g y u n h u r

New Blog with a New Look!

2011-02-24T09:56:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

I now have moved my blog over to http://www.gyunhurblog.com/!
A New Blog with A New Look!
Feel free to stop by and say hi.

This blog will be up for now as archives.

Thanks,
G.

Flower Cutting DONE!

2011-02-19T18:46:00.000-08:00

First batch of colors in kimchi jars

Our clean basement! We dusted it off!!!

So we are officially DONE with flower cutting!

It has been a long journey... spending countless hours in the basement since beginning of December, we spent about three months preparing flower materials for the Lenox project - Spring Hiatus.
It is going to be exciting to see all of prepared shredded flowers laid on the floor in the middle of Lenox Mall. My list of possible volunteers is growing... and it is happening in a week!

Proper Medium did a beautiful job capturing the process of flower cutting. You will get a good sense of what took place in the basement, cutting flowers. Click here --> http://www.fluxprojects.org/films/007.html

I will be posting daily updates when the project starts, so stay in tune!

- G.

Lenox Site Visit with Flux

2011-02-17T13:25:00.000-08:00

Lenox Mall site for the installation (taken from above)

So Anne (Flux Projects executive director), Lloyd (Get This! Gallery), my parents, and I did our last Lenox site visit a few days ago.

This idea of doing the installation at Lenox started about a few months ago with Flux, and it is finally happening! It has been an amazing experience for me to work with Flux to actualize this project on an ambitious scale - 16 ft by 30 ft. For more information on the project Spring Hiatus and Flux, go to http://www.fluxprojects.org/hur/index.html.

We are almost done with flower cutting (it's been almost three months since we started cutting), and incredibly thrilled to start the installation at Lenox Square Mall. The location is quite amazing. Right between the Macy's entrance and Sephora, it also got the second floor where you can have an aerial view of the installation. Oh fantastic!

For first time, the installation process will be viewed in public. As people are engaging in the process of installation, I hope that there will be curious dialogues and somewhat empathetic silence. We are planning to start the installation on March 1st and finish on March 12.

We are still looking for some volunteers for installation process as well as docents, so please let me know if you are interested. I will post more details soon!

- G.

Paradoxical Intention (Scott Belville's works at MOCA GA)

2011-02-15T21:51:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia for Scott Belville's artist talk. A great teacher with knowledge, openness, and kindness, he was my former professor at University of Georgia (Lamar Dodd). I was excited to catch up with my professor, but also delighted to see his body of works that was piling up in his small studio in Athens, Georgia.

He teaches most of his time in Cortona, Italy for Lamar Dodd's Italy Study Abroad Program. His time spent in Italy indeed reflects on his sensibility in techniques and how he sets up the narratives. Scott talked about how he is interested in developing characters and setting them in places as if he is writing a story. Putting 'specific-ness' aside in his work, Scott leaves a room for viewers to navigate in and out of his narratives.

P a r a d o x i c a l I n t e n t i o n

While trying to convey beauty, one finds himself exuding a sense of sorrow in his work. Then again, one may find himself in the midst of sorrowful images during his happiest time. (paraphrased)

- Scott Belville

Please go to see this show Trust at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia.
You will be able to encounter something that you can only exude as an artist with many years of wrestle and love (oh this sounds too sentimental, but really).

- G.

!!!

2011-02-10T16:41:00.000-08:00

Tulip Field

Jim Lambie


Jim Lambie

Gene Davis

Gene Davis street painting

Sol LeWitt

Ah! They are inspirational -

Thanks, Hope H. and Mark L.

-G.

Invitation to Another Cutting Evening

2011-02-07T14:11:00.000-08:00

Another (and the last) evening of cutting flowers tomorrow at 6PM! Dinner will be provided, and it would be lovely to have you. It will be a unique time for you to experience my process of cutting flowers and also a great time with a great group of people. E-mail me at gyunhur@gmail.com if you're interested. I'll e-mail you with details for the evening.

Thanks!

Last night, my family watched the Super Bowl. None of us know much about football, but we watched it while eating Korean-style sweet and sour fried chicken (양념통닭). Then my parents went down to basement to cut more flowers and I fell asleep as Packers claimed their championship. -_-;; Koreans' real love for sports is in soccer. Check out this video!
http://www.spike.com/video/2002-korean-soccer/2739356

Korean-style sweet and sour fried chicken (양념통닭)

School after School

2011-02-03T20:34:00.000-08:00

I was sitting in the meeting room at the Fulton County Library in Johns Creek for the Fulton County Arts and Culture Public Art Seminar. As looking at powerpoint presentations by its staff, I suddenly felt as if I was in school again . . . it's painful for me to trace back my MFA schooling, yet I remembered a specific reading from one of my first theory classes regarding 'art institution' and what 'schooling' means . By constantly drawing yourself near people's inspiring presence, critical discussions, and new endeavours, you can indeed find yourself in a mode of self-schooling.

Before I go further, I would like to encourage you to apply for Fulton County Arts Registry. Go to http://www.fultonarts.org/forms-and-applications for application (they're in a process of updating the website). If you become a part of its registry, you automatically become a part of pool to be nominated for the Fulton County's public art opportunities. In upcoming years, they are expecting 15 projects with a budget of between $20,000 and $140,000 each. They also have a mentorship program to assist selected artists for public projects. Deadline March 11, 2011 and October 14, 2011.

untitled (body object series) #5-bushhead, 1984/1993, Ann Hamilton

I got home and saw my newly purchased book, Art School: (Propositions for the 21st Century). I am so very excited about reading this book, to re-visit what art schooling meant to me, and how other artists are taking steps to move forward from their art schooling experiences. One of my art heroes, Ann Hamilton, answers to a question in this book:

What matters most in art making for you? Did art school have anything to do with you coming to understand this?
What matters most to me is paying attention. Art is the result of multiple acts of attention, and I hope that art making cultivates forms of listening. It seems to me that making allows one to create a situation to find what one needs to do in the world. It's a way to short-circuit your self-consciousness. I wait by keeping busy, by not worrying too much about whether a project is "good" or "successful." In school I was perhaps too concerned about this, but I slowly began to realize how making something is very different from thinking about it. If you sit around and wait for an interesting idea, you will wait for a very long time. I now believe that making is a form of thinking; experiences are a set of questions that propel me forward. They may be small questions, but they offer nourishment for the long term.

