SCAI Bathhouse
Closes Dec. 25
South Korean artist Jeon Joonho makes sculptures and video installations that sometimes come across as crudely didactic or politically preachy. For example, his 2006 video installation "The White House" appealed for the way it appeared to pour simple scorn on the by-then toxically unpopular Bush administration — surely a pointless artistic endeavor.
Using the picture of the White House on the reverse of the $20 bill as its setting, the seven-and-a-half-minute video featured a small silhouetted figure slowly whitewashing away the windows of the building, the easy message being that the incumbent was blind to the world and out-of-touch. But, on a more astute level, the erasing of the windows also hinted at the long-running connection between the U.S. establishment and freemasonry, which practices its rites in windowless rooms. This is not the sort of insight normally expected of a young Korean artist, but the works at his latest exhibition "Bless You" at Scai the Bathhouse suggest that such subtly is not beyond him.
With one video installation — a slow-burning satire based on the recently suspended currency of North Korea — and three sculptures, flitting from item to item is not a possibility, forcing visitors to pay close attention to each piece. For an artist whose works often have a bleak, sparse appearance, the gorgeous and extravagant "Sweet Valentine" (2008-9) is an interesting departure. Both a critique and an embrace of Western artistic influence on Asia, it shows that Jeon is a more complex and interesting artist than some may have initially thought.
For more information, visit www.scaithebathhouse. com/en/exhibition/data/ 091120jeon_joonho
