Jukhee Kwon. Metamorphosis

About

Kwon bases her practice in a physical and conceptual deconstruction of the book as object and the book as text. Her creative process begins by discovering or receiving abandoned books and thus recognising the social life of the object, anticipating an analysis of the book as an organised collection of semantic tools. 

The idiosyncratic social life and energy possessed by each book is returned to its inception as a tree, wherein the spine of the book becomes the root system and each page acts as a branch. Kwon carefully dissects each page of the book using a knife. Kwon’s creative process deconstructs the book into the set of its meanings, splicing it into each stage of its vital cycle. 

At Ierimonti Gallery, Kwon recreates a labyrinthine forest using her signature book sculptures. The viewer is encouraged to wander along the paths formed around her sculptures, traveling through an experiential maze of deconstructed and riorganised meaning. Moreover, Metamorphosis suggests an impulse towards maturity, or a kind of transformative process towards completeness or adulthood. Through the act of carving the pages of the book, Jukhee Kwon achieves a plethoric totality.