POSSESSION.

About

Curated by JW Stella The Sassoon galley is delighted to announce ‘POSSESSION', the first solo exhibition in London by the emerging Korean-born artist Seunghyun Woo. POSSESSION will question the notion of absolute beauty, using the aesthetic language of art, which simultaneously offers both beauty and ugliness. Woo who has trained and practiced as a sculptor for the majority of her career, playfully questions what it means to complete a work of art in order to achieve the ultimate status of being aesthetic. Unlike Science, Art is based on intuition, which is a direct apprehension of reality unmediated by one's thought. Thus art cuts through convention, symbolism and ideological beliefs about life, culture and society, and confront us with reality itself. The apprehension quality of being aesthetically beautiful or seen to be unattractive tends to be a formal notion, which does not go beyond the surface of what we see. When it comes to making judgments about beauty and ugliness, Woo says that we tend to do so on the basis of what we see and of what we believe that is perfectly formed-the material reality. However, one cannot be certain how the dimensions of form or apparent beauty will be seen in front of us and if we will be satisfied, as we have predefined notions of the conditions in which others will be satisfied. Therefore, the basis for our response to beauty exists in the complex structure of our mind. The possession of one's mind - the moment of perceiving beauty. Once there was a moment that the ultimate beauty would be pursued by an imitation of nature. Now we live in a period of culture where our society is immune to artificial beauty and the process of producing a work of art can be considered as being an artificial or pretentious process. For this exhibition Woo will turn the unusual curved shape of the gallery into a stage in which the audience can experience and possess the status of aesthetic by this site-specific display, which includes a number of her acrylic and enamel marbling mix wrapping ribbons sculptures, titled Celebration (2008). Drawings (2008) features aesthetic improvisation composed with un-sculpted art objects by the artist through out the wall across to the ceiling of the gallery. Seunghyun Woo was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1976 and currently works and lives in London. She has gained a BA from Seoul National University (2002) and a MA from both Seoul National University(2004) and Slade School of Fine Art, London (2008). Her works have been included in several shows such as ‘Alsop Window Project-forest', Alsop architect office, London (2007), ‘Experience: The Image', Nolia's Gallery, London (2007), ‘Drinking 1000 cups of espresso', NOAM Gallery, Seoul (2006), ‘Waiting', SAMSUNG Cars Show Room, Seoul (2002), '36.5', Boda Gallery, Seoul (2001) This exhibition is curated by JW Stella with the invitation of the Sassoon Gallery. Contact: info@JWSTELLA.com