Prompt Project opened the new
year with its first exhibition, 《Momentary Momentum》, held from January 18 to
February 16, 2024, featuring five young artists. Although each artist presents
a distinct perspective, they share a common focus on the “moment” and “instant”
of memory, expanding their individual narratives and discourses through the
eruption of images.
Artist Yubin Koo, who begins her
work from the perception of images, captures subjects that continuously shift
according to the feeling of light, using blending techniques to evoke a
dreamlike atmosphere. By emphasizing the shapes of light, she creates accidental
yet intriguing abstract forms. Her clear, bright color palette functions
flexibly as a vessel for the residual traces of her emotions.
Artist Minseok Son interprets
still life—“still life, yet ongoing life”—as an allegory for the persistence of
existence. He depicts motionless objects from daily life that people rarely
assign meaning to, focusing on the natural blending and interpenetration that
occur among them. His paintings capture the quiet exchanges between objects,
highlighting fleeting harmonies and presenting collected scenes through a
contemplative lens.
Artist Kinam Yeom transforms the
phenomena of light waves, their remnants, and the afterimages left on the
retina into flashes of form situated within an amorphous space he calls the
“prism.” The intersecting lines and planes that traverse vertically and
horizontally generate a spatial sense, while the accumulation of color
encapsulates temporality. By abstracting fragments of subjective emotion
perceived from a fleeting movement, he reconstructs a series of visual
narratives that stem from memory and experience.
Artist Jieun Oh visualizes
personal moments and everyday scenes, leaving them as luminous pictorial
fragments. The accumulation of pigment produces a dazzling aura, where melting
and blending colors form dynamic rhythms. Her paintings vividly embody refined
memories, projecting layers of afterimages and emotional echoes. Upon closer
inspection, one can sense the transformation of emotion into a tactile
sensibility, experiencing an aesthetic moment that transcends verbal
expression.
In contrast, artist Dawha Jeon
approaches the flood of memes and visual play in the digital age through her
own iconic framework. Her exploration of meme images—multiplying exponentially
across social media, often obscuring one another—questions their impact and
meaning. She integrates the rapid speed and immaterial lightness of digital
images into her practice, “reformatting” them into her own distinctive visual
style. Her work cannot simply be described as “fun” or “fresh”; rather, it
evokes a deeper elevation of consciousness, inviting viewers to experience the
non-real nature and mimetic essence of her subjects.
