HONG SUNGCHULSOLID BUT FLUID

The ar tist has developed a wide-ranging body of work in various media incorporating modern technology: interactive

video projections, performances, sculptures and installations. This exhibition brings together Hong’s most recent

works from an ongoing investigation of the ontological anxiety inherent in our contemporary lives.

The focal point of Hong’s oeuvre is the tension originating from the ontological incompleteness inevitable in our

lives. However, as in yin yang of Asian philosophy, the destructive force derived from this tension and anxiety creates

a complementary impetus in life. His most widely known String series consists of images printed on elastic strings

most commonly depicting human body par ts – mainly hands. Hong believes that the hands rather than the eyes

forge a gateway to our relationship with the outer world, ultimately symbolising the essence of each individual

human being. Evocative of Michelangelo’s ‘The Creation of Adam’, his paintings por tray the struggle against isolation,

its ensuing pain and the constant existential search for the meaning of being. Endlessly tangled beads and threads

firmly seized by the anonymous hands is perhaps the ar tist’s yearning, prayer or will to search for the meaning of

life, in the midst of a digital culture that perpetuates the triumph of the image over substance and banishes real

human engagement to the fringes of social interaction.

The individual strings are printed upon and placed in regular intervals to create an optical illusion fur ther developing

the concept touched upon by both Optical and Kinetic Ar t alluring the viewers to interact and perceive. Merleau-

Ponty notes that:

“Experience is not arrayed before me as if I were God, it is lived by me from a cer tain point of view;

I am not the spectator, I am involved, and it is my involvement in a point of view which makes possible

both the finiteness of my perception and its opening out upon the complete world as a horizon of every

perception.”

Hong seduces audiences to build sensorial and physical relationships with the ar tworks encouraging individual

perceptual cognitive process, allowing the viewers to form their own reality from their own unique experience.

Thus, the hands in the painting become your hands, my hands and Adam’s hands, as they were first touched by God.

Hong Sungchul (b. 1969) lives and works in Seoul, South Korea. He received M.F.A in Integrated Media at California

Institute of the Ar ts and M.F.A and B.F.A in Sculpture at Hongik University, Seoul. His works has been exhibited

at international galleries including Saatchi Gallery London, Galerie Orem Paris, Erhard Witzel Gallery Wiesbaden,

Gwacheon National Museum of Contemporary Ar t, Seoul Museum of Ar t, Youngeun Museum of Contemporary

Ar t, Ar t Seasons Gallery Beijing among others.

02 | 03

Str ing Hands 0915 | pr int on elastic str ings in steel frame | 120 x 220 x 15 cm | 2011

04 | 05

Str ing Column 0254 | pr int on elastic str ings in a steel frame | 302 x 120 x 60 cm | 2012

06 | 07

Str ing Hands 0238 | pr int on elastic str ings in a steel frame | 100 x 100 x 14 cm | 2011

08 | 09

Str ing Hands 0552 | pr int on elastic str ings in a steel frame | 120 x 120 x 15 cm | 2011

Str ing Eyes 1493 | pr int on elastic str ings in a steel frame | 138 x 106 x 15 cm | 2012

10 | 11

12 | 13

Str ing Hands 4318 | pr int on elastic str ings in a steel frame

100x 150 x 14 cm | 2012

Str ing Mirror | str ing, video camera, projector | var iable installation | 2003

14 | 15

16 | 17

Str ing Tongue | single channel video, performance | 4’ 31’ ’ | 2000

16 | 17

HONG SUNGCHUL (b1969)

EDUCATION

2001 M.F.A., Integrated Media, California Institute of the Ar ts, CA

1996 M.F.A., Sculpture, Hong-ik University, Seoul

1994 B.F. A., Sculpture, Hong-ik University, Seoul

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2011 IHN gallery, Seoul

2010 YHD Projects, Seoul

2008 Anxiety and Dynamics of Incompleteness, Kring, Seoul

2007 Perceptual Mirror, Gallery IHN, Seoul

Youngeun Ar tist Relay_Sungchu Hong, Youngeun Museum of

Contemporary Ar t, Gyeonggido Kwangju

2002 RGB_SHOW, Kumho Museum of Ar t, Seoul

2001 String Tongue, CalAr ts, LA

2000 White Cube, CalAr ts, LA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2009 From Yeonhui-dong, YHD Projects, Seoul

The Magic of Photography, Hanmi photo Museum, Seoul

Shooting Image, KOEX, Seoul

2008 Unusual One, Lobby of Hana Bank Head Office, Seoul

Contemporary Korean Photographs 1948-2008,

National Museum of Contemporary Ar t, Gwacheon

Your Mind’s Eye_Digital Spectrum, Seoul Museum of Ar t, Seoul

Youngeun 2008 Residency & Open Studio, Youngeun Museum

of Contemporary Ar t, Gyeonggido Kwangju

First Step: New Art from Korea, Ar t Seasons Gallery, Beijing

2007 Mutual Induction, KTF Gallery the Orange, Seoul

Text in Bodyscape, Seoul Museum of Ar t, Seoul

Look & See, Kumho Museum of Ar t, Seoul

2006 Soft Landing- 7 Ar tists Meet BMW, CAIS Gallery, Seoul

EHS project, Sejong Center, Seoul

2005 R-mutation, Seoul Ar ts Center, Seoul

Between, Contemporary Ar t Museum of Hongik University

Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgar t, Stuttgar t

Issues of Criticism, POSCO Art Museum, Seoul

2004 Contemporary Ar t Video & Installation, Daegu Ar t Center

Soul & Bowl, Gallery IHN, Seoul

Alternative Realities, EMAF, Ewha Woman’s University, Seoul

2003 Fake & Fantasy, Ar t Center Nabi, Seoul

Beauty, Sungkok Ar t Museum, Seoul

2003 I, You, Us, Sungkok Ar t Museum, Seoul

2002 The 2nd Seoul International Media Ar t Biennale, Seoul Museum

of Ar t, Seoul

Alchemy, Sungkok Ar t Museum, Seoul

2001 Peer, Gallery 825, LA

Immediate Distance, Main Gallery, CalAr ts, LA

Great Video Installation, D301 Gallery, Calar ts, LA

Have a Cool Summer, Track 16, LA

2000 Ar t Video Screening, Bijou, Calar ts, LA

1994 to 1999 : Par ticipated in more than 15 group exhibitions since in Los Angeles and Seoul

18 | 19

This catalogue is published by HADA Contemporary to accompany the exhibition:

HONG SUNGCHUL : SOLID BUT FLUIDSOLO EXHIBITION 2012

5 - 25 JULY 2012

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any mean, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without prior written permission from HADA Contemporary Ltd.