinds of visual architectural structures that are seen from an aerial viewpoint like a layout drawing.

To Kihoon Chung, “home” means “shelter”. When he leaves the house for work, his plants are the only things that give his home its meaning by filling the empty space with life when no one else is around. To take care of his plants, the artist watches their leaves and thoroughly examines the changes they go through each day. The repetition of this routine gives the plants the role of a family and the act itself becomes a symbol of logging in and out of home. Thus, taking care of plants can be seen as the 21st century equivalent of past shelters as it’s not only a safe place, but also as a means of protection from danger

The title of the exhibition “Snapping a Chalk Line” comes from the method in construction used to mark out places where walls will be built. When a builder snaps the string filled with powdered chalk, a straight line is marked on the surface, defining once and for all the space that is going to be used for the next decades. During the last 2 years, the pandemic made us reflect upon the limitations of traditional houses. Hence, by “Snapping a Chalk Line”, the artists are trying to change the way traditional houses of previous generations were built. With this exhibition, we hope people can reflect and think about designing their home, not only as a physical and spiritual place, but also as a way to snap their own chalk lines.

2GIL29 GALLERY
2GIL29 Bldg. 35, Ganganam-daero 158-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea
+82 2 6203 2015

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