Sun K. Kwak

Aug 5

Video for Venice Biennale Architettura 2021
Artwork on display at San Clemente Palace Kempinski, Venice

Artist Statement

Sun K. Kwak is a Korean interdisciplinary artist based in New York City. She creates works that are thematically connected but take on different forms and formats from performance to sculpture with various materials. Her most well-known series is Space Drawing, composed of simple impromptu masking tape drawing that transforms a space into a new "pictorial reality" where the fullness of dynamic energy mingles and flows, creating a space of limitless wonder and possibilities. Kwak describes, "My works are born through the communion between the material and the spiritual, wherein myself is constantly reflected emptying itself.” In creating restrained and refined expression with mundane, mass-produced masking tape as a medium, the juxtaposition of value - of both medium and expression - underscores my effort to strike a balance between polarizing principles. As a medium, black masking tape freely shifts between two and three-dimensional planes. Through the flexibility and the accessibility of ordinary black masking tape, I aim to designate the lines as an extension of myself."

Sun K. Kwak created A Tale of an Eagle as an autobiographical piece during the pandemic in 2020-2021. A Tale of an Eagle originated from her Eagle drawing that was created in response to her challenging time. The drawing was inspired by a story of an eagle overcoming hardship and soaring higher for the second chapter of its life. As a visual response to the story, Sun created an abstract drawing where an eagle flies into and soars above the storm and embraces nature and the people as a metaphor for an acceptance of challenges and a breakthrough through liberation.

The artwork was developed as Sun recalled the significant time of struggle and brought out Eagle drawing during the pandemic lock down and rolled the piece. She recreated the 2D drawing by “rolling” it into 3D form as a symbolic action for wrapping up all the obstacles of an artist. This concept originated from her traveling motif drawing project among her Space Drawing series that has traveled to different cities and constantly evolved in response to each specific site using diverse materials in various approaches. The work started to travel in 2006 from Seoul (Korea) to Madrid (Spain) to New York (USA) to Taichung (Taiwan), and finally was back to Seoul (Korea). Rolling Space (2015), the final traveling piece of this project, was created in a rolled form of the motif drawing Space Take-out as a symbol of wrapping up the long journey. Expanding its dimension, the work became the inspiration for creating A Tale of an Eagle, Sun’s first Open-Air Space Drawing series.

A Tale of an Eagle, made of polished stainless steel, is fabricated with Lamberti - the renowned Italian artisan company specializing in metal production. Working virtually with a production team was a unique challenge that Sun faced during the pandemic as the fabrication required a thorough communication.

As Sun’s rolled up Space Drawing piece meets the new medium, polished stainless steel, A Tale of an Eagle expands into a new arena in an open-air setting and embodies the surrounding nature and people together in the artwork through its reflection.

Placed in a historical venue as San Clemente Palace Kempinski, A Tale of an Eagle invites viewers to interact for the completion of the artwork.

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