Art Centre Art Moment presents “Full Load,” a solo exhibition by artist Woo-Young Kang (b.1975), on view through January 27. The exhibition features < Full Load >, a metaphorical representation of the weight of an individual’s life, which consists of 51 glass pieces.
The precariously suspended glass pieces seem to bend, metaphorizing the weight of the lives of people who live in dark times and carry heavy burdens. The artist imagines a moment when we return to a safe place to recover from our heavy burdens. But this is a fantasy and a paradox. It is a transcendent experience, like finding a chord in a cacophony.
< Full Load > hangs sharply from the viewer’s neck, but its hovering shape is as gentle as a gentle wave. The viewer simultaneously experiences a precariousness that threatens to break at any moment and a state of calm fullness.
The artist does not believe that darkness and light are opposites. What he wants to emphasize is the light we need, which he suggests is harmony in the discord of the hanging glass. The artist, who is constantly interested in the darkness of the times and personal problems, suggests that the light can be found in the attitude that can look at the people in danger, the wounds around us, and the words that convey comfort.
Woo-Young Kang (b. 1975) graduated from Hongik University, Department of Painting, and received her MFA and PhD degrees in Intermedia Art from the Graduate School of Art Research, Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan. Until 2012, he worked as a researcher for site-specific installations and community-based public art projects based in Japan and participated in many international public art projects such as the Toride Art Project (Japan). He has also held numerous solo exhibitions in Korea and abroad and participated in many group exhibitions and projects at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Soma Museum of Art, and Seoul Street Art Center.