Allosteric Ginger: Oh Yongseok
Gallery Chosun will host Oh Yongseok’s solo exhibition 《Allosteric Ginger》 from May 13 to June 2, 2020. Oh Yongseok has long remained devoted to the classical medium of oil painting, using it to explore subjects that are socially overlooked, difficult to explain, or even taboo. In his second solo exhibition at Gallery Chosun, he presents new works that investigate enigmatic and uncanny, but at the same time, captivating forms: collective dreams, hybridized plants, and bodies encompassing multiple temporalities.
The title Allosteric Ginger refers to a colour name invented by the artist. “Ginger”, a colour often found in cosmetics. This colour is at once alluring and fearful, hospitable and stigmatized. The adjective “Allosteric” is a complex chemical term meaning “other-site stereospecificity”. It refers to the phenomenon in which a small molecule binds to a site on an enzyme that is distinct from its active site, altering the enzyme’s activity. Oh employs this term metaphorically, drawing attention to the way structures and modes of attachment can shift, causing original roles and positions to change.
The forms depicted in the paintings seem to wait for the viewer’s interpretation, yet they never allow anyone a fully complete understanding. This, however, does not mean that the works invite an open-ended reading. Rather, the core of these paintings lies precisely in what remains uninterpreted as surplus. For one, the presence of points that appear as mere stains; unreadable, unresolved, signifies that the entire world could at any moment be turned upside down. The other might discover a puzzle piece one has yet to find and, in doing so, complete the world entirely differently from the first perception. In this sense, the forms in this exhibition might be said to enjoy a subtle tug-of-war with the viewer. They are not merely aesthetic objects confined to the canvas; at times, they seize the viewer in reverse, freezing them in place.
According to the artist, the paintings possess a “liquid sense”. As soon as the artist tries to control the work with his hands, it slips through his fingers, independent of his intention, evoking the sense of a living organism. Rather than over-controlling this movement, he chooses to surrender himself to it, allowing his body to follow its flow. The exhibition thus becomes one of many possible points of access to this current. Within it, viewers may hear the strange voices of those who have never spoken before, their worlds both unheard and unspeakable.