2021 UAH Contemporary Art Fellow Exhibition: In Between Presence and Absence
2021, Paper-casting using recycled fiber from discarded paper, blackout curtains, boards
* Solo exhibition of UAH Contemporary Art Fellow funded by National Endowment for the Arts, Wilson Hall Gallery at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, AL
I paper cast, using pulp made from discarded paper, everyday vessels that I found around me to visualize the emptiness in our daily life. By casting each physical object with nothing within, I articulated the essential concept of the container which is the space inside it. I filled up the empty space of the gallery with those empty vessels and, in so doing, visualized what is non-visual, filling up an empty space with emptiness, articulating a non-describable concept, the inseparability of presence and absence, and the tension between them.
In this space of In Between Presence and Absence: Expectation and Perception, I divided the entire gallery into two opposing spaces. One space invites the audience but denies entry, while the other space is physically accessible yet does not offer the same view. By creating two opposite spaces—one with an upside-down view of the other—I attempted to visualize the weight of absence, which is unsubstantial, to challenge the audience’s expectations and visual perceptions, and to allow them to become part of a space that exists as an experiential metaphor passing between opposites.
Photographs by Sun Young Kang and José Betancourt
