Suki Seokyeong Kang: Black Mat Oriole

Front cover

Suki Seokyeong Kang: Black Mat Oriole

exhibition catalog
2019
offset lithograph, sewn in sections and adhesive-bound with foil-stamped cover
202.5 x 270 mm, 240 pp

Through her installations, videos, and performances, Suki Seokyeong Kang explores the relationship between the human body, time, and space, inspired by the grid-based Korean musical notation “jeongganbo” and the traditional Korean choreography performed on the “hwamunseok” mat. This is a catalog for her solo exhibition at the ICA Philadelphia, which doubles as a monograph on her work.

The book explores modularity and symmetry in its sequencing as well as typography. The book opens and closes with photographs that show “unit” objects in isolation before they are assembled as a site-specific installation. Bookended by these sections, various materials are interspersed among three sections of exhibition views: first, the gallery overviews; second, the mid views of the objects in the gallery; and finally, the close-up views on the details.

The typography of the essay pages also plays with symmetry on a four-column grid. The text occupies the right two columns, and the other two columns are reserved for notes and captions, except for the interview pages, where there are no secondary texts. The semi-monospace typeface adds modularity to the pages without looking too mechanical.

The foil-stamped black cover shows an interpretation of a diagram that the artist made for one of her objects. The matrix diagram on the very first page, which describes how her hwamunseok mats are constructed in actual size, is partially extended over the edges, creating a jagged pattern that reminds of a hwamunseok’s texture.