His work often explores quotidian reality by resolving to reduce banal objects to the essence of their being. In Chung’s hands objects are thus transformed through the most simple of gestures like painting them all the same monochromatic color – often gold or silver – or manipulating them to form new things that apparently have no obvious sense. Actions that ultimately serve to challenge our preconceived ideas about how such objects are used. For his show B612 at SRISA Gallery, T-Yong Chung continues to look at the nature of everyday objects by investigating the duality between reality and fiction. It is enough to consider the show’s title, which recalls the story The Little Prince (1943) and specifically the small house-sized asteroid B612. A title that informs us that Chung is not necessarily interested in re-producing reality for its own sake, but rather shrouding the real in another set of clothes – just as the Turkish astronomer who discovered the asteroid in the Little Prince convinces people he is telling the truth by dressing like a Westerner – in order to invite us to question ‘the facts’ as they pertain to ideas of xenophobia, racism, and ignorance.
July 10 – August 4 2009
mon-fry 12:00 am – 10:00 pm – free entrance
SRISA Gallery of Contemporary Art – Santa Reparata International School of Art
Via San Gallo 53r, 50129 Firenze