Art shows this week

From installations, videos, performance art or traditional sculpting, artist Ham Kyung-ah has tried her hand at just about every single medium available. However, it's the not the materials or the physical presence of a piece that takes precedence for the artist. She’s more interested in the concept and the story that goes into making it happen.   Stepping into her gallery, you’ll notice right away the image of a giant chandelier entitled “What you see is the unseen/ Chandeliers for Five Cities.” From afar, the image seems to be a high-resolution print, but up close, you’ll notice the tightly woven stitches. While a moment of marvel is due to the technique, it’s actually not the work of the artist. The works are a continuation of the Embroidery Project that she first started in 2008, and the 1,800 hours invested into the embroidered chandelier were done by women in North Korea. So where does the artist stand in the work? She cut up the newspaper articles, collected images that spoke to her, and sent the design outline to women in North Korea, all through a middleman who transported the work back and forth through China. Look beyond the threads that hang like dripping paint on “Abstract Weave – Morris Louis Untitled 1960,”and you’ll soon realize that there are short excerpts pulled from news articles, embroidered in a similarly colored thread to camouflage its content.   Ham’s work is all about the insider information, the process unseen to the naked eye. It’s the viewer’s...

In commemoration of 130 years of diplomatic relations between France and Korea, the MMCA is hosting a solo exhibition of French contemporary artist Gilles Barbier, originally from the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu.  Recently having shown at La Friche in Marseille, the exhibition, “Echo system: Gilles Barbier,” brings a variety of drawings, sculptures and  paintings never before seen in Seoul—introducing the prolific artist’s unique insights, processes and sense of humor. Colorful, witty and  perverse, Barbier’s works often challenge social conventions. The day before the exhibition’s opening, Time Out Seoul sat down with Gilles Barbier and his curator, Gaël Charbau, to talk about the exhibition and try to get inside Barbier’s mind (before we let him into ours).

There’s an artificial quality to Jung Yeon-doo’s work that you can’t quite figure out. Despite the ever-so-slightly awkward smiles and staged poses, the people in these photos aren’t hired models. These are real families that live in the same apartment complex.