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24/9/2008

Keungsuk Kim Sexton

The Mack-Cali building, Jersey City

Jersey City artist Keungsuk Kim Sexton addresses the relationship between the real and the artificial, the natural and the invented, the organic and the plastic in this whimsical installation, Natural Artifice: Parlor. Addressing the Victorian obsession with florid decoration and the nineteenth century American interest in indigenous flora and fauna, the artist also refers to a more contemporary obsession-decorative design and products for the home and the materials from which they are made. Polyester flowers and plastic grass, normally used to ornament the exterior, are here brought into the domestic space, creating an unexpected twist and underscoring the artist's concern with the use of the artificial to mimic the natural.

"Americans in the late 1800's glorified nature, but also viewed it as something to be conquered. The Victorian faith in industrial progress, and belief in the superiority of technology, led to an increasing desire to subdue and domesticate the natural.

More than a century later, the tension between nature and progress continues. Debates about global warming...headlines about plastic surgery, cloning, artificial intelligence...

My installation, while happy and bright on the surface, portends of perhaps of a darker future, where nature is replaced by plastic Astroturf and polyester cloth flowers with no scent. And yet, the intense, Technicolor hues evokes a hyper-reality that on the surface may be even more beautiful than reality. Mimicry supercedes the original. Is it a triumph of technology... or hubris?" -K. K. Sexton

Born in Seoul, Korea, Keungsuk Kim Sexton immigrated to America at the age of five. She notes the colors used in her installation "echoes the Korean penchant for saturated, sometimes garish hues."

The Mack-Cali building windows
located at Christopher Columbus Drive
between Washington and Greene Streets - Jersey City

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