Art in America
Andrew Bae Gallery, Chicago

“Stone Body” by Myungkeun Koh
by Claire Wolf Krantz
July 13-August 11, 2007

Korean artist Myungkeun Koh’s laminated-photo sculptures are unusual and magical. His show of recent work, “Stone Body,” played on the dichotomy between the solidity of the stone bodies Koh photographs, which date from classical antiquity through the 19th century, and the translucent sculptures he has constructed from the images. The photos are printed on transparent film that is laminated between Plexiglas sheets that form the basis for the container-like structures: four-sided boxes, two-sided bent panels, and various other configurations. Koh uses a heat gun to melt the edges of the plastic. One can see inside and outside the sculptures at the same time. The colors tend to be gray, sepia, and/or flesh toned.

In “Stone Body 39,” a complicated, near abstract arrangement of shapes is created by the repeated Image of a woman’s torso and arms on the sides of the box. The bodies face each other at one joint while their backs connect at another. The images continue onto the bottom and top of the work, the complexity increasing the piece’s appeal.  Here, as one looks at the inside and outside of the sculpture, one sees  positive and negative spaces which are more powerful than the figures themselves.

“Stone Body 36”, the most complex and challenging sculpture, is a staggered arrangement of panels with a narrow one at the front and center that creates a faceted image. The panels are joined on the sides to create a single volumetric form, which from the side presents a watery effect.. The photos show a woman figure standing in contrapposto, her arms reaching up to arrange the curly hair on her head. The background is dark and the body a light color, so it seems to exist in indefinite space. This piece, with its many surfaces and angles that cannot be taken in at once, creates a complicated view of a woman who seems to reveal different parts of herself at different moments.

In these works, Koh has transformed solid, heavy forms into works that are light and ethereal.

Claire Wolf Krantz is an artist, freelance critic, and guest curator.
As an artist she works in a combination of painting and photography as well as digitally created images.