After flipping through a few pages of this book, I ran down to the basement and pulled out some of my early graduate school reading materials. I traced some of my favorite readings with underlines, highlights, and notes on... and was stunned to find how impactful those readings were in my developing body of work. I noted on words like 'stratum : a layer of material, naturally or artificially formed, often one of a number of parallel layers one upon another' and 'iteration : act of repeating.' These words were prophetic of my works to come. I also obsessively underlined and wrote notes on the article Wolfgang Laib: Transcendent Offerings. Here is a quote that is so clear in Wolfgang Laib's influence on my work:

The perishable and ephemeral materials Laib emplys indicate his comfort with impermanence; he cultivates the moment. The labor that goes into Laib's art is a form of meditation, its own reward; he is content to spend countless hours collecting pollen (it can take months to fill a few jars) and then shaping it into tiny cone-shaped hills for a piece . . . that a single sneeze could blow away. Requiring a form of labor that would be impossibly tedious to most of us, Laib's work with pollen, in particular, embodies an intrinsic awareness that it will exist only as long as its creator is available to make it happen.

Ah, love going back to these thoughts and notes!

Today, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center announced Louis Corrigan as a winner for Nexus Award 2011. Being able to work with someone like Louis Corrigan (a founder of Flux Projects and Possible Futures), I consider, is another schooling for me after school. Witnessing someone with a vision to generously and courageously support the art community has been eye-opening and uplifting. I am now challenged to think about patronage, artistic vision, and communal relationships as an artist. To read more about the award and Louis Corrigan, go to http://www.burnaway.org/2011/02/corrigan-wins-nexus-award/.

Cheers,
G.

When people gather for a revolution -

2011-02-02T15:42:00.000-08:00

photo courtesy of New York Times

I am from a generation that hasn't experienced such a tension and urgency to take actions for a cause. R e v o l u t i o n ? What does that even really mean?

I am listening to the radio and reading articles about Egypt turning upside and down for a revolution. There is a bit of frustration in me, not being able to relate, understand, and glimpse what it means to be in their state . . . I tried to imagine a degree of pain, yet a terribly thrilling sensation of being in the midst of such an event.

Is it too self-observed or idealistic for me to post these pictures simply because I thought these people were creating incredible landscapes?

- G.

Cutting Evening Photos

2011-02-01T13:32:00.000-08:00

So Flux Projects offered to coordinate a flower cutting evening!
And we did it.

With 6 paper cutters, 2 scissors, and a bag of green flowers, we went out to cut. It was quite fun for me to share this experience of shredding and to chat and eat together. Thank you for those who came out to help: Louis C., Anne D., Stephanie D., Jane G., Leslie J., , Seana R., Paris, and Laurie W.. . . You were wonderful.

We are going to hold another cutting evening next Tuesday at 6PM. If you are interested in helping, e-mail me at gyunhur@gmail.com for more information.

Thank you!

- G.

Cutting Evening -

2011-01-30T18:48:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

I am having a cutting evening with Flux Projects team tomorrow evening at 6PM. If you are interested, please e-mail me at gyunhur@gmail.com. I will give you more information how you can join us!

Thank you very much,
Gyun

Saturyday Morning

2011-01-29T08:37:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning brunch -

It has been awhile for me to have no events arranged for Saturday. Usually, on Saturdays, I would have to do errands, go to artist talks, participate in some projects, and meetings to catch up. This morning, I woke up not having to worry too much about the schedule for the day, except . . . flower cutting and video recording oh, and evening events at Get This! Gallery and Saltworks Gallery. -_+

We usually eat a bowl of sticky rice with beans and a soup, along with some side dishes - various Kimchi stuff (fermented cabbages and radish). I was reading some The New York Times articles on my laptop while my parents were catching their news on Korean news channel on TV. Egyptians' protest was a big news in both media, so we talked a little bit about that. My dad mentioned how he was, too, once a part of protest against a militant government in Korea in 1970s and 1980s. Right after Korean War, South Korea also had to go through much tension and sacrificial blood to accomplish democratic government that exists today. To view images of Egyptians' protest, go to http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/01/28/world/middleeast/egypt-protests.html?ref=middleeast.

The Kwangju uprising of 1980, South Korea

Happy Saturday, everyone!
I will be cutting more flowers today, and oh, Happy 6th Anniversary, Get This! Gallery!!! Thanks for everything -

- G.

My First Lobby Day at GA Capitol Hill

2011-01-25T17:54:00.000-08:00

Mrs. Sandra Deal speaking, First Lady, State of Georgia

It was gloomy and rainy today. I parked awkwardly right front of Capitol Hill and headed to Central Presbyterian Church where people were gathered to be trained for the Arts Advocacy day at the Capitol.

Teresa Osborn from the Hudgens Center for the Arts was right at the registration table. Of course, we greeted each other with excitement. I was quite impressed by the number of people and familiar faces I saw. The room was full with arts advocates and arts leaders!!!

First Lady of the State of Georgia, Mrs. Sandra Deal spoke on behalf of our Governor Nathan Deal. Cool, right?

I was quite confused at the beginning, but eventually got to understand the goal for today's advocacy.

We were there to ask the legislature :

to support the move of the Georgia Council for the Arts to the Georgia Department of Economic Development in a way that maintains its eligibility to receive National Endowments for the Arts Funding.

to fund the Georgia Council for the Arts at $1 Million in Fiscal Year 2012. It's an investment of one dime per person in Georgia which makes us 49th in the nation in per capita arts spending. The Georgia Council for the Arts funding earns a return on investment of 7:1, resulting in increased local and state tax revenues. $1 Million of funding at the state level will earn an additional $900,000 matching grant from the National Endowments for the Arts.

