Time for Stillness…Time for Silence: Solo Exhibition by Soon Yul Kang

News of an exhibition starting tomorrow at Artspace Gallery:

Time for Stillness…Time for Silence
Solo Exhibition by Soon Yul Kang
June 21 – July 3, 2010 at Artspace Galleries

Soon-yul Kang

Artspace Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of works by Soon Yul Kang. Soon Yul Kang will exhibit her unique meditative hand woven tapestries and some collage and mixed media works. The subject matter for this exhibition is contemplation and meditation, a time for stillness, a time for silence. Time in this context is not confined to physical time, it also relates to feelings that are beyond the limits of physical time, a stillness or a silence that cannot bounded by physical time. For a number of years Soon Yul Kang is interested in the representation of human emotions into her hand woven tapestries as the medium. She developed her subject inspired by the concepts of Zen –simplicity, stillness and emptiness in terms of meditation and healing in her tapestries with serene landscapes. Soon Yul Kang states

“My works have been concerned with contemplation, healing and time. The inspiration for my tapestries comes mostly from nature, from various serene landscapes. I have also been inspired by Zen concepts such as simplicity, stillness and emptiness. I am still developing these ideas in my tapestries with tranquil landscapes that involve subtle changes in colour and light that reflect changes in perspective and mood. They do not represent an actual scene but are more like semi-abstract representations. Subtlety of woven colour is more important than actual depiction of a scene. I am exploring how nature can effect human emotion and how the image may be used in meditation and healing.”

All of Soon Yul Kang’s tapestries have been created by hand using traditional tapestry weaving techniques, by the use of very subtle mix of coloured wool threads. She creates smooth gradation by using subtly blended colour threads just as a painter uses a colour palette.

Soon Yul Kang is originally from Seoul, South Korea. She studied textile arts in Korea, Japan and at West Dean College in UK. She received her MA at Goldsmiths College, University of London and has been a resident artist in Kew Studio in Richmond since 1998. She now returns to Korea each year to lecture at Ewha Womans University. Soon Yul Kang specializes in hand woven tapestries but she also creates collages and mixed media works. She uses traditional tapestry weaving technique but expressed in a contemporary way. A tapestry of hers is on permanent display at West Middlesex University Hospital.

Artspace Gallery
18 Maddox Street
Mayfair
London
W1S 1PL

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