October 6 - November 30, 2019
Fridays and Saturdays 1-6pm
and by appointment
MBnb
520 West 143rd Street
New York, New York 10031
take the A,B,C,D or 1 to 145th Street
Janice Guy and Joe Scanlan are pleased to present a solo exhibition by Sowon Kwon at MBnb.
Pattens comma
When Carlos figures he can run in five inch heels but six is pushing it, I hear it as anticipatory, and less boast than fair assessment based on experience. To slay and to sprint. To slay at a sprint. Such double duty is another reminder that some of us do more, have to do more, than others. Better inclined to than have to but same difference after a while.
This penchant for the two (three, five) fold may also account for what I thought a commonly shared sentiment but recognize now, chillingly, as absolutely not the case. And that is an affection for English spoken with an accent. No doubt this has something to do with trilingual parents. The infinite charms of my father’s English though, gave little hint of the piercing sarcasm and wit in his Korean. And when he spoke Japanese which I do not, I would wonder what other nuances are inaccessible to me. What do I in fact not know, about those I think I know so well? When something is said, what else is unsaid and unheard?
Following these lines and amidst a configuration of preloved oddities in relief—protruding yet attached, sculptural yet pictorial—is an invitation to inhabit another kind of space alongside the one given, however schematically registered. Not as mise-en-scene exactly, nor a window on the world, but one nonetheless conducive to spacing in and out and reverie, to perturbation possibly, or as with the Flemish of old, to an aggregation of views held together in a curious simultaneity. Flat yet dimensional, isometric and perspectival. Two (three, five) point.
In the American context, I don’t speak with an accent. (And can muster almost as much DIY gumption for building platforms where none exist as your average Joe. Bet your boots, by our own bootstraps, best foot forward, walk a mile in someone else’s, one two buckle my… et al.) But I ask you to consider here, what it might mean to make work with an accent.
– Sowon Kwon
Sowon Kwon works in a range of media including sculptural and video installations, digital animation, drawing, printmaking, books, and writing. Her recent work has been featured at Full Haus, Los Angeles, Triple Canopy magazine, with whom Secretary Press co-published her artist book S as in Samsam (2017), The Poetry Project, and Speaker's Corner on this website. She has had solo exhibitions at Gallery Simon, Seoul; The Kitchen, New York; Matrix Gallery/Berkeley Art Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Her work has been featured in many group exhibitions in the US and abroad: New Museum, New York; ICA Boston; MOCA Los Angeles; Queens Museum, New York; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; Artists Space, New York; The Drawing Center, New York; Artsonje Center, Seoul; the Gwangju Biennale, the Yokohama Triennale; and San Art, Ho Chi Minh City. She teaches in the Graduate Fine Arts Programs at Parsons School of Design | The New School and Vermont College of Fine Arts, and is a contributor to 4 Columns magazine.
MBnb is an ongoing artwork in honor of Marcel Broodthaers. It was conceived, in part, to explore what it might mean "to sell something and succeed in life” in what is euphemistically referred to as the sharing economy, fifty years after Broodthaers uttered those doomed, aspirational words.
Fridays and Saturdays 1-6pm
and by appointment
MBnb
520 West 143rd Street
New York, New York 10031
take the A,B,C,D or 1 to 145th Street
Janice Guy and Joe Scanlan are pleased to present a solo exhibition by Sowon Kwon at MBnb.
Pattens comma
When Carlos figures he can run in five inch heels but six is pushing it, I hear it as anticipatory, and less boast than fair assessment based on experience. To slay and to sprint. To slay at a sprint. Such double duty is another reminder that some of us do more, have to do more, than others. Better inclined to than have to but same difference after a while.
This penchant for the two (three, five) fold may also account for what I thought a commonly shared sentiment but recognize now, chillingly, as absolutely not the case. And that is an affection for English spoken with an accent. No doubt this has something to do with trilingual parents. The infinite charms of my father’s English though, gave little hint of the piercing sarcasm and wit in his Korean. And when he spoke Japanese which I do not, I would wonder what other nuances are inaccessible to me. What do I in fact not know, about those I think I know so well? When something is said, what else is unsaid and unheard?
Following these lines and amidst a configuration of preloved oddities in relief—protruding yet attached, sculptural yet pictorial—is an invitation to inhabit another kind of space alongside the one given, however schematically registered. Not as mise-en-scene exactly, nor a window on the world, but one nonetheless conducive to spacing in and out and reverie, to perturbation possibly, or as with the Flemish of old, to an aggregation of views held together in a curious simultaneity. Flat yet dimensional, isometric and perspectival. Two (three, five) point.
In the American context, I don’t speak with an accent. (And can muster almost as much DIY gumption for building platforms where none exist as your average Joe. Bet your boots, by our own bootstraps, best foot forward, walk a mile in someone else’s, one two buckle my… et al.) But I ask you to consider here, what it might mean to make work with an accent.
– Sowon Kwon
Sowon Kwon works in a range of media including sculptural and video installations, digital animation, drawing, printmaking, books, and writing. Her recent work has been featured at Full Haus, Los Angeles, Triple Canopy magazine, with whom Secretary Press co-published her artist book S as in Samsam (2017), The Poetry Project, and Speaker's Corner on this website. She has had solo exhibitions at Gallery Simon, Seoul; The Kitchen, New York; Matrix Gallery/Berkeley Art Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Her work has been featured in many group exhibitions in the US and abroad: New Museum, New York; ICA Boston; MOCA Los Angeles; Queens Museum, New York; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; Artists Space, New York; The Drawing Center, New York; Artsonje Center, Seoul; the Gwangju Biennale, the Yokohama Triennale; and San Art, Ho Chi Minh City. She teaches in the Graduate Fine Arts Programs at Parsons School of Design | The New School and Vermont College of Fine Arts, and is a contributor to 4 Columns magazine.
MBnb is an ongoing artwork in honor of Marcel Broodthaers. It was conceived, in part, to explore what it might mean "to sell something and succeed in life” in what is euphemistically referred to as the sharing economy, fifty years after Broodthaers uttered those doomed, aspirational words.