Kukje Gallery, Seoul, http://www.kukjegallery.com
November – December 2012
Yuko Shiraishi is primarily and abstract painter and paintings is what is primarily on display. Paintings are usually in one background color, combined with thin stripes or small dots. The dots or stripes make them look a bit like linen or cloth designs. The gallery’s materials say: “The paintings contain overlapping geometric forms or horizontal monochromatic lines that cut across the canvas; by using a rectangular rather than a square canvas she clearly emphasizes these dynamic abstract forms.”
In addition to the paintings, there was one room-size installation of a wire-frame house, combined with a few fluorescent strings hanging in the middle. It had a mysterious feel to it. The floor of the house was illuminated from below, giving it a floating feel, and the fluorescent strings ‘passing through’ the ‘space’ of the house designated by the skeleton of thick wires seemed like a teleportation mechanism from a science fiction movie.
The installation and the paintings seemed to be quite remote from each other and I could not really figure out the connection. The house was very dream-like, but still very concrete. The paintings were touching on the subject of color and patterns. Individual brush strokes were quite prominently visible in the paintings, which gave them an emotional feel, pointing towards the personal involvement of the author. However the house felt very cold and detached.