| Yong Ho Ji 2008April 17, 2008- May 24, 2008Reception: April 17, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Gana Art presents an exhibition of sculptures by Korean artist Yong Ho Ji in its new Chelsea gallery from April 18 through May 7, 2008. Comprised of some 20 sculptures made by hand from recycled tires, the exhibition marks the artist’s first U.S. show. Works on view range in form from animal, to human, to some combination of both, evoking the ancient Egyptian tradition of creating mythological sculptures that are half-human and half-animal. Ji calls his variations “mutants” to refer to both their hybrid forms and the mutation of media that their creation requires. Sizes vary from an eleven-inch-high dog, to a wild goat with horns that is five-feet-tall to a 10-foot-long Hammerhead shark.
Classified by the artist into carnivorous, herbivorous and omnivorous animals, as well as arthropods, fish and hybrids, the animal sculptures take the forms of sharks and spiders, boars, wildebeests and wolves, as well as crossbred combinations of species. By pasting strips of used tires onto molds and frames he makes himself, Ji mimics the way real muscles hang on animal skeletons. The realistic effect of this process points to the influence of 19th century French sculptor Auguste Rodin on Ji’s practice, especially with respect to articulation of powerful, exaggerated postures.
Another seminal influence on Ji’s mutant series is Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, which emphasizes the need for living things to adapt in order to survive. Ji’s belief in continuous transformation can be witnessed in the evolution of his chosen material, from natural rubber to industrial product to discarded by-product to re-imagined artwork. The medium itself poses questions about the values of modern society, whose constant production of new tires can be seen as a symbol of consumerism. At the same time, Ji’s altered animals raise issues about the human desire to challenge nature through technologies such as genetic engineering. The sculptures’ precarious identities evoke both the natural process of transformation and the mythical status of hybrid creatures like the Centaur or the Sphinx.
Yong Ho Ji was born in 1978 and is based in Seoul. He received his B.F.A. in Sculpture from Hong-ik University, Seoul in 2005. His work has been exhibited at Gana Art Center, Seoul (2006) and HANGARAM Design Museum, Seoul (2004), among other venues. In 2004, Ji received special recognition in the HANKOOK Tire Design Competition.
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