Young In Honk, 'The Moon's Trick'

in

'The Moon's Trick' at the Exeter Phoenix brings the Korea/UK season to the centre of Exeter. With a dedicated project involving art institutions across the UK, its aim is to bring Korean artists to our attention. Similarly in South Korea, UK artists have the same opportunity. Much like Kim Yonk-Ik's exhibition last Autumn at Spike Island, Young In Hong brings work with political tones.

The tapestry work on show depicts scenes from found photographs of moments in South Korea's political & cultural history. What I found most striking in the two main galleries was the distinct styles & mode of display in each separate space. One bringing large scale tapestries with bursts of bright colours while the other was muted & minimalist.

Colour

Bringing highly laboured canvases that are filled with stitch work in bright colours the artist's work fills the space with images of fires & protests. Using well matched colour pallets in each work the artist draws our attention to the material she has used. Stitching from photographs, "Hong attempts to capture and fix the transitional nature of such collective experiences, highlighting fleeting moments of shared experience and the immaterial forces behind them." In addition "...the artist aims to slow things down; each thread recording not only the time she has put into making the piece, but the response to her desire to capture something that historical documents of the period may have missed." It seems important to Hong that we see significant cultural moments as more than just a photograph. This could not be a more important comment when taking into consideration the current paradigm of instant social media news & a fast turn over of image reporting.     

Extra detail that these works hold are the left over lengths of tread that hang from the images. Where normally they are cut away to leave a clear surface here we see them hanging & moving in any form of breeze that passes. This movement keeps the feeling of the images alive stopping them once more from becoming static. The tread adds to the feeling of civil action in the images as they feel slightly chaotic but at the same time anchored. Perhaps showing us a purposful action.

Monotone 

For just a moment on entering the second part of the exhibition it seems instinctive to just stand away from any wall & look around at the whole space. Simple canvases with few marks on them circle the walls, the sound of piano music occasionally plays & bisecting the far corner of the space a monolithic slab holds 5 landscape tapestries one above the other. The layout along the walls of the space suggest a narrative in the space, to be read one after the other around the room. Snapshot images sewn into the canvas with simple lines describing edges or movements through space. The content of each canvas isn't always clear but the tone is defiantly set if you begin to read the room from the left of the door as you enter. This canvas contains a familiar shape & an historically powerful statement. There after the images suggest all sorts of ideas such as Repetition, Order, Urban landscapes, Gatherings.

All of these canvases have an impact in adding to the wider narrative, however a book in the foyer between the 2 white wall spaces has the key to all the answers. Wonderfully printed this book shows on each spread the original photograph & the embroidered outcome by the artist.   

This show fuses heavily worked canvases with simple line worked canvases. These elements bringing simple contemplative works all in one space juxtaposed against drama & colour in the other. Bringing together two emotive elements of the protest imagery that Kim Yong-Ik has chosen to exhibit.