Upon approaching La MaMa Galleria, I knew I’d be in for a deal with. The gallery’s entrance window reveals a video of Korean artist Jiwon Rhie being repeatedly slapped within the face by a hand-shaped contraption of her personal making. By the crinkles of her face and her bob flipping backwards and forwards alone, it was evident that Rhie’s fascination with movement and incongruity would anchor Abruptly, Photographs Clarify All the pieces, on view via this Sunday, June 30.
On the entrance of the gallery house, Rhie’s jittering Flower Canine (2016–ongoing) yap and scurry on the ft of two gumball machines courtesy of Quick Cease Gallery, that are cordoned off on a packing fabric offered by Mission Artwork Distribution. Two of the Flower Canine are trapped inside the working dispensers that ask for ¢50 and ¢75 respectively to accumulate a enjoyable memento that includes a keychain and a brief tattoo from the artist. Whereas the mechanical toy canines are probably the most kinetic, colourful, and interactive portion of the exhibition, Rhie weaves this semblance of dwelling objecthood all through the remainder of her work.
Rhie interprets parts of her life into wearables via the presentation of her Self Outlined (2023) sequence, consisting of six bras constituted of material the artist digitally printed with paperwork, photographs, and choose texts from her private historical past. Based on Rhie, bras are a compulsory social customized for ladies in South Korea, meant to obscure their nipples and seem put collectively, contradicting the not too long ago lax perspective towards the need of the undergarment in some elements of the world. Imbuing herself into the confines of the underwear and the expectation to put on it, Rhie humorously questions how these social guidelines form our personal notion of ourselves whereas we attempt to put our greatest foot ahead to the general public.
The artist got here to the USA in 2017 to pursue a Grasp of High-quality Arts at Pratt Institute and has used her apply to probe her emotions of displacement, cultural contradictions, and unpacking the self because the vessel via which we navigate the world. That is most evident in her continued pursuit of reflective installations that fragment or distort the viewer’s picture. In each the kinetic blinds and the stationary, checker-paneled room divider, the viewer’s semi-translucent reflection is chopped up, layered, scattered, and fairly absurd-looking in a funhouse kind of method, leaning into the recurring motif of not with the ability to management how others take a look at you regardless of your greatest effort.
I’ll have had an excessive amount of enjoyable looking for the craziest methods my reflection may very well be altered — nearly like when a child will get entry to PhotoBooth on a Mac for the primary time — and I’d tremendously suggest that anybody who stops by the exhibition do the identical. Rhie’s clear however playful investigations into societal practices and self-image on a transcultural entrance put sensitivity and humor at an equal degree on the dimensions, but additionally provide a singular, thought-provoking probe into the strains between objectification and company as an immigrant.