Everyone is suffering from this economy, therefore, budget is getting cut everywhere. Non-profit arts organizations got one of hardest hits. Last year in April, 2010, there was a rally to protest arts funding cuts and the elimination of the Georgia Council for the Arts. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution blog, Gov. Sonny Perdue's fiscal 2011 budget cut arts funding to $890,735, down from $2.52 million last year. To read more details about last year's rally, go to http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/hundreds-rally-to-protest-475035.html.

Our point to the legislature was "the $385 Million arts industry in Georgia creates opportunities for tourism, local commerce, and celebration of regional culture in Georgia." Arts industry yields economic profits, not losses. Considering Georgia being 49th state in the nation in its arts spending per capita, today's Lobby Day for the Arts Advocacy seemed urgent.

I went to the house representatives and the state senates with two other people from the Alternate Roots (non-profits arts organization in Atlanta). It took us a long time to find the right representatives and find their rooms... running around the building was quite exhausting as well. Yet this one state senate really heard us. She was encouraged by what Alternate Roots accomplished this past year, and she recognized the need of the support for the arts.

Driving back to Marietta, I was inspired by all the arts leaders who came out for this Lobby Day. Without this mechanism for the arts industry, the city of Atlanta and rest of Georgia would be lacking so much of its identity as a cultural center. With such support in the arts, I was able to benefit from generous arts education, funding, and opportunities.

I did a very small part as an artist. Just to be present at the Arts Advocacy Lobby Day at the Capitol.

Next time I participate, I will post more information so that you can be a part of it, too.

- G.

GACAA Arts Advocacy Afternoon at the Georgia State Capitol

2011-01-25T07:46:00.000-08:00

ad.vo.ca.cy: The act of pleading or arguing in favor of something, such as a cause or policy (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language).

lob.by.ing: Activities aimed at influencing... members of a legislative body on legislation (Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law).

It's rainy and gloomy today. This is my very first time participating in advocacy and lobbying at the capitol. I have no idea how it is going to be, but I will share more stories about the experience tonight.

- G.

Late Night Thoughts - placeness, blogging and twittering, Lenox project, writing, this weekend . . .

2011-01-21T00:06:00.000-08:00


Studio calendar to keep track with schedule and number of cups of shredded flowers

So I'm up late tonight - with so many thoughts on my mind. To process my mind, I turned myself to blogging - oh dear. Where did that good, old writing on a journal go?

I, in fact, have been thinking a lot more about my blogging. As it is my resolution to polish up my blog this year, I also want to get more serious about writing as well. English is my second language, so I know my writing is lacking in its correct grammar. I also would like to see if I could improve my creative/critical writing, considering myself becoming a consistent art blogger and a commentator. Hey, I wanted to be a writer as a young girl, and if not a serious author, I still could be an interesting blogger at least!

This thing called 'social media' is changing the way artists represent themselves. We definitely have more control over our representation and persona. And this blogging activity allows an artist to process happenings around her, promote art events in community, share about art making with others, and critically develop an artistic voice that is valuable to the community as well as to other artists.

According the website Zitzsolution, "Facebook has over 250 million users globally. On an average, 70-100 tweets happen by the second. An average user on Facebook has 120 friends." Now, that's mind boggling for real.

I haven't quite figured out twittering thing yet. Well, I do not have a smart phone, so that explains much of it. Yet, I just found out people check out my blog via tweeter more than I expected! So I just changed the background of my twitter, so that it looks nice. Check it out and follow me! http://twitter.com/#!/gyunhur

Placeness - is also on my mind. I want to revisit Miwon Kwon's One Place After Another. I will do a post about her writings and thoughts on placeness and site-specificity, which will become essential in developing my conceptual approach to the Lenox project with FLUX in March. Here is great a quote regarding issues of an individual's contextualized identity in community/place. http://www4.ncsu.edu/~sttwn/vzc.htm

How is it possible to throw light on individual and community fragmentation: of the loss of the traditional definitions of identity, community/"place" and "site"? How do we frame our identity, whether as the exoticized subjects of the community where site-specific art is created, or as the exoticized persona of the interventionist artist, and who is left out?

Korean journalist Ms. Kim called me this morning to ask me about my artist talk at the Hudgens this Saturday. She asked me what I would be presenting during the talk and if it would be all right for Korean speaking audience to come. I said, "of course!" To her question, "what would you like for people to get out of your talk?" I mentioned how I would like Korean immigrants like my parents and myself to have an opened mind and curiosity about contemporary art. They should not feel intimated or distant just because it is unfamiliar. Ultimately, where my art stems from isn't too different from their life stories. I hope they can somehow relate to my story and artwork.

* * *
Lenox project is coming up in a few weeks. I had a meeting with FLUX and Lloyd (Get This! Gallery director) and I am getting excited about this ambitious project. There will be a lot of logistics to figure out, but it's an incredible challenge and opportunity for me. I will be posting about 'volunteering' and 'installation process,' so stay tune.

FLUX projects are funding a few more artist projects this year. To check out more about their projects, go to http://www.fluxprojects.org/projects.html.

To Do List for me this weekend:

Friday, Jan. 21, 2011

The Museum of the Contemporary Art of Georgia

Movers & Shakers: MOCA GA Salutes the Rising Stars of the Georgia Arts Scene

Exhibition Dates: January 22 - March 19, 2011

Opening reception: 6:30-7:30pm

Saturday, Jan. 22, 2011

The Hudgens Center for the Arts

Artist Talk at 11AM
For direction, go to http://thehudgens.org/?page_id

Get This! Gallery

Life Iconic

Print show curated by: Jiha Moon
January 22 - March 05, 2011
Opening reception: 7-10pm

Rich Theater, Woodruff Art Center

Iranian Film Today

Women Without Men

8 pm / To buy tickets, go to

http://www.high.org/main.taf?p=4,3,2&eventId=742&eventTypeId=8

Maybe I will see you around this weekend! Just don't judge me if you see dark circles under my eyes and say 'hi.' -_-;

- G.

