Hyon Gyon @ Parasol Unit
Hyon Gyon is a contemporary Korean artist who explores themes of sociocultural identity, grief, anger and sexual politics, deriving from her experiences of growing up in a male dominated society in South Korea. Her combination of traditional Korean textiles and paint with more untraditional materials such as gold leaf, wax, foam etc., along with her highly expressive use of colour in her artworks, struck and amazed me as a viewer due to the level of detail and creation embedded in each piece. By doing this I found that she was not only able to create a story within each piece, but also managed to effectively bring it alive.
Another thing about her work that impacted me was the degree of raw energy and emotion that cascaded from each piece. You could argue that one of the reasons as to why her work is so impactful and is very expressive with vast detail, is due to the fact that she is able to effectively and creatively channel her strong feelings of sorrow and anger into her art. Hyon Gyon also likes to send messages in her art and appropriately references things such as the turbulent history of politics through Korea, China and Japan due to her heritage. This in particular is referenced in her piece ‘We Were Ugly’ (2017) which is a large scale piece dominated by a sea of eyes and monstrous screaming skulls in terror after an atomic explosion. The title is to enforce her hope for change for political unrest in the future.
Hyon Gyon at Parasol Unit!
