When Photographs Become Sculptures and Memories Turn Into Images

An exhibition is being held that blurs the boundaries between mediums by combining Osang Gwon's "photo-sculptures," created by cutting and pasting photographs into three-dimensional forms, with Joseph Choi's "paintings," which build up layers by erasing and painting over latent inner images.

Artist Osang Gwon, who has reinterpreted sculpture through photography, expands the possibilities of sculpture by showcasing works such as Helmet Head, which combines a motorcycle helmet and photographic fragments, alongside a bust of a Borzoi dog containing the artist's personal memories.


Based in Paris, Joseph Choi reconstructs latent memories and experiences from within onto the canvas.

The result of the contingency of the act of painting without prior planning, his works fluidly shape objects and the human body, visualizing dreams and memories.

The exhibition title "Yield Point" is a term from materials mechanics, referring not to the limit where an object breaks, but to the threshold where elasticity transitions into plasticity.

An object that crosses this threshold is not destroyed, but transitions into a new state where it can no longer return to its original form.

The two artists, who differ completely in their mediums and starting points, pass through this same threshold of the "yield point" in their own ways and directions to reconstruct new narratives.

In particular, a new collaborative seated sculpture completed as the two artists exchanged each other's forms vividly demonstrates the structure of medial transition, where a three-dimensional sculpture is born from the sculpture held by the figure within the painting.


The work was completed by layering Joseph Choi's unplanned brushstrokes and colors onto the surface of Osang Gwon's calculated photo-sculpture.

Just as an object that has passed its yield point gains a new order through loss, this exhibition presents a new artistic horizon that reveals itself only after familiar forms collapse.

The Osang Gwon and Joseph Choi two-person exhibition "Yield Point: Reconstructed Narratives" runs through October 3 at Art Project CÔ.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.