To depict her own visionary landscapes, Suki Seokyeong Kang re-interprets the centuries-old True-View method of Korean landscape painting. Coined in the 18th century, True-View was notable for disembarking from imaginative Chinese stylization in order to depict nature more realistically. “When I learned that skill, it related more to my body for building the truth,” she says. “I translate the view in my work as a function for rebuilding the truth of now, rather than depiction.”
Landscape painting is a funny focus for an artist who assembles landscapes out of sculptural paintings. Embracing archaic Korean traditions of restraint from her own education—the square musical notation of Jeongganbo, a time-unit box system for visual memory, or the solo royal court dance choreography Chunaengmu (meaning dance of the spring oriole)—Kang’s shows articulate how individuals relate to physical space and memory’s not-solinear relationship to time.
