Joowon Park’s Five Favourite Works from Frieze Seoul Viewing Room

Gala Porras-Kim, San Vitale, Ravenna, marble floor reconstruction, 2024 

Coloured pencil on paper, 185 x 185 x 5 cm. Presented by Commonwealth and Council

We often go through daily life without questioning how we view the world and process information, but Gala Porras-Kim invites us to see things differently. She combines creativity and rigour in her approach to repositories of knowledge, challenging the assumption that information from art and science institutions is always accurate or fair. Her work raises important questions about the methodologies that shape our understanding. In her marble floor reconstruction, she meticulously captures imperfections – hairline cracks, mismatched colours – that tell their own story. What’s particularly intriguing is her close examination of uncatalogued histories – stories of care and neglect, conservation and flawed restoration of the marble floor over centuries, brought to life through coloured pencil.

Louise Bourgeois, Femme, 2003

Fabric and marble, 101.4 x 61 x 50.8 cm. Presented by Hauser & Wirth 

Louise Bourgeois places a small, hand-stitched figure on a soft bed within a pink mesh net, using fragile materials to evoke warmth, intimacy and vulnerability. This piece serves as a poetic symbol of her life as a woman and mother, and of motherhood more broadly. What’s particularly interesting is the inherent contradiction. The work conveys warmth and connection, yet the womb-like form also reveals Bourgeois’s anxieties about the dual nature of the parent-child relationship, where mother and child are simultaneously independent and separate, yet deeply interconnected.

Eunjoo Rho, Still Light-Orange Wind 3, 2024

Oil on canvas, 72.7 x 53 cm. Presented by Gallery Baton

What’s interesting about Rho Eunjoo’s work is her focus on capturing the incomplete and ambiguous state, while most people tend to emphasize perfection and finished forms. It’s not easy to reveal what is vulnerable, but doing so opens up possibilities for transformation and generosity. In her work, she explores the transmission of senses that occurs as the properties of media and materials change throughout the process. She is particularly drawn to construction sites, which, as the foundation of the city, eventually disappear, existing in a transient state. Through sensory decomposition, Rho explores shape and space, uncovering the underlying principles of structure and composition. 

Moon Kyungwon and Heon Joonho, To Build a Fire_This Is Me, 2024

Black stone, stainless steel. Presented by Scai the Bathhouse

I often find myself pondering the role of art in addressing human challenges and navigating a rapidly changing world, especially with the emergence of AI heralding a new era. MOON & JEON consistently engage with these themes. Their latest project, ‘To Build a Fire’ (2022–2024), is particularly compelling in this regard. Inspired by Jack London’s 1902 short story, this work examines earth’s ancient transformations and climate shifts from the perspective of an AI-generated stone. It portrays earth’s evolution through the eyes of a rock that was once massive but has gradually worn down over millennia into a small pebble. The stone retains memories of its era, with different rock layers reflecting the passage of time. 

Hok Tak Yeung, Guardian, 2018

Acrylic on canvas, 61 x 50.8 cm. Presented by Kiang Malingue

Yeung Hok Tak, with a background in graphic design and illustration, creates bold, vivid and eccentric canvases that tell stories with a distinctly local flavour and masculine sensitivity. Since the 2000s, he has prolifically depicted people and scenery in Hong Kong, using a rich, sometimes mixed palette of colors to explore the complex relationship between nostalgia, memory, and social change. Over the years, his work has evolved into a critical painting practice focused on the region’s social and political issues, while remaining colourful, vibrant and fun. He uncovers fragments of memory from the collective consciousness, juxtaposing historical and contemporary subjects in romantic and surreal ways, questioning the legitimacy of historical developments and social progress. 

About Joowon Park 

Joowon Park is a creative director of Supermade and has extensive experience as a curator at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA). Since 2015, she has led international relations at MMCA and has been the driving force behind the long-term project ‘Asia Focus’. In this project, ‘Asia’ isn’t just about geographical boundaries or identity; it symbolizes the diverse perspectives that offer new ways to see the world and promote a sense of solidarity. Through her on-site research, Joowon has focused on creating public platforms for artists and local art communities across East and Southeast Asia. She also served as an associate curator for the 13th Gwangju Biennale, titled ‘Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning’, and was a member of the Advisory Committee for the 2020 Asia Culture Forum in Gwangju, Korea. 

About Frieze Viewing Room  

Open to all from 28 August to 13 September 2024, Frieze Viewing Room is the online catalogue for the fair, giving global audiences access to gallery presentations coming to Frieze Seoul 2024. Visitors can search artworks by artist, price, date and medium, save favourite artworks and presentations, chat with galleries and much more.  

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Further Information 

Frieze Seoul is at COEX, 4 – 7 September 2024. 

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A dedicated online Frieze Viewing Room opens in the week before the fair, offering audiences a first look at the presentations and the ability to engage with the fair remotely.  

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