Jukhee Kwon - Circle Book, 2021
"Discovering an abandoned book is just the first part of the process. After that, I often imagine its time spent in the hands of previous owners. As I cut into the pages, I'm interested in connecting that past to the present moment - patiently awaiting whatever emerges" - Jukhee Kwon.
I've seen artists who work with books before, but I haven't encountered any who work with them on the scale of Jukhee Kwon. Kwon takes books through a process of alchemical transformation creating sculptural, poetic interventions deconstructing, slicing, dissecting, weaving and twisting the pages of found tomes to create something unique and quite spectacular in cascading installations like Oval Book Forum below. Through the artists inventive and creative process the meaning of the book is altered as well as its appearance. Kwon's pieces are painstakingly assembled and in many the texts are still legible despite being cut away from the spine of the book. I spotted certain themes/motifs in the work such as protective cocoons and tumbling sheets of text left hanging in space. Hailing from South Korea Kwon's work with paper follows a cultural tradition which I learnt about when visiting an exhibition of hanji at the Korean Cultural Centre last year (here). Although not as sculptural, aspects of Kwon's work has links with artist Kwon Young-Woo whose work I also discovered last year at Annely Juda (here).
Red Circle Book
Red Circle Book (detail)
Oval Book Forum
Tower Book
Modo di Comporre (How to Compose)
Guerra e Pace, (War and Peace)
Escape
Blossom
Meditation
Cocoon Book
Flow
Once upon a time it was a book
Where I can rest
Crystal Book
In Fiore
Inner World
Jukhee Kwon: Liberated
until 22nd April
October Gallery
24 Old Gloucester Street
London
WC1N
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