Installation
view of 《A Hundred Suns》 ©Gallery BatonGallery Baton presents 《A Hundred Suns》, a solo exhibition by Jimok
Choi (b. 1981), on view through September 20.
The exhibition coincides with a time when
Jimok Choi's longstanding engagement with the "After image" series is
poised for further development. It features an artist performance titled, Your
retina is my canvas and provide an opportunity to explore the concept
of ‘Perceptual Painting,’ which he has consistently pursued.
Installation
view of 《A Hundred Suns》 ©Gallery BatonAs the exhibition title suggests, Jimok
Choi’s paintings serve as a painterly archive of the visual reactions and
complementary afterimages produced by the artist’s own retina when facing the
sun. The vivid phantoms that emerge after gazing directly at the sun and
closing one’s eyes appear in colors entirely different from the
original—complementary hues that gradually fade before disappearing altogether.
Choi’s confession, “In the end, I paint the
world inside my eyes,” reveals that the random, unpredictable phantoms arising
in the absence of light are both his subject matter and the medium he
translates into pigment.
Installation view of 《A Hundred Suns》 ©Gallery Baton
Interestingly, the dual nature of light—as
both particle and wave—is closely linked to Choi’s painterly technique. In
rendering afterimages based on sensory perception, the airbrush becomes an
effective tool for depicting the boundless layering and immaterial presence of
floating clusters of color.
Dominant afterimages are expressed in
flowing, dense layers, while those fading into resonance are treated through
the delicate dispersion of color particles, simulating the fleeting nature of
images that “emerge and vanish” upon the retina. At the same time, the moments
where the brush makes physical contact with the canvas are concentrated on
deliberately constructing and fixing boundaries.
Just as overlapping light waves generate
interference patterns with clear edges, the brush-emphasized forms subtly
reveal the artist’s desire to move beyond the re-presentation of perception
toward the realm of pure abstraction.
