loop

DOOSAN Gallery New York is pleased to announce the solo exhibition of APT artist Jungju An, a recipient of the 5th annual DOOSAN Artist Award, from March 10th to April 7th, 2016. As An's New York debut exhibition, it will comprise of his early through recent works, specifically eight multi-channel video works and one installation piece.

Jungju An segments his recorded sounds and images into their individual units, then he either expands or contracts them to reconnect them in a rhythmic manner, or emphasizes repetition to create musical, dynamic flow of images.

His early piece Drill (2005) involves the recording of Chinese soldiers performing close-order drills from various different angles. These footages are regenerated into repetitive, three screen multi-channel video work. Through segmented image and sound, the artist strives to raise up the relationship between the individual and the group in the standardization of our contemporary society. Turn Turn Turn-The Bottles (2007) edits the repetitive sounds of glass soju bottles clashing on a conveyor belt in a factory into the popular melody of the Beatles' Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da. Though the glass bottles on a conveyor belt represent mass production of capitalism, the artist is able to produce a new harmony through the machine's movement and sounds, using their aesthetic and formal elements.

Recent work Chain Letter (2015) is composed of footage recorded from the artist's travels culminating in a six channel video piece with 79 pages of text cards. Essentially, the receiver of the "Chain Letter" is told to send a letter to another person within the allocated, stated time. If the receiver complies, they will have good luck, and if not, it proclaims to cause bad luck. An uses this kind of letter structure and content within his work, creating the letter then placing the image-text cards with the video as a clue to help his audience decipher the meaning. In this way, the artist separates language with what it signifies, revealing the inconstancy of language.

In addition, by separating image with sound, An further reveals his aesthetic point of view.

As the title of the exhibition loop suggests, An intends to use the aesthetic of repetition to emphasize the language-like aspect of images, and rather than communicating by description or narration, he intends to realize his goals through formal characteristics and methodologies within the works.