"Movers & Shakers" Installation

2011-01-20T06:57:00.000-08:00

"mover and shaker"

: a person who wields power and influence
(www.thefreedictionary.com/mover+and+shaker)

I have been installing at The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia this week for the group show Movers & Shakers: MOCA GA Salutes the Rising Starts of the Georgia Arts Scene (what a grand title! -_- ). It has been challenging since I have been installing by myself for a few days. It is quite solitary, yet not as fun, and I actually miss my parents' presence on the site. Wall painting has been tedious and time-consuming, but I am excited about the idea of 'altering' the space with colors. Wall painting, floor installation, and a light box... they all come together as one piece, and I hope that this is a beginning of a new series that explores a notion of 'unfolding of the blanket' and 'underneath warmth of the blanket.'

Scott Belville's studio

My former professor Scott Belville's having his solo exhibition Trust the same night at MOCA GA. What a great opportunity for me to see him and his works again! He is a soft-spoken, gentle person, and his renderings and narratives of his figures are noteworthy. He spends a lot of time in Cortona, Italy to teach for University of Georgia Study Broad Program. Influences of Italian Renaissance paintings are evident in his works.

Ting Ying stopped by to install her sculpture (rice house, it looks beautiful!) and helped me paint. We went out for a dinner and chatted. Good friends are always a treat! We talked about graduate school, our fiends, studio, Black Swan, other friends...

I hope to see you all there!

The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia
Movers & Shakers: MOCA GA Salutes the Rising Starts of the Georgia Arts Scene

exhibition dates: January 22 - March 19, 2011

opening reception: Friday, January 21st, 6:30 - 8:30pm

75 Bennett Street, Suite A2, Atlanta, GA 30309

- G.

Gillsville, GA

2011-01-18T22:23:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday morning, I drove up to Gillsville, GA to pick up more silk flowers. There is an amazing whole sales place for silk flowers, and as you can see, I had a blast. I just can't get enough out of silk flowers!!!

It's about an hour and half drive - snow wasn't completely melted. I stopped by one of the quiet roads and stared at the field awhile. I was reminded of winter landscapes in Korea - vaguely from my memories.

There has been a lot on my mind. Last week, my parents and I were stuck home literally cutting flowers 9-10 hours a day. So it was nice to get away from that routine and drive somewhere quiet for awhile to think.

This week, I am installing a piece at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia. I will update with photos soon.

- G.

( s n o w w h i t e) / Childhood Curiosity and Unavoidable Mistakes

2011-01-13T11:36:00.000-08:00

Queen:
 AND BECAUSE YOU'VE BEEN
 SO GOOD TO POOR OLD GRANNY,
 
 I'LL SHARE A SECRET WITH YOU.
  THIS IS NO ORDINARY APPLE.
  IT'S A MAGIC WISHING APPLE.
 
Snow White:
 A WISHING APPLE ?

Queen:
 YES ! ONE BITE AND ALL
 YOUR DREAMS WILL COME TRUE.
 
Snow White:
 REALLY ?

Queen:
 YES, GIRLIE !
  NOW, MAKE A WISH AND TAKE A BITE.

 THERE MUST BE SOMETHING
 YOUR LITTLE HEART DESIRES.

        PERHAPS THERE'S SOMEONE YOU LOVE.
 
Snow White:
 WELL, THERE IS SOMEONE.
 
Queen:
 I THOUGHT SO. I THOUGHT SO.
  OLD GRANNY KNOWS
 A YOUNG GIRL'S HEART.
 
 NOW, TAKE THE APPLE,
 DEARIE, AND MAKE A WISH.
 
Snow White:
 I WISH--
  I WISH--
 
Queen:
 THAT'S IT. GO ON.  GO ON.
 
Snow White:
 ...AND THAT HE WILL CARRY 
 ME AWAY TO HIS CASTLE...
 
 WHERE WE WILL LIVE
 HAPPILY EVER AFTER.

Queen:  
 FINE !  FINE !
 NOW, TAKE A BITE.
 
 DON'T LET THE WISH GROW COLD !
 
Snow White:
 OH ! I FEEL STRANGE.
 
Queen:
 HER BREATH WILL STILL.

Snow White:
 OH.
 
Queen:
 HER BLOOD CONGEAL.

Snow White:
 OH.
 
 [ Gasping ]
 
 [ Cackling ]

 [ Thunderclap ]
 
Queen:
 NOW I'LL BE FAIREST
 IN THE LAND !
 
 [ Cackling ]

 - script from Snow White

Watching a child makes me wonder if I was that curious, vulnerable, and 'cute' when I was a child. Looking at my photos, I think I was cute. Tracing back to my childhood memories, yes, I was as curious and vulnerable. I have forgotten much of how I was as a young girl and it is difficult to regain that lends of child again. Yet memories of the past are still so clear and vivid.

Piano Concert, oil on paper, 2006

Detail of Childhood Sonata, oil on paper, 2006

Here is an excerpt from my thesis on my childhood recollection and its relationship to my work process:

Grandmother's Garden, oil on canvas, 2006

My recollection of my grandmother’s garden is a re-created fantasy far from the reality which my grandmother or mother remembers. Yet this symbolic image of the garden is where I have relived my childhood again and again for the sake of recovering the remorse I felt at that time . . .When pears and grapes in the garden seasonally ripened, I climbed along the grape vines to grab a bite – so sweet and moist. During the summer, the garden swelled with nameless flowers that uplifted my curiosity to play with them. I would brush off the black seeds from cockscombs to make a meal on a morning glory leaf; I would pretend to be a grown woman, wearing the daisy chain rings and a necklace. My grandmother’s garden was where my imagination, fantasy and idealism about the world existed. Witnessing the garden disappear in front of my eyes as a four-year-old girl, without any explanation, was more tragic than any adults might have presumed, similar experiences continued in my later childhood events.[1]

