B-tree gallery

A10 / Seoul / Korea

+82-2-6951-0008
info@b-treegallery.com
https://ko.b-treegallery.com/

Artist Doohwa Chung, who deconstructs books, creates another kind of book. Strictly speaking, he creates sculptures using books as his subject matter, but in that he reinterprets the meaning of books, and so although the cases are different, he extends to books in that he still preserves the meaning of books. The artist classifies books collected by time period and reflects the texture and color of time contained in the books in his work. Old books that contain the scent of time give an old-fashioned feeling, while sculptures made by introducing new books give a modern and contemporary feeling.
The artist’s work, which expresses the trajectory of time flowing in books in a plastic way, can also be said to be a representation of time. It can be said that he has constructed and built a kind of architecture of time that originated from books but is different from books. Also, there are no books, texts, or sounds in the artist’s sculptures. Nevertheless, the artist’s work is a book. It is a representation of books, texts, and sounds.

‘Sounds’ Series Among the artist's various series, the 'Sounds' series is a series of sculptures that spread out in concentric circles with a certain curve, just like the ripples that spread out when a stone is thrown into the water. Structurally, it is reminiscent of a speaker, and it makes us think about the directionality of the sound that spreads out from the center to the edge. It is a sculpture of the process of conveying a story, a sculpture of the process of the viewer encountering the artist, and a visualization of the resonating inner sound. The artist wants to visualize the sound and induce communication with them by feeling it. “A book full of sound that travels the path of time and empathy to communicate with someone again” Although it is reconstructed by combining various kinds of books, in fact, there are no books, no texts, and no sounds in the author's sculptures. Nevertheless, the author's work is a book. It represents books, texts, and sounds. The artist's work is, so to speak, a kind of silent book, a potential text (or meaning) before it is printed, and a book that resonates and evokes empathy with silent sounds.
It is a book of thought that contains the colors of time. Doohwa Chung’s 'Sound' is a work that conveys unexpected resonance and echo through countless pieces the size of grains of rice, which are torn and pasted together, or through the joining of numerous finely pixelated dots.

‘Thinking of forest’ All kinds of books are reborn through Doohwa Chung’s hands, and the text evaporates, the paper becomes wood (pulp), and through the labor-intensive and very long physical process of rolling them into a circle, slicing them evenly, and planting them in various patterns like seedlings in a seedbed, time is constructed, and further, through the completed work, the language of indirect communication is turned into the exchange of direct communication.
Doohwa Chung’s 'Thinking of forest' Through a cross-section of a book that contains all the experiences of the past and the years, the author presents a linear time that seems to connect the past, present, and future, returning from the present to the past through 'Thinking of forest'. Books alone can be monotonous, but by organically merging books that contain different experiences and times, a new channel of communication flows like natural waves, and by visualizing the wind felt in the forest, the artist achieves ‘capturing the fundamental resonance of nature’ through his work.

‘Knot’ Series’ Doohwa Chung’s ‘Knot’ series: The grain of a tree is like a page of a book.
Each grain is a natural text that records the history and environment of the tree, and just as the time and changes while the tree grows are contained in the grain, the pages of a book become vessels that contain people’s thoughts and stories.
The grain of a tree shows the growth process of a tree with different patterns and colors, and similarly, a book weaves a story through text and pictures.
In this way, Doohwa Chung’s ‘Knot’ series works also convey the wisdom and history of people, and the past to the viewers through books, just as the grain of a tree contains the story and flow of nature.