VIDEO: Ghada Amer and Sookyung Yee at Kukje / Tina Kim Gallery at Frieze New York

How many words for LOVE? Ghada Amer and Sookyung Yee at Frieze NY.

For the Frieze New York art fair, the gallery selected sculptures that beckoned the viewer to take a closer, a second, or perhaps even a third look. As Eliza Coleman, Director of the Kukje / Tina Kim Gallery, explained the stories behind these two sculptures that we have featured here, it became instantly clear that these works were not run-off-the-mill compositions, but derivatives of deep, thought-through processes.

“Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” – this phrase could not be truer than in the case of the sculpture by the Korean artist Sookyung Yee. While one would normally dispose off broken ceramic ware, she transformed these discarded objects to create a stirring piece of sculpture – one without any signs of damage or breakage. The sculpture is truly a sum of parts; as one takes a closer look, it is evident that there is a cup here and a vase there; a teapot here and a bowl there. Together they form a unique identity. Sookyung Kee has fused them together almost creating a soldered effect that one sees in stained glass paintings – except in this case, she has used gold leaf!

From the gallery: “[Sookyung Yee] still wants to keep that intention that they are separate in some way but they have grown together to build a new purpose…”

The second sculpture we selected for our interview was by a renown Egyptian artist Ghada Amer. A massive spherical sculpture, this work by the artist is a continuation of what she started years ago – an exploration of “love”. It is essentially an exploration of paradoxes between the Arabic and the Western culture with regards to this emotion and word – love.

Interview transcript on page 2

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