“Presence and Absence“, Heaven Gallery

Friday, January 31st from 7 – 11 PM

Artists: Myungchan Kim, Jeong Hoon Park, Yena Park, Joonghan Bae, Seuil Chung, Ray Im

Presence and Absence is a collaborative group show of Korean and Korean-American artists based in Detroit and Chicago. The exhibition includes mixed media photography, video installation, minimalist objects, photographic installation of ceramics, non-traditional woven objects, and portrait paintings.

Presence and Absence presents the artists’ introspective processes and the dialogue between materiality and craft that they each engage with. Stable and serene, historic and contemporary, traditional and speculative—diverse visual languages inform each work and together build a vital conversation about identity, culture, and experience today.

The perspectives of each of the Korean or Korean-American artists represented in the exhibition are woven together to address the tension felt between the West and the East. In Presence and Absence, the artists identify conflicts tied to their educational backgrounds in the United States and the surrounding circumstances they are immersed in politically, socially, and culturally in Detroit and Chicago. As strangers in the US, the participating artists pursue both their presence and absence between Western influences and their Korean roots.

"NÔUL"

In the exhibition NOUL, The viewers are invited to physically interact and investigate certain design pieces that transcend the visual and aesthetic simplicity, and therefore offering a temporary refuge from the hustle and bustle of life. 

"Noul,” is a Korean work meaning "tranquility and ease." The idea of the exhibition first started from a conversation while Korean and Korean-American artists shared similar experiences. Artists from other countries often associate Korean artworks with quietness and slowness. These Korean artists decided to actualize such characteristics. 

It showcases eleven Korean artists from Cranbrook Academy of Art: works ranging from Paintings, sculptures, design furniture, and installations. These works embody a sense of contemplative stillness through the form in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional space.

Sister City: Students Encounter Incheon, South Korea at the Library →

This October, first and second-grade students in the Building Bridges with Books program (a partnership between the Free Library and the School District of Philadelphia) got a unique glimpse into the life and culture of one of Philadelphia’s Sister Cities: Incheon, South Korea.

Building Bridges with Books partnered with Citizen Diplomacy International of Philadelphia to develop a series of interactive workshops for some of our youngest citizens to share the stories, culture, and arts of Incheon. These workshops, led by student volunteers from the University of the Arts in collaboration with Free Library staff and librarians, sought to build awareness and connection to our Sister City as part of Citizen Diplomacy International’s "Spotlight on Incheon" initiative this year.

Over the course of four workshops at Haverford Library and Queen Memorial Library, almost 100 students heard traditional Korean folktales like "The Tale of Rabbit and the Dragon King," saw demonstrations of authentic Hangul text (the Korean alphabet), discussed similarities and differences between Incheon and Philadelphia, and created their own handmade paper trays using traditional Korean mulberry paper and decorative designs. Delores Solomon, a BBWB Parent Ambassador at McDaniel Elementary who chaperoned one visiting class, said, "The students and teachers just loved the workshop, and what they made!"

All four workshops were co-led by Luke Han, a senior at The University of the Arts, originally from Daejeon, and Yena Park, a recent University of the Arts graduate and native of Incheon. Han and Park worked closely with our librarians to create an eye-opening and engaging experience for these students. Han found sharing the culture of Incheon and South Korea with students to be a positive experience, saying, "[The students] were really interested in learning about a different city and culture, and that was really rewarding for me, as a Korean living here. Maybe it was a lot for them, but they understood it well."
 

By Jess P.