By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
Sculptor Park Ad-jong's works are characterized by such elegant and fluid curves that it is hard to believe she used a tough and strong material like stainless steel.
Park is holding a solo exhibit ``Linear Sculpture'' at Gallery Qualia, Namyeong, Yongsan, through Tuesday. Her striking sculptures are a study in contrasts: hard and soft, yin and yang, and East and West.
In an interview with The Korea Times, Park said she wanted to convey these contrasting thoughts in her sculptures. ``I use this hard material, but I make it look soft,'' she said.
Park, an associate professor at the Ewha Womans University College of Arts and Design, created a new series of works called ``The Zodiac Signs.'' She created images of the Zodiac animals from both Eastern and Western cultures. One of the interesting aspects of the Zodiac series is that when light hits the figures, it creates shadows on the wall.
``The shadows of the animal works are important. The shadows can be interpreted as the past or future,'' Park said.
The exhibit also features many of her large-scale installations, such as the stainless steel and neon light piece ``Waterman: Name Write on Water,'' which was inspired by English poet John Keats' epitaph on his tombstone: ``Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water.''
The delicate-looking ``Orion Bud'' resembles a plant bursting out from the ground. Park said these sprout-like works were made after she was recovering from a major operation. ``I was thinking about themes of life and death, past, present and future. We really don't know how many years we will live on Earth,'' she said.
Park was the first Korean artist to be invited to the Art/Omi International Artist Workshop in 1993. She has had 17 solo exhibitions in Seoul, New York, Detroit and Montreal, not to mention participating in numerous group exhibitions and competitions.
Renowned American sculptor Joel Shapiro was impressed by the ``depth, strength and articulateness'' of Park's work. ``The quality of the work is the result of persistent hard work and the rare ability to transform interior thought into communicative form,'' Shapiro had said.
Gallery Qualia is located on the first floor of Haitai Building, Namyeong. Get off at Exit 1, Namyeong Station Subway Line 1. Call (02) 709-7405.