Installation View of 《Epidermis bares while shielding》 © Space Willing N Dealing

Space Willing N Dealing is hosting a two-person exhibition titled 《Epidermis bares while shielding》 featuring artists Kang Kun and Taewon Ahn from May 24 to June 16, 2024. This exhibition introduces two young artists who work simultaneously in sculpture and two-dimensional formats. While their sculptures draw on traditional sculptural acts and forms, they ultimately explore the concept of the surface, extending naturally into two-dimensional works.

The artists model physical masses and entities, transforming, constructing, and unfolding them to extract sensory elements through a process that culminates in the creation of specific forms and images. This exhibition offers a space where visitors can observe the convergence of diversity and contemporaneity in the sensory and expressive methodologies of these artists, who, though living in the same era, come from different environments.

Kang Kun, Zoom, 2024 © Space Willing N Dealing

Artist Kang Kun creates three-dimensional works by dyeing lightweight materials such as felt fibers and bird feathers in bright colors, then mixing them with transparent epoxy and other mediums to harden them into specific shapes. The interior of these sculptures is hollow, leaving only the outer shell, reminiscent of an empty husk left behind after the body has departed.

During his studies in France, Kang Kun explored his identity and the conflict of feeling like an outsider within a group, which manifested in his sculptural works as hybrid, metamorphic forms. In this exhibition, Kang Kun presents masses with surfaces that evoke images of body parts, organs, and incomplete human figures—what the artist refers to as apes—suggesting an exploration of the imperfect human condition.

Taewon Ahn, Head 1, 2023 © Space Willing N Dealing

Artist Taewon Ahn primarily creates sculptural forms featuring his pet cat, Hiro. Using digital tools, Ahn grotesquely distorts Hiro’s image, a process that leverages the momentary errors occurring during image manipulation. This distorted image is then rendered as a physical object, onto which Ahn meticulously paints the likeness of the cat.

His work examines the relationship between the image-saturated world of online communication, such as social media, and the tangible reality in which he exists. As noted in his artist statement, Ahn perceives a paradoxical environment where easily accessible subjects become increasingly distant, capturing a longing to grasp what seems perpetually out of reach.

The visual sensations that emerge from the surfaces of these two artists’ three-dimensional works often dominate the mass itself. Kang Kun’s organic shapes, reminiscent of organs or some form of life, are crafted from light and soft materials and then hardened into solid masses. Similarly, Ahn Taewon’s works are masses that retain a recognizable, albeit distorted, cat form, evoking a tactile response in the viewer while reminding them of the underlying image.

The outcomes, which recall the original materials and subjects, create multi-layered experiences: physically solid yet visually and tactically soft. This multilayered approach highlights a paradoxical environment where virtual and real worlds coexist, reflecting a desire to reveal and protect oneself simultaneously within this complex reality.

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