JUKHEE KWON

fromthebooktothespace.blogspot.com

www.octobergallery.co.uk/artists/kwon


Jukjhee Kwon is a transnational artist. She grew up in South Korea, moved to London to continue her art exploration and now practices in Italy.

Kwon sees the book as a visual thing. The book is an object with a history behind it.  She uses the book to create a space and her cutting of books makes them into sculptural forms. 

She started cutting books in half and folding the pages whilst on the MA Book Art at Camberwell and quickly realised the potential of such actions.

For her its not about the information inside the book but the structure. When a book is opened it changes shape. The closed book is different from the open book. Kwon set about transforming the book: working out how to change its shape. 

The book contains energy. Kwon's book objects are hanging from the wall or ceiling with the pages cascading down like water. The energy comes out of the book to the ground with gravity and then goes back up into the book like the circle of life.

Kwon cuts the pages using small scissors but does not cut the words. She cuts the space inbetween the words. Her aim is to create a new story for the viewer to read. By using abandoned old books she is opening up their history through this labour intensive process.

Is it bad to destroy a book? Why was the book thrown away? Kwon transforms abandoned books giving them new meaning as objects. A tree becomes paper becomes a book. And now the book becomes a sculptural object.

Kwon admits to being addicted to this process of cutting books saying that she finds it meditative and that through the object you can understand yourself.

She sees the energy of the people who have previously owned the abandoned books  by the texture of the page and the smell. In times past lots of people would have read the same book. Books contain strong energy.

notes from a talk on the last day of the exhibition at October Gallery 2014