(Now, as in the Past,) A Sense of a Time: Standing in Front of White Wall by Kyeongbin Jeong

Yuki Konno

White Wall_Body (2023), a painting by Kyeongbin Jeong is currently put up in The Images (2023.07.07.-09.17.), an exhibition held at Hite Collection. Keeping the title in mind, this painting is unclear to its viewers; it is in an ambiguous, fuzzy manner. What we see is a painting; not a wall. What is more is that there are stains of other colors — such as red and black filling up the parts that are not painted in white, so the mystery of what the “white wall” from the title indicates intensi-fies. But despite its sections of non-white colors and figures, the painting is called “White Wall.” The question regarding the white on canvas moves on to the question regarding the matter of space. If one assumes the painting to be a white “wall” — or focuses on “the wall” – the illusional spatial experience the artwork currently exhibits is unfitting. If one assumes the “painting” as the white wall — or focuses on the “painting” – the artwork is expected to exist independently instead of backing away and integrating oneself into the area like walls do. In the center of questions surrounding colors and spaces are the features of the painting’s materiality. This painting by Kyeongbin Jeong is rather stained to be called white and is rather independent, giving some illusion than a wall does. The issue gets more complicated as other works have been titled identically for years as if they were a series. The White Wall from 2020 is overall whiter but is smaller than a wall, painted in a 22.7×15.8cm size. It should be more of a tile than a wall because of its glossy texture. There are a variety of other works, such as White Wall_I Forget I am Part of Me (2020), where the painting fits into the exhibition space, and White Wall_Kaori and Gajami (2020), where subjects are specified in its title.

However, it’s hard to see them as a series; the titles have various features, and the expressions are not consistent. In a way, the White Wall seems like a paradox. While any of the artworks are difficult to consider as white or as a wall due to its color scheme and size, comparing it with other works of the same title make it even more uncertain to understand what they are If there is a way to resolve this uncertainty, or more precisely, despite this uncertainty of the “white wall” argument is to interpret the White Wall as two subconscious beings. Instead of seeing it as a simple white color, one may contemplate it as an empty space in which the artist’s desire and memories are displayed and reflected, or think that it highlighted the institutional attributes of exhibition spaces (white cubes). The former reads into the mind of the artist while the latter sees artworks as internal conditions of an exhibition. The dilemma is resolved when hidden inner/internal conditions settle and reveal themselves, assuming there is a solution “somewhere” unseen. Unlike the solution which is to head towards that “somewhere,” I would rather see the White Wall as an uncertain place. On the very first moment of seeing the canvas, a white wall is put up, as well as its artist in front of the canvas. When one tries to see beyond the reflected shadow of the artist and touchable materiality, the White Wall exists as a collision space instead of resolving with the name “somewhere.”

The incompleteness is further clarified (emphasized) when approached from the perspectives of materiality and time. Through this approach, we are able to reckon that this incompleteness is headed for ” a certain time” instead of inner/internal conditions. A time from the White Wall by Kyeongbin Jeong does not reenact a certain time or event. When the artist brings out a past memory or sensation to the present time in her works, the results are vague or incomplete. The initial state of the canvas, the white wall, heads towards a certain place — an internal space that is called memory, a place of in-person experiences, a represented space of illusion — but is still a white wall. Even if the artist’s mind does get rightfully reflected, it is unable to go beyond the materiality of the canvas, nor is it able to be fully reflected as it would in a mirror, so the hazy traces of existence shimmer on the surface. The White Wall is a place that embodies this uncertainty instead of clearing up its haziness.

The artist had her interest in this sense of “a certain time” in her solo exhibition Walkingwithoutlegs (Sahng-up Gallery Euljiro, Seoul, 2022). Understanding the title of the exhibition as a walk where one has a place to stand even without legs, the sense of a certain time lingers in the White Wall. Even in works that are titled as specific locations such as “Seoul” and “Nam-hae,” what the artist felt in that specific time and place only shows its traces for a short period of time called now. The paintings do not completely depict that specific place — an internal space that is called a memory, a place of real experiences, a represented space of illusion — on canvas. The sense of re-activating the time discrepancy now instead of then, is to realize the present in a less-activated manner that is bound to be vague and clumsy. To think of it that way, Jeong’s painting becomes a relic in the exhibition space, as it parts from its master, or in other words, the artist. A time, reenacted in the painting, accurately recreates the past in the present time, endures the time gap and the changes within, connects to the now, and allows the White Wall to exist. The white wall is not absent. It is soft and frail but is also certain of its materiality and concept. The White Wall was once a white wall, and because it embodies the moment — the moment in the course of time where the artist recalled her memories and sensations — in the now, it is still a white wall.

In paintings, to paint something is a conundrum where one paints something but at the same time does not. In other words, it is a dilemma. Yet when painting something, it heads for a specific space and is easily realized. The White Wall exists as a place where one can aim for a certain goal, but its outcomes eventually result in uncertainty. It is a place where the dilemma of the (im) possibility of realization in paintings is accepted. The White Wall is put up as a place where vague traces of beings linger on the surface. The viewer stands in front of this uncertain place, where it is not obvious, nor able to be reenacted in perfection, but exhibits the clear sense that one is heading to a certain time: Just like the canvas did in the very first place.