Seung Yul Oh
Jack Wrap Falls, Gravy Gravity and Mong long Mong
Oh’s approach to art-making is characterised by a playful, irreverent use of materials. While still at art school, the young Korean-born artist held a one-night-only exhibition where he proceeded to batter and deep fry all of his exhibited paintings as a performance to an amused and enthralled audience. Other similarly everyday substances favoured by Oh have included popcorn, balloons, concrete and expanding foam, all of which highlight the importance of humour in his work too.
As well as being kinetic in the sense of being motorised (as components of his works in ‘Telecom Prospect 2007’ are), there is often a sense of movement within the materials he uses; they ooze, drip, bubble, stretch, seep or sag, creating unavoidable allusions to our bodies. Significantly, this approach serves to produce an often physical reaction from his audience, whether it is laughter, curiosity, or revulsion, the work sets up a back-and-forward interaction with the viewer.
For ‘Telecom Prospect 2007’, Oh has created an intervention in the gallery space with Jack Wrap Falls (2007) where he has wrapped three existing columns in coloured polythene. The resulting wall of plastic manages to avoid feeling oppressive through the material’s tactility, capturing and reflecting light in their taut layers and folds. Hidden internal motors cause the walls to vibrate and hum in high-pitched bursts and ripple like an undulating waterfall. In Gravy Gravity (2007), Oh has constructed a large cardboard box sculpture, a toy for a giant child perhaps. Like an oversized Jack-in-the-box the whirring it emits leaves us in suspense at what might leap out. While this work may elicit a jump of surprise as the motor rears into action, Oh’s video work Mong long Mong (2007) begs you to stop and be entranced for some time. The camera films from above as a handful of coins are thrown into a yellow plastic funnel, the type of ‘wishing well’ used by charities, often located in shopping malls. The coins’ movement is mesmerising and, as was popular in B-grade movies of the sixties, reminiscent of the spiralling black and white vortexes used to signify hypnosis. By abstracting them from their usual everyday contexts, Oh, like a magician, brings his materials to life.
Jessica Reid
Seung Yul Oh artist bio:
Born Seoul, 1981
Lives and works in Auckland
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland
Master of Fine Arts, Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland
Selected solo exhibitions include: 'Bearing', Te Tuhi, Pakuranga (2006); '5.4.3.2.1. Auckland Artist Projects', Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland (2006); 'Chew Chew Tongue', Starkwhite, Auckland (2006).
Selected group exhibitions include: 'Break Construct', Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth (2006); ‘Asian Caucasian Stein/The Pet Show’, with Peter Robinson, Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland (2004); ‘Seeds of Order Chaos of Rhythms’, Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland (2004); ‘Talk to the Dumbness’, Rm 103, Auckland (2004); ‘Picture’, George Fraser Gallery, Auckland (2003).
Image credits:
Seung Yul Oh
Gravy Gravity 2007
corrugated board, motor
Courtesy of the artist and Starkwhite, Auckland
Jack Wrap Falls 2007
plastic wrap
Courtesy of the artist and Starkwhite, Auckland
Mong long Mong 2007
DVD
duration: 10 mins
Courtesy of the artist and Starkwhite, Auckland