The major impetus of my art making is to reconcile what has been lost or distorted in childhood. My remembrance of childhood and the comfort of the garden may be a distorted fantasy. It, in fact, may be from a desire to rewrite a perfect story that I had hoped for. I draw a direct correlation from my own art making to the character in the film Atonement, Briony Tallis, and her memoir. Atonement beautifully depicts how Briony Tallis, as a thirteen-year-old girl, perceives the world around her, especially regarding her secrete crush and her sexuality. The specific notion of the ‘lens of a child’ and the unchangeable consequences from Briony’s instinctive actions was eye opening for my own interpretation of childhood and the effects of dramatic events.[2] At the end of the film, Briony is an aged author who writes a memoir that retells the traumatic story of her older sister Cecilia and her lover into the one which they all hoped for. This journey of untangling the distorted memories and relationships takes a toll on Briony until her old age, yet it reveals how one can go through childhood with guilt, remorse, or some sort of re-created fantasy. As my work has evolved, this constant reference to my childhood led to research about its relationship with behavioral development and patterns that reflect my aesthetic process in the obsessive collecting and cutting of flowers.
[1] I found out later through my mother that the grandmother’s house and farmland were sold due to a financial difficulty.
[2] Atonement is a 2007 film adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel of the same name, directed by Joe Wright, and based on a screenplay by Christopher Hampton.

Below is a dialogue I've been having with Angela (Education Department Director at the Hudgens Center for the Arts), regarding my installation She Prays Happiness. There have been a few incidents, causing some damages to the installation.

Gyun:

Hi there! Hope you are doing well in this new year.
A few things...
One, I wanted to let you know that the piece has suffered from another child 'jumping the rope' and stepping in it. I came in this morning to discover it. It must have happened yesterday afternoon. I fixed it up a bit so that at least there is no bare floor showing, but I did not have very much time to devote to it today. I was wondering if you could possibly come in and do some repair work?

Gyun:
It is mostly children and we specifically tell the parents to keep a close eye on them and maybe even hold their hand b/c of what has happened before. Last time it happened, the mom came to us and very apologetically told us what had happened. The little girl who did it was crying. This time, we just found it when closing down for the day. : (

Dear Angela,

Isn't it so interesting that so much of my work comes from childhood memories, and it's mainly children who end up disturbing the piece? I feel bad it it's quite traumatic for children to experience this... for them to feel so bad about what they did. I understand it was out of curiosity and they shouldn't be blamed for what they did.

It is so interesting how it's mainly the children who end up damaging this fragile work. While I talk about the childhood memories and vulnerability and fragility of that fantasy, children come and interrupt that notion of mine. There is no blame to anyone. I once also had that much of curiosity and made unavoidable mistakes.

- G.


Study No. 7 (it's your birthday!), acrylics on a magazine paper, 2010

Snow in Atlanta, Snow Crab, More Cutting -

2011-01-12T09:06:00.000-08:00

Atlanta got covered with snow and freezing rain past 2-3 days. My first attempt to go out to the world miserably failed after sliding on our driveway. My parents and I did not bother to clean out our driveway when it snowed - have we ever had to do such a thing? No. We all assumed it would melt quickly. I now have to wait until ice melts... -_-;;

Atlanta is definitely not equipped for such weather. Schools have been closed for 3 days so far, and most of employees at where I work also could not make it to office today, that includes myself. Thousands flights got canceled and I'm not sure about young children, but most of us are eager to get back to our normal routines of things. Well, it definitely was a treat to have two full studio days though, as many other Atlanta artists commented on facebook. ^_^

Before this snow storm, we went to Marietta Fish Market last weekend and had delicious snow crab. My parents were always curious about that American restaurant, and never ventured it for themselves. My mom had Mango Margarita for first time and loved it. It is a great pleasure for me to finally treat them with my own money for dinner. They are continually being incredibly supportive in my preparation for the project in March.

Literally stuck at home, my parents and I had the most productive two days of cutting flowers. For the project in March at Lenox (funded by FLUX projects), we are estimating to cut about 700 cups - about 80 - 90 cups for each color. We are now almost done with our fourth color, purple, which took us about 6 weeks . That means we're almost half way done. 6 more weeks until the installation. We are excited yet physically quite challenged.

In this year of 2011 . . .

2011-01-05T14:45:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Here is a list of things that I am looking forward to this year of 2011.

1. Shirin Neshat's Women Without Men

Shirin Neshat, Rapture, 1999, video still

Oh yes! I saw Shirin Neshat's fim Rapture for first time during my graduate school (Thanks, S.K.) and was completely captivated by its poetic insertion of 'bodies' in the midst of landscape. Narratives are somewhat disorienting, isolated, and chaotic. No words, yet I felt so drawn to the film's non-verbal languages and psychological tensions. I hope I get to see that film again.

Here is an excerpt from an interview with Shirin Neshat from Bomb site: http://bombsite.com/issues/73/articles/2332.

"In all my work, I am dealing with issues that address historical, cultural, sociopolitical ideas; but in the end, I want my work to transcend that and function on the most primal and emotional level. I think the music intensifies the emotional quality. Music becomes the soul, the personal, the intuitive and neutralizes the sociopolitical aspects of the work. This combination of image and music is meant to create an experience that moves the audience. It is an expectation that I have as an artist and I want that intensity from any work of art; I want to be deeply affected, almost like asking to have a religious experience. Beauty is important in relation to my work. It is a concept that is most universal, it goes beyond our cultural differences."

Shirin Neshat's most recent film Women Without Men will be viewed at Rich Theater (Woodruff Center, Atlanta) on January 22nd as a part of its Iranian Film Series. I am thrilled to watch this film. For more information, go to http://www.high.org/main.taf?p=4,3,2&eventId=742&eventTypeId=8.

Iranian Film Today

Women Without Men

January 22, 2011, 8 p.m.

