□ Stay in 2021
□ E-mail : moon4019@naver.com
□ URL : www.moonsujin.com
I received BFA and MFA in sculpture department of Seoul National University in South Korea and studied in the fiber department of the School of Art Institute of Chicago in USA. I have had solo show twice including “Living Island” in CICA Museum in Kimpo, Korea in 2020, and I have been participated in several group shows including “Contemporary Landscape in Flux” in The Research House for Asian Art in Chicago in 2021. I have been in one-month program residencies in Monson Arts, Vermont Studio Center, and MASS MOCA in US, and currently working in one-year residency program in Seoul Art Space Geumcheon run by Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture.
□ Note for practice_Sujin Moon
A sense of touch is the basis for all the other sensations. Sight is reconstructed image in the brain from sensing the light when it touches the retina, hearing is to sense the sound wave when it touches the eardrum, taste is a chemical reaction to the foods particles touching the taste buds on tongue, and smell is to sense the odor molecules touching the olfactory cells in the nose. All senses involve a tactile process of ‘touching’ with something.
I define myself as a sculptor. Making sculpture is touching something: touching something’s surface, feeling the texture and resistance of it, and carrying the weight of the thing and wrestling and struggling with it with my whole body.
My practice involves performance carrying my own weight or some other things’ one. My sculptures and installations are often created in a way of pressing and mark-making. Mark-making is occurred when two different bodies attach to each other firmly enough to remain their skins on each other’s bodies. I accepted the process of it as physical and metaphorical.
I tend to regard something invisible and intangible as the things have physical presence. I believe that something without physical body such as thoughts or emotions also has physical power to make something or someone moves. As a sculptor, my goal is making some intangible things into touchable, and remaining marks of something without body.
□ Living Island, 2020
The exhibition consists of documenting materials of the performance work, ‘Living Island’, which occurred from the beginning of February to mid-March 2020 at Lake Hebron in Monson, Maine. ‘Living Island’, a month-long performance project, creates a snow island on the frozen lake with the simple act of shoveling snow until the spring starts the island melt. The work is intertwined with the ideas of the fear from the situation of standing and working on the unstable earth, on the ice, the alertness of latent death, the vulnerability of being, and the consolation from the connection and solidarity with people.
Considering the nature of performance work, which is always moment-specific, the question of how to present the performance afterwards in the gallery space always matter. In this sense, the documenting materials are created as interpretations of the memories of the performance, rather than a representation of it. I attempted to find the appropriate forms for the textures and shapes of fragments of the memories. Some moments become a bundle of papers which is bounded to physical weight and thickness. Some other moments become a video, or in other words, light. The other becomes a movement, which is waiting to be activated by someone flipping their fingers.
We have passed through a long year. This year was colder and harsher than any other winters due to the spread of the novel virus so that we had to stay inside longer than ever. In this difficult moment, we cannot let the anxiety out of our mind completely. I look back again at the memories of being on the lake and I rethink how weak and small we are, and how much we can be consoled by someone’s support, as I could be by the people in Monson. I hope this work will be a metaphor for lives and a humble gesture of support and solidarity to someone who visits the show.
Education
2019 The School of Art Institute of Chicago, MFA
2017 Seoul National University, MFA
2012 Seoul National University, BFA
Solo Exhibition
2020 Living Island, CICA Museum, Gimpo
2014 Moon, Sujin solo exhibition, Woo-suk-hall, Seoul, Korea
Group Exhibition
2021 "Contemporary Landscape in Flux", The Research House for Asian Art, Chicago, IL
2019 ‘A Perfect Measurement’, Site gallery, Chicago, IL
2019 MFA thesis show, School of Art institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2018 New Blood XII Festival, Links Hall, Chicago, IL
2018 Object Lesson: Book Explorations, 062 Gallery, Chicago, IL
2015 ‘Serial exhibition: Project Space ‘Big Frame’, Seoul National University, Seoul
2015 ‘Non-finito’, Woo-suk Gallery, Seoul
2014 ‘Another Meeting’, Yang-gu Porcelain Museum, Yang-gu-gun
2014 Young Artist Invitation Exhibit 6th, KOSA Art Space, Seoul
2013 ’51-202’, Woo-suk-hall, Seoul
2011 Seoul National University graduate exhibition, Seoul National University, Seoul
Awards
2018 Steketee Scholarship, The School of Art Institute of Chicago
2018 J.Field/R.Field Family Travel Scholarship, School of Art Institute of Chicago
2011 Ha Dong-cheol Creative Award, Seoul National University
Residencies
2021 Seoul Art Space GeumCheon
2020 Monson Arts, Monson, ME
2019 Studios at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA
2019 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
Living Island
2020, Single Channel video, 12 min. 50 sec, 12'50"
Living Island
2020, Inkjet prints on papers, artist book, variable installation
Mothers' Mother's
2019, paper made out of cloths, interactive installation with artist's book
