Serin Oh, Imitation & Deception No.2011-25, 2011, 925silver, 16x22.5x2.5cm © Serin Oh

A solo exhibition by the young artist Serin Oh, who has received favorable responses in Korea and abroad with her 'Imitation & Deception' series, will open on June 6 at Gallery Yedam Contemporary in Samcheong-dong, Seoul. Taking motifs from cheap street accessories, the artist creates ornaments with the character of objects. Through her work, she collapses the boundary between original and copy and speaks about desire in capitalist society.

“In contemporary society, the ability to consume is power and, at the same time, class. (The majority of lower classes admire and imitate the consumption patterns of the upper classes, and this also becomes the purpose of consumption for the upper classes).”

This short sentence, which seems likely to appear in a book on consumer psychology, leaves us with a bitter feeling, because for those living in the middle of capitalist society, it is a reality that cannot be denied.

This sentence is the opening line of an artist’s note written by the young artist Serin Oh. Having majored in Oriental painting and metal craft at Seoul National University and won the top prize at the art jewelry fair ‘SIERAAD’ held in Amsterdam (2010 New Traditional Jewellery), she has created original jewelry through the series 'Imitation & Deception'.

Recently, her work was also featured on the cover of Showcase 500 Rings (Marthe Le Van & Bruce Metcalf, Lark Crafts; USA, 2012), published in the United States this spring.

Her work has forms that are so glittering and splendid as to seem excessive, but when examined closely, paradoxical stories are contained within them. The ring that seemed to be set with many expensive jewels turns out to be a trick of the eye, and dozens of elements are mixed together into a single body: cheap fake cubic zirconia, a half-cut dragon head, a bear-shaped accessory sold on the street, and even a counterfeit Louis Vuitton logo.

Serin Oh directly mass-reproduces her collected objects and recombines them to make one-of-a-kind silver ornaments, collapsing the boundary between original and copy. In fact, the works in this series have forms so excessively complex that, technically, reproduction beyond the original is impossible.

The characteristics of the original are revealed in an extreme way. “They say fashion is the history of the upper class at the top of the pyramid. It has always been imitation directed upward. I want to dismantle this definition by making something new with the things at the very bottom of the pyramid.”

In this way, around 60 works by Serin Oh, who has attempted her work through such unconventional methods, await communication with the public. This exhibition will also present a lookbook produced with the help of various artists, including photographers Pyo Kisik and Hwang Mina, as well as the 'Collected Desire' series, which reduces the scale of the existing series.

As Serin Oh says, “The role of a 1,000-won accessory sold at a road shop is to look more expensive than 1,000 won,” the countless consumer goods that have surrounded us until now have existed to satisfy desires for “display, imitation, and conformity,” and they will continue to do so. It remains to be seen what kind of ripple effect her message will create within this.

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