Rich Theater

http://www.high.org/main.taf?p=4,3,2&eventId=742&eventTypeId=8

2. Marina Abramovic in Atlanta and deFINE 2011 at SCAD

Artist is Present, Marina Abramovic

Another huge woman artist is coming to Atlanta - Marina Abramovic. After her legendary retrospective at MoMA Artist is Present, she indeed has established herself as 'a grandmother of performance art.' Savannah College of Art and Design is honoring Abramovic's works with featuring lecture and exhibition series. During Feb. 22 - 26, SCAD will be hosting lectures by prominent figures in the art world, special exhibitions, commissions, panel discussions, student showcases, performances and many other events. And of course, Marina Abramovic will be speaking as well. My calendar is marked! For more information, go to http://www.scad.edu/news/2010/define-art-2011.cfm.

Yoko Ono

I am also looking forward to an opportunity to see "Spirituality of Place", a group exhibition featuring works by Yoko Ono, Andy Goldsworthy, Mona Hatoum, Do Ho Suh, Kimsooja, and others in Savannah. My art heroes all together!!!

3. Lenox Project

I have been cutting, cutting... flowers in the basement until late at night. That will continue until February in order for us to launch my Lenox Project with Flux Projects in March. This will be my largest floor installation so far. This is all so very exciting. I will be posting details of progress on this blog! Flux Projects is also looking for project proposals. Deadline is February 28, 2011. To apply, go to http://www.fluxprojects.org/.

4. Stay Here in Atlanta Project

So Idea Capital gave me a grant of $500 for my project Stay Here in Atlanta. For one year, I will write letters, visit studios, and buy lunches for young artists in Atlanta like myself. And I will write about young artists I meet on my blog. Not only will I get to introduce these young artists to the public via blogging, I also get to then create a sense of community of young artists here in Atlanta. Being an artist itself is hard enough. I think having free lunches with good conversations would be something artists would enjoy - I know I will! So thank you, Idea Capital!!

Michael David Murphy quotes on his blog Whileseated, (another artist bloggger!!!)

"It's been awhile since I've seen a project (or proposed project) that has the potential of Gyun's to impact the community in such a surprising, significant, affordable and understated way. Four years since I arrived in Atlanta, I know there's a big struggle to develop and retain artists here, and it's refreshing to see a local artist (and granting intiative) putting their time & money toward this in such a simple and potentially effective way."

I have been compiling a list of artists I would like to have lunches with. If you have any recommendations, please let me know!

To apply for Idea Capital grant, go to http://www.ideacapitalatlanta.org/apply_temp.php.

5. Solo Shows at mosnart and Hudgens

Incredibly thrilled to have two solo shows this year.
One in Chicago (!!!) at mosnart and one at The Hudgens Center for the Arts. More details to come later.

6. Art.sy - "the Pandora of the fine art world"

So Forbes Magazine named this new website as one of "Names You Need to Know in 2011." This new website project "will link art galleries all over the world with enthusiasts and potential buyers." In this increasingly connected world based on social media, we will have to see how this website "the Pandora of the fine art world" will function in the midst of art world as well as general public. Forbes blog quotes:

"Third, it’s the first attempt to really bring the high-end art market online to really disrupt the art world, bringing it not only online but actively opening up to a wider audience through social networking and innovative te. The Internet has disrupted the music and fashion industries, how has the art world managed to elude it for so long? (Sure, you can find some really cool photography and beautiful illustrations on Etsy, but you won’t find any Koons or de Kooning.) Art.sy will change all that. It has the potential to really shake up and transform the art industry–and to open it up to a greater number of people, to democratize it in a way (the way Project Runway and Sex and the City and blogs and H&M designer collaboration democratized fashion). That is really exciting."

7. Polishing up gyunhur.blogspot.com

So here is one of my new year resolutions - to polish up my blog. As I have mentioned, I am not an eloquent writer, yet I have been enjoying 'art blogging' this past year. Thank you so much, readers. I have gained more readers now, and feel more encouraged to continue to commit myself to blogging. As Jason Parker from artRelish advised, I would like to be Committed, Consistent, and Credible with this blog. I plan to continue to share my stories in art making, my artist friends, art happenings - in ways that de-mystify artists (we're just normal people with special drives and passions) and introduce contemporary art in a non-hierarchical way.

I would like to encourage more artists to blog and develop critical and influential voices to a wider artistic audience. Initiating artist-driven conversations and participating in critical dialogues will energize art communities and possibly have general audience to be more familiar with art making and artists. 

Thank you, everyone, and let's have a great year 2011!!!

- G.

Best of 2010

2011-01-02T16:53:00.000-08:00

So I'm running a bit behind on this posting, but there is no shame!
Here is a list of my best experiences of 2010 (although my selections are quite limited and biased!) and next post will be about a few things I am looking forward to in 2011.

Best of 2010

1. Get This! Gallery and the Hudgens

My first solo show Repose with Get This! Gallery opened up an array of opportunities for me as a young artist. Lloyd has become a great partner as well as a mentor in my career, and of course, the Hudgens brought so much resources and support for my work. Working in both spaces was incredible. Looking forward to working with them in upcoming months and years!

Repose installation in progress, Get This! Gallery

She Prays Happiness installation in progress, The Hudgens Center for the Arts

2. Ox-Bow Artist-in-Residence Program

It rocked! I met an amazing group of artists who were inspiring, genuine, and fun. Michigan Lake was beautiful and swimming and biking around in a beautiful, small Michigan town made me healthier. I will not forget our crazy dance parties, critiques, FOOD and DESSERTS (oh goodness...), fire pit nights, and some of exciting works I did up there. You can apply to its artist residency for summer and fall. Check out http://www.ox-bow.org/experience/residencies/artist-residencies. Deadline May 14, 2011 for fall residency.

3. Itzhack Perlman's Mozart and Dvořák

Itzhack Perlman

Perlman conducted and played a trio of jewels by Mozart and Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in November 2010. It was the best classical music concert I've been to (I haven't been to many yet) and I now have gained a new appreciation towards classical music concert. Perlman's way of conducting, his violin playing, and DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9 oboe playing... I'll never forget. The audience clapped for about 20 minutes, still in awe of its performance, not wanting to leave. Inspirations come from so many different things... as I was watching the orchestra executing such an intricate music in layers, I was moved in indescribable ways and was led to think about scales and process of my work as well.
To check out upcoming Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concerts in 2011, go to http://www.atlantasymphony.org/Calendar.aspx.

