Won Ju Lim, Ruined Traces, 2007 Mixed media sculpture in Plexiglas, artificial plants, live plants, and video projections Dimensions variable Copyright the artist, courtesy Patrick Painter, Santa Monica

On the evening of October 6, 2007 Los Angeles artist Won Ju Lim’s dual show, Ruined Traces (West Gallery) Broken Landscape (East Gallery), opened at the acclaimed Patrick Painter gallery.

Marking her fourth solo show in correlation with the gallery, is a large-scale installation piece and a series of haunting constructed and deconstructed landscapes. Although considered divergent from her usual mediums, these works are not altogether unexpected for Lim. She is primarily known for meticulous Plexiglas and foam core structural creations, characterized by luminous combinations of moving and still projected images of industrial and urban scenery. The beauty of her previous work largely emulates from these moving and still projections of urban and industrial landscapes, being lit from without thus becoming luminous from within.

Lim deploys this distinct technique in Patrick Painter’s West Gallery, yet with a new twist on an immense scale- the installation piece, Ruined Traces. Ruined Traces envelops the entire dark gallery space in an eerie amalgamation of colorful projected moving landscapes, still images, and reflections of her miniature encased environments. These colorful glass casings produce two functions: to cause a reflection effect on the walls, as well as creating a specimen-like viewing context of the miniature synthetic landscapes within. Yet while called to investigate, the viewer also becomes the investigated- with one’s own silhouettes being projected and beckoned into Lim’s jungle of space, light, and time. Surrounding these glass box mini-landscapes are house plants (both real and synthetic) adding another layered detail to the room’s post-structural theme of reality/hyper-reality. Her encased landscapes with their synthetic trees and mountains are either being supported by gooey neon soil horizons, or disintegrating into them. This element furthers Lim’s continuous subtle commentary on fragmentation and falsification of memory, as well as an explication of the underbelly of the synthetic Los Angeles lifestyle.

In the East Gallery of Patrick Painter, a few strides away from Ruined Traces, is the other half of Lim’s show- Broken Landscape. While Ruined Traces, presents a construction of memory through light, space, and time as well as layered imagery and the mix of real and fake life- Broken Landscape, embarks on an personally new method for Lim. Using found paintings she then cut them into sharp fragmentations and pins them onto foam board. Instead of puzzling them back together, Lim adds precise subtle spacing between the pieces. Through the distinct cracks, the fragments appear to float off the boards- a testament to memory being nothing more than chosen bits of our experiences.

For artists to practice variations within their work is not unusual, and rather it can be seen as a testament to their creativity within the confines of their chosen method. Yet, to successfully venture into a completely different artistic realm, and seamlessly translate one’s technique into an unfamiliar medium, is entirely something else. Too often in contemporary artworks is an idea interestingly examined, yet poorly articulated and messily executed. The grappling of personal time, space, and memory is beautifully explored in these meticulous pieces. Won Ju Lim’s Ruined Traces, Broken Landscape is one of the rare instances when an artist’s risky deviation from previous works results in a significant success, a truly noteworthy achievement.