Artist Jesse Chun explores poetics of transculturalism
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Jesse Chun / Courtesy of Rehan Miskci
Korean native brings visual rhetoric on meaning of home
By Lee Hyo-won
NEW YORK ― In this age of hybrid identities and transcultural mobility, "where are you from?" is an increasingly tricky question to answer.
One Korean-born, Hong Kong-raised artist with a Canadian residency who is mostly based in New York has to provide a slightly longer response to the seemingly simple query. In her latest solo show "On Paper," Jesse Chun explores such themes of displacement, transit and immigration -- and, in the larger scheme of things, the boundless human longing for home and a sense of belonging.
The Korea Times revisited Chun five years after the now-32-year-old artist collaborated with the newspaper's 2011 "Portrait of an Artist" series sponsored by the Korea Press Foundation.
"On Paper" presents 37 conceptual pieces at Soho's Spencer Brownstone Gallery, through which she harnesses bureaucratic documents and symbols to poetic ends. Immigration papers become text-free grids that metaphorically map out new identities in “Blueprints,” while a passport watermark illustration of a mountain range transforms into serene natural scenery for “Landscapes,” via rephotography and digital manipulation.
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“Landscape” Courtesy of the artist
"I was drawn to investigating the found images and iconography related to themes of cultural identity and signifiers of place and home," Chun said. "I experienced globalization in the form of a personal memory. This sense of displacement and question of home have naturally impacted the core of my artistic practice."
She does not want her biography to be what defines her creations, however: "Instead, I want it to be a vessel for my work and its inquiries."
The artist speaks in a unique visual language that is at times devoid of visuals, yet her artwork is always replete with imagery. Her respect for negative space may bring to mind Korean monochromatic Dansaekhwa ― which the artist did in fact recently discover and felt "moved" by ― but it signals a more boundless and fearless gesture in an art world that has become increasingly reluctant to embrace beauty.
Chun's deliberate use of digital tools combined with the physicality of the resulting paper-based works rouse thoughts to mull on, such as the ultimately transient nature of such important pieces of documentation: These mass-produced forms are usually discarded after information is digitally transcribed, but they have the power to define and change people's lives.
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“Form#2” / Courtesy of the artist
While her works incite more intrinsic emotional responses, they also allow room for sociopolitical discourse, such as immigration ahead of the U.S. presidential election and worldwide concerns about refugees. Her show itself has been noted as a rare spotlight on a young, female Asian artist.
"It is definitely a known fact that women artists, specifically women artists of color, are hugely underrepresented here. I'd like to cultivate more ways for artists of color to be seen and heard," she said. "I hope that my work inspires a second look at the things that are used to define, categorize and validate people across borders and places. And at the same time, I hope that it asks questions that go beyond the political vocabulary and rigidity, and digs at the human core."
Chun emphasized that "there are some things that make us uniquely synonymous and humbly human," and focuses on turning "bureaucratic codes into poetry."
"Poetry lends 'yeobaek' (negative space) for the viewer to roam and rest in. It would be great if my work can do just that -- give people room to reflect on both the exterior and interior conditions of our dwelling and locating," she said. Her first book of conceptual poetry, “Valid From Until,” also redacted from various immigration documents, will be released on Oct. 21 by the artist-run publisher Booklyn.
The artist hopes to continue exploring "themes of hybrid identities, transit and place." She was recently selected for the Immigrant Artist Program of the New York Foundation for the Arts and also began a residency at the quirky and exclusive Brooklyn-based arts collective the Bruce High Quality Foundation. She will be teaching a class next spring on non-Western narratives in contemporary art at the foundation's learning experiment and free art school, the Bruce High Quality Foundation University.
"On Paper" continues until Oct. 8. Visit
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The writer is former Korea bureau chief of the fine arts company Louise Blouin Media and is currently the Seoul correspondent for The Hollywood Reporter and WWD.