Installation view of 《Goosewing》 © Jong Oh

A few lengths of hand-painted strings, some monofilament lines that quickly disappear, an impossibly thin chain or two. Most of Jong Oh’s materials for an entire exhibition could fit into one closed fist when disassembled and feel pretty unremarkable.

However, once he assembles them into constellations floating in space they feel infinite. Solid and knowing, revealing hitherto unknown information. Clueing their audience into the universal and hinting at the foundations of reality.

They ultimately seek to gently recalibrate how the audience sees the subtle details of life when they leave the exhibition space.

Installation view of 《Goosewing》 © Jong Oh

Jong Oh’s sculptures take a moment to notice. They aren’t kinetic, but they do prompt viewers to move themselves around the pieces to fully see or understand them. Their overall precision makes them initially seem fully pre-planned, from blueprints or schematics checked and rechecked. Closer inspection shows they are handmade, usually with almost invisible hand tied knots, and their generation is mostly intuitive. From just a few loose pen lines sketched out, Oh makes most decisions as he installs. They court light, shadows, and gravity, making them materials in the work.

After years of increasingly dematerialized pieces Oh has allowed a few more physically present materials back into his world. Warmly toned, but still restrained, lengths of natural walnut, tiny blue marbles, and slight curves of neon placed floating asymmetrically. As with his other material choices, they are somehow activated by Jong’s slight touch, unmoored from their ordinary existence. The subtle light elements seem like punctuation marks, molding the space, framing unseen structures or languages.

Through exact proportions, passages of tautness or slack, perfect counterweights and balances, and a refusal to include any more than the most essential features he makes the seeing the world feel fresh, slightly different, better.

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