Friday, April 25, 2008

April 24

I lucked out arriving at NEXT a few moments before the preview crowds. I had enough time to meet Talia and Jeffery and have them give me a run down of the CUE space.

 

Although I was struck by several works in the space, I found the work of Cheol Yu Kim particularly engaging. (Kim was a CUE studio resident from September to December 2003.) The byzantine but placid energy of Cheol Yu Kim’s Delta Quadrant 2 (#17) is deceptive. Each light stroke bristles with a subdued potency. Wonder and divine amusement are drawn into an uncertain plane. In one place, one can see the macroscopic gesture of a mountain. In another place, the sensuous curves of amoebas.


A sense of downward motion suffuses the work. Engorged sacks seem to plummet as detritus flutters out of them. But tucked in the details, a row of pointed ovoid shapes, perhaps missiles that urge the piece to be read with caution even though the watery blue pigment on white paper suggests calm and complacency.

 


Once I started to circulate through the rest of the show,  it was easy to become overwhelmed by the crowds and volume of work. I found myself scribbling notes of places I would like to return to, about work I would like to examine more closely. In fact after a couple of free Grolsches with friends under the mounted jackalope’s head in the faux dive bar, I realized how much better this festival will be over a few days instead of trying to race through it in one day (which I had planned to do before CUE’s blogging offer.)



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