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PARK, JE KYOUNG

Hongik University, Institute of Fine Arts Commission Production and criticism

Solo Exhibition
2013.01 Gallery IS
2011.10 Gyoha Arts Center
2011.01 SK bentium Exhibition
2010.11 Alternative Art Space Sonamu Exhibition
2009.12 Yul Gallery

Group Exhibitions
2012.12 Christmas Bird Exhibition Seongnam Arts Center
2012.03 Hypothesis of Garden Topohaus
2012.02 February Special Exhibitions Gallery White Birch
2012.01 The First Anniversary Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Kyung Min
2011.11 Pixel on Canvas Exhibition Daegu EXPO
2011.07 Invitation Exhibition Korea-Netherlands Amity Gallery in City Hall of Gorcum
2011.05 Opening Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Kyung Min
2011.05 auteurs songseu Gallery Exhibition
2011.04 Young Artist Exhibition Art Gallery Elite
2010.12 So Yeon Kim, Je Gyeong Park SK bentium Exhibition
2010.05 Korea Art Festival, Prime Gallery
2010.03 "dream a little picture, " Seoul Museum of Art
2009.12 An International Art Exhibition of Yantai, Shandong, China Mungyeong Gallery
2009.11 "young spirit" KEPCO Plaza Gallery
2009.07 "figure, come to me" Gallery I

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Jekyoung Park��s Lace, Another Painterly Sensual World
Cho, Kwang-dje (Philosophy, fine art critic)

Artist Jekyoung Park expresses lace like a painting. She uses paint instead of thread and her unique brush stroke instead of a crochet hook or a loom. Instead of lace patterns or a computer, without a sketch to guide her, she uses her finger movement, directed by her brain and moves quickly and spontaneously. Jekyoung Park��s unique technique may be referred to as ��spider web spinning��. In order to build a web, a spider automatically makes a thin, tough and transparent thread from its spinneret and quickly starts creating a web. Park��s spider web spinning is similar to Jackson Pollock��s (January 28, 1912-August 11, 1956) dripping technique. Like Pollock��s dripping technique, Park has adopted her own painting technique, allowing her to freely express the pure and sensual instincts which provide many various artistic potentials. Also like Pollock��s dripping, Park��s spider web spinning has the trait of instinctively controlling spontaneous senses. This ��instinctive control�� means that the playing out of the previously spun lines on the canvas automatically controls the speed, direction and density of the playing out the following spun lines; during this process the artist��s finger movements control the spinning neck-and-neck with the spontaneous, artistic playing out of the lines. Jekyoung Park��s spider web spinning by instinctive control exercises its power in many new directions according to the kind of artistic spinning made.

With Park��s spider web spinning technique in mind, let us explore the contents of the piece. Lace is translated as mangsa, meaning��woven net��, in Korean. As we may see from this translation, unlike other regular cloth, lace is a unique form of weaving that you can see through. See-through cloth can��t be thought of apart from the body, especially the flesh. The flesh that can barely be seen through the clothes offers a completely different sense from a totally naked and exposed body. The transparency of the lace is not sensual in itself, but a ��temptation to the sensual�� enticing us into the sensual world. The simultaneous duality of opening and closing of the ��see-through quality�� of the lace, which opens to show and closes, then closes and opens to show again is the main element of sensuality.

Sensuality has been dealt with throughout the history of painting. Sensuality was considered the source of senses; thus enticing people to enter the sensual world has been treated as the thematic duty of painting. If that is the case, is Jekyoung Park��s painting, which embodies the spirit of a painting in lace that exposes sensuality through the simultaneous duality of opening and closing, really sensual? In her painting there is no body, let alone flesh. The mass that is formed with lace that can never exist sensually without body or flesh is hanging in the air, on the empty canvas. However, this form exhibits the potential of sensuality. Why?

Jekyoung Park omits the body or flesh that makes the lace sensual. Instead, she forms a mass with the lace and the lace becomes the body or flesh. This is a kind of sexual fetishism. The fetishist commonly steals lingerie. He goes into an isolated place and becomes aroused caressing the lingerie. Jekyoung Park doesn��t provide the viewers with body or flesh. Instead she provides them with lacey lingerie that looks like a body, which by barely covering the body and the flesh creates sensuality. Through viewing her works, we are secretly seduced into the state of a fetishist. Is her seduction successful? Let us look at each work. Some laces are obviously lingerie that show the shape of the body. Other laces are massed without much shape and can��t be called lingerie at all. On the other hand some laces are scattered around as if sensual excitement has just ensued. If we interpret these works as expressing the process of sexual excitement caused by sexual fetishism, would it be an overstatement?

Essentially the lace and mass is totally alien to each other. In essence, lace embraces and may show the body or flesh slightly, which is the mass, but it can��t be the mass itself. Simultaneously, lace can��t turn into steam in its essence. Since lace is essentially a material that embraces a body or flesh, it cannot be steam floating in the air. However, Jekyoung Park makes a mass made of lace and shows lace itself as a substance, and simultaneously she shows that the substantial mass dissolves and turns into steam, displaying the lace itself as an insubstantial image. In other words, Park is showing us that the lace, which is a medium of female sensuality, is spinning around the sensual world interchanging the substance and the image.

By doing so, Park is creating another mysterious effect. The effect is to expose the sensual essence of the body or the flesh. We need to see beyond the body that is hidden in the lace and the body that is changed into the lace. If so, what is the body that is implied in the lace which looks like a mass? The body is sexually shrunken and tensed. It is attacked by the power of the sensuality. What about the body implied in the lace that is turned into steam and floating around in the air? This body is merely the body that reaches the peak and in itself is turned into sensual flesh and overflows in all directions.

Jekyoung Park��s world of lace painting can be clearly interpreted in the way mentioned above. The problem is, however, some strong painterly modeling devices are rather lacking to induce this interpretation. The sharp contrast between colors and lines, and their strong harmony are lacking. We also get the impression that the extremely fine lines forming the laces are overall not soaked into the fervor of the sensual. However, if we focus on her so-called ��spider web spinning�� by instinctive control, the story changes. We need to delve into the moment of the artist��s thrilling work and imagine the scene where the artist is insanely focused in order to spin the extremely fine ��spider web lines�� and form the feast of these glamorous lines. During the painting process, namely ��spider web spinn