4. The Hysterial Alphabet performance at Emory

Out of art happenings I attended this past year, this performance piece was one that I could chew on the most and felt a strange stir in me afterward. Out of curiosity and spontaneity, I went and I am so glad I went to go see it (I think there is a necessary urgency and a need to have a gut to follow that instinct.). Terri Kapsali's interpretation of women in hysteria was strangely beautiful and captivating.

To read more about its performance, go to http://www.burnaway.org/2010/10/theater-oobleck-offers-a-visual-history-of-female-hysteria-at-emory/.

5. Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present at MoMA

No, I did not get to see her performance and re-performance pieces. Yet this ambitious scale of Marina Abramovic's performance retrospective at MoMA stirred so many discussions about performance art in general. Everyone was talking about it. It 'legitimized' existence of performing bodies within white walls of art institution by having MoMA hosting such a retrospective of Abramovic's works. And I believe people are able to understand and reference performance art in a better context. Even at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, we talked about her performance over dinner; "you are from NYC? Did you get to see Marina's performance then?" "Oh, yes... it was so amazing." Such a stir trickled down to Atlanta as well. Atlanta Contemporary Art Center held a video screening of Marina Abramovic's 7 Easy Pieces and its Artistic Director Stuart Horodner facilitated a wonderful discussion about aura of performance, its identity within art institution, what inspires to do such a piece that tests one's physical limits... Shana Robin's Supernatural Conductor at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center made everyone in Atlanta to be excited about performance art. Along with that wave and excitement, I also did a experimental, 7 hours long performance Thousand Kisses, In My Living Room.

Marina Abramovic, Artist is Present

Shana Robbin, Supernatural Conductor

Gyun Hur, Thousand Kisses, In My Living Room

6. Getting a GPS

I got a GPS from a friend as a gift this year and this is going to change my life! As you know, Atlanta is a driving city, and I would literally print pages to find different galleries, coffee shops, flower shops, and such around the city... maneuvering around the city with pages of paper from google. Oh, I now can listen to "Daniel" and just follow his lead!

Daniel

7. Family and friends

What would I have done without my family and friends this past year? In my preparation of a few installations, my family and friends became so committed with me. I owe them so much. In the midst of difficult times with my health issue earlier this year, family and friends were there to encourage and support me as well. So good to have parents to cut flowers with, a dog I can cuddle with, and friends to hang out with... thank you thank you, everyone.

So here comes 2011!!!

- G.

Flower Cutting Hasn't Stopped . . .

2010-12-30T16:06:00.000-08:00

Last year on December 31st, I posted preparation images of cutting flowers for my show Repose at Get This! Gallery.
http://gyunhur.blogspot.com/2009/12/happy-new-year-everyone-thank-you.html

Well well,

Flower cutting has not stopped.

After I came home from Virginia, first thing my mother showed me was the basement full of silk flower boxes and a new set of paper cutters. So we started cutting again - with more efficient adjustments, such as having higher chairs, heavier paper cutters, covering noses and mouths from dust... same music is playing with similar gossips and conversations, and I cannot seem to believe how quickly time has passed this year.

It has been an incredible year. Starting with my first solo show with Get This! Gallery, many opportunities and rewards came that encouraged me to continue committing in this thing called 'being an artist.' I am incredibly grateful for generosity that has been given to me and excited for this coming year 2011.

I am going to focus on polishing up my blog (please continue to read my posts, hopefully they will get more interesting and sophisticated with less grammar errors.) and actualizing a few projects next year. I will continue to cut flowers, work at an office part-time, do more yoga, and eat lunches with artists in Atlanta.

Stay tune. More posts before 2010 ends!

- G.

12 - my friend's poem, love, and more snow

2010-12-17T16:41:00.000-08:00

My mom called after her day at a sauna. 

"I am calling you to let you know that sauna and massage just made me so happy!"

"Oh really? You loved it that much?" I asked, brushing off some snow from my hat and gloves in my room. She rarely calls me to let me know that she is happy, I thought.

"Oh yes. I never let myself have a such a treat, and I am glad I did it today."

"Well. I am glad that you did it, too, mom."

"But you know... I felt bad for your dad," she spoke softly.

"Why is that, mom?"

"Oh, you know. Your dad has been working hard, too, and I felt bad that your dad didn't get to have such a treat. He doesn't like sauna anyways, but his legs have been hurting, you know. It was nice for me, but your dad..."

After all these years of living with my dad, bearing with him, and complaining to me about him, she still has this incredible compassion for him. She wants her husband to join her delights in life. Perhaps, that is love, I thought, being able to bear one another with such compassion and patience, missing the other's presence in your experience of joy and pleasure.

My friend Sam (I am not sure yet if I can call him a friend, but I will call him a friend) dropped his poetry book in my mailbox today, with two postcards inserted marking two poems, I assume, he would like me to read more thoroughly. So I did. And they touched me in similar ways Frost did during my high school and my inadequacy in understanding languages and theories did not seem to matter so much after reading his poems. Here is a short excerpt from his poem Accident (I will share his entire poem when the entry is shorter).

. . .

he would have to say, standing alone, his pulse snapping
against the sky, filling the veins of the night,
plasma, cartilage, bone – crying out for her,
her jacket flapping in the bush. He would have to say
that love does not mean preservation alone,
but also creation and destruction, and only then

is a thing complete, is it revealed, like the windshield
shattered sixty yards away, like Somayah dead,
sitting calmly in the grass, after the truck she crashed
flipped over fifteen times. Some things are impossible
and they come true. Maybe all things.

. . .

- G.

11 - snow and poetry

2010-12-16T16:35:00.000-08:00

Dust of Snow

by Robert Frost (1923)

The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I had rued.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

by Robert Frost (1923)

Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

I remember Robert Frost's poems touching something in my heart when English was still quite new to me. Here, I am meeting many writers and getting a sense of how they may see the world. And... it's quite beautiful - their sensibility with words, syntax, and plots in describing life. I wanted to be a writer when I was in Korea - as a young girl, I would pull my hair out writing a poem about a dandelion. I wonder... if I could still dream of becoming a writer.

