Tropical Contemporary presents Happy Funeral a solo exhibition of sculpture by artist Sung Eun Park. running April 6th - April 28th.
Opening Reception Friday April 6th 6-9 PM with additional open gallery hours throughout the month.
Simply having the desire to achieve an ideal world would never actually empower us to escape from reality since we have already reached our limits in attempting to overcome the nature of fate. When we face persistent obstacles caused by collisions between desire and reality, we are forced to either step backwards or break through the boundary. Such conflicts intensify as we more deeply recognize the condition of our situation. As such, can we ever be relieved of our own pressure to overcome such tension? Do conflicts need to be resolved in order to have the freedom to choose neither hope nor reality?
In my current body of work, I explore the conflicts between humanity’s desperate hopes and reality. Such conflicts occur between desire and forbiddance, desire and the ideal, consciousness and unconsciousness, and instinct and rationality in our human nature. In each piece of the work, nothing is compromised by its opposite; both sides maintain their own energy in the tension of confrontation. The power struggle between them is revealed through the visual representation. The exaggerated, yet unstable gestures of forms are constructed with found objects that stimulate humans’ five senses. The installation often comes from a drawing—the central source of my work—that started as collages of images I have found. These images are chosen from existing reality, but their arrangement is given over to imagination. These narrative scenes not only express the intoxicating air of freedom, but also allow viewers to affirm their own desires. However, while enjoying this moment of freedom, they might realize that they have embarked on a dangerous adventure. This is a condition of which we are always aware.
- Sung Eun Park
Sung Eun Park is an artist who currently teaches at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon. She was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated to the United States when she was 16. Park holds a BFA from Maryland Institute, College of Art where she graduated Cum Laude in Painting. She received her MFA from Indiana University, Bloomington in 2011. Park has exhibited her works nationally in California, Maryland, New York, Indiana and Oregon and internationally in Italy, France and Hungary. She has traveled and abroad to pursue her creative research and projects as an artist.
