Borgeson Artist in Residence 2019

Leekyung Kang

Ecstasy on the surface
De Pree Gallery, Hope College, Holland, Michigan
August 27–September 21, 2019

Exhibition Statement

For the past few years, I have been obsessed with the structural framework and components that make up the urban landscape. My work has focused on exploring both exterior surfaces and interior infrastructure of the cities I have lived in, including architectural imagery of unfinished scaffold facades through mixed media. The goal of this work is to expose the unseen and hidden spaces by capturing the raw and unfinished state of our present environment. I seek to challenge the conventional understanding of space that focuses on physical state, history, and transformation.

Recently, through the exploration of digitized surfaces, my perception and perspective of reality has been altered. When navigating the digital world, I often wonder what actually lies beneath the web cursor. The seamless surface does not reveal the infrastructure of  the hidden space, nor can one see the materiality and responses of  data components in “real time.”

As one continues to explore this vacuum, these imaginations go beyond the surface, hidden in a layered matrix accumulated with spider webs of endless history, time, space, and transition. Computer projections contain layered evidence of  the randomness of our internet presence. In my work, I attempt to excavate each layer and explore the unseen space by rearranging components through digital language manipulation and photo editing.

Using painting, printmaking and video installation, my recent work places the viewer in a projected reality of unseen space. This unseen space allows for the exploration of intangible material, teetering between the second and third dimensions that challenge visual perception and incognizance.