- G.

8, 9, 10 - Art in America

2010-12-15T19:55:00.000-08:00

So I picked up Art in America December issue a few days ago and read most of articles. I haven't read art magazines awhile, so I attempted my 'studies' with the magazine with curiosity and excitement - to see what is up with current contemporary art in America. All very interesting, in fact, I was really resonating with one particular artist’s work - Simon Fujiwara, especially his Frozen piece viewed at the Frieze Art Fair. Also The Feature Story (story about the founder of Feature Inc. - Hudson) written by Steel Stillman grabbed my attention.

Gallery stories –

Hudson's ideas about managing a gallery space, what an art space should be like... were refreshing. A list of up-front contemporary artists who showed at his space at the beginning of their careers was indeed impressive. To brag about my gallery Get This! Gallery in Atlanta, I thought some of characters of Hudson were similar to Lloyd Benjamin (gallery director of Get This!)'s. For my first solo with the gallery, he gave me an open invitation to 'just do my work' and carry out my vision without a pressure of anything else – such as sales. He helped me to refine ideas and collaborated with my work and fabrication. Such permission from a commercial gallery, I thought, was unusual. Lloyd’s support was incredibly crucial in my exploration of space and growth as a young artist.

Repose at Get This! Gallery, 2010

OK, this is going to be a little bit long as I chew on some things - I don't want to feel like I am writing another version of a graduate school paper, but it may sound like it. So bear with me.

Simon Fujiwara

Fujiwara’s Art Stardom –

Art in America extensively covered Fujiwara's story and works. Beautiful images and an intriguing story in 8 pages. That’s called a stardom when Simon Fujiwara is only 28 years old. Graduated from Cambridge University as an architect, Fujiwara showcased his site-specific installation Frozen (2010) at London’s Frieze Art Fair that also marked the artist’s receiving of the Frieze Foundation’s Cartier Award.

Combining multi-medium installations and performances, Fujiwara is able to create a faux history and a place where remnants of his constructed history reside. His biography is deeply embedded in his works. Being half-Japanese and half-British, the article points that Fujiwara’s works reflect “a sense of cultural dislocation, combined with related sensitivity to conditions of economic inclusion and exclusion.” Fujiwara even states, “I am my work.” Repeatedly, I come to conclusion that an artist’s biography is an endless sources of his or her creative practice. In whatever ways artists' biographies are manifested, Louise Bourgeois was right.

“A lot of people are so obsessed by the past, they die of it. This is the attitude of the poet who never finds the lost heaven, and it is really the situation of artists who work for a reason that nobody can quite grasp. Except that they might want to reconstruct something of the past. It is that the past for certain people has such a hold and such a beauty…”

- Louise Bourgeois, Destruction of the Father Reconstruction of the Father

Toni Morrison also quotes, “memories and recollections won’t give me total access to the unwritten interior life… only the act of the imagination can help me.”

Within a context of recent discussion of Miami Art Basel and so many art fair we now have, Fujiwara also is able to point out the system of art ecology in this contemporary era. Considering that his work Frozen is a part of the Frieze Art Fair, I applaud his acute and conscious sensibility to critique the art fairs’ ‘consumerist context.’ Alex Gartenfeld quotes, “Fujiwara’s Frozen City at Frieze served as a reminder that the art-fair network will eventually be lost to history, and as a morality tale about the ultimate futility of acquiring artworks.”

Fujiwara was able to insert his biography and ideology into the current system of art world instead of the other way. I find that important and impressive. Recognizing that artists are ultimately the driving engines in the art world is crucial in our survival as artists.

Well, he indeed has established an extravagant stardom in the art world right now.

To read more about his work, go to :

http://www.moussemagazine.it/articolo.mm?id=460

http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/simon_fujiwara/

http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/features/simon-fujiwara/

Art in America – white gentlemen artists

Please forgive me for this term, but it dawned to me a few days later that all the articles I read in Art in America were on white gentleman artists and dealers. I was stunned that that didn’t appear to me as an issue at first – because I like all of their works and stories. And then I found myself perplexed by this situation. I believe artists should be viewed within a context of their works, not non-sensible identity politics. And this kind of discussion can get complicated and old. Yet was I to be completely content with reading every major article in Art in America on white gentlemen artists? Maybe some of artists in Letters to Young Artists are right about this, still relevant in 2010. Here is an excerpt from our Guerrilla Girls:

“Sure, the art world’s better now than ever before, especially at the entry level where everyone wants to see what women and artists of color have to say. But galleries still overwhelmingly show white males, and up the ladder, at the level of museums, auctions, and art history books, there’s a crushing glass ceiling, way worse than in a lot of other fields.
Let’s face it, it’s hard for anyone to succeed at making art, especially in a system that manufactures scarcity, then sells it for big bucks to rich collectors. Museums suck up to these art investors, ask them to sit on their boards and let them decide what to save for the future. We think that’s a lousy way to preserve our culture!
So you need to make your work endures. Whether you do that as an art world insider or outsider, you’ll have to spend some time away from your work, out of your studio, communicating and engaging with whatever art world you decide to live in. Be aware of the system. Don’t be afraid to stand up and criticize it. Be inventive. Do some creative complaining!”

- Guerrilla Girls

I have been fortunate in my early career as an artist despite myself being a woman and a minority. Many other women and color artists are in fact actively engaged with the art community in Atlanta: Jiha Moon, Fahamu Pecou, Lucha Rodriguez, Whitney Stansell, and many more. That’s beautiful and exciting. Yet a constant re-contextualizing and re-evaluating our system within the community AND outside of the community is necessary. As an artist blogger, I thought I had to voice this out somehow in an articulate matter. I hope I did an OK job. This was eating me up for a few days for some reason.

Please, comment as you wish. I think having dialogues is a great thing.

Peace, everyone.

- G.

6,7

2010-12-13T07:35:00.000-08:00

Happy Virginia!

G.