The
Museum Gazetteer 
Dive into Sun K. Kwak's Ocean at the Brooklyn Museum.
In the Brooklyn Museum, more than three miles of masking
tape and seven weeks have been used to transform the fifth floor
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery into an amazing abstract art installation
presented until July 5.
 |
| Enfolding
280 Hours, an installation by Sun K. Kwak at the Brooklyn Museum,
March 2009. |
Sun K. Kwak has been living and working in New York
for 16 years. this 40 year old Korean artist has been using masking
tape as her favorite artistic tool since 1995. Her method is simple:
the artist projects a design on the wall, applies the tape and then
cuts and peels away the tape to reveal the design. Her huge contemporary
creations have been presented in galleries and museums from Seoul
to New York.
The name, "Enfolding 280 Hours," comes from
the time she spent installing this exhibit. According to Judy Kim,
the curator of the exhibition, "it also suggests the process
by which disparate energies inherent in the space are harnessed
and synthesized by the centripetal force of horizontal line racing
in opposite direction around the gallery."
When they get into the gallery, most visitors think
that the walls are painted, and you will need to get closer to see
the masking tape. Sun K. Kwak defines her work as a "new sense
of freedom, diversity and energy." She is transforming the
traditional drawing into a three-dimensional style, using all the
surfaces of exhibition spaces. With this new technique, Kwak uses
eastern art techniques to challenge our habitual perception of familiar
surroundings.
The result is magical. The walls are entirely covered
by black and white "waves." The visitor will feel surrounded
by waves, lost in the ocean, in this huge and empty gallery. Sun
K. Kwak will transport you for a few minutes in a strange imaginary
world, carrying you away in her black and white ocean.
