The Observers: Moohyun Jo, Gus Monday

23 - 29 November 2024 Busan
Installation Views
Overview
This Fall, SEOJUNG ART presents ⟪The Observers⟫, a duo exhibition featuring Moohyun Jo and Gus Monday from November 23 to December 29 in Busan. Moohyun Jo explores the underlying structures and meanings that exist beyond visible surfaces, revealing an enduring curiosity about the unseen aspect of the world. Gus Monday, known for a narrative storyteller, draws from personal experiences to create spatial narratives that interweave social symbols and codes. French philosopher Michel Foucault once suggested in 『Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison』 that ‘the observer is not one who seeks to control the subject but one who investigates the possibilities of its existence.’ This exhibition features 14 works, including 12 new pieces in painting, drawing, and sculpture, both artists explore how the act of observing can reconstruct reality and expand the interpretive potential of observation.

 

Moohyun Jo examines the structures and meanings beyond visible surfaces, visualizing his reflections on the hidden aspects. As an observer, he takes a proactive stance, going beyond merely recording the external appearance of the subject to decode the hidden relationships and underlying mechanisms within. Especially, the ‘car’ serves as a central subject in his work. The internal structure of the car, hidden beneath its sleek surface, is not visible, yet its presence can be sensed, and the functional ‘volume’ created within it fosters the user’s trust. In his relationship with the car, he captures its inner essence through and observer’s gaze that penetrates beyond the surface by using collected car images, he delves into the paradoxical relationship between interior and exterior. Gazing the relationship through an ‘observer’s lens’, he reconstructs the volume and depth of the interior in his paintings and sculptures. His work reveals symbolic meaning hidden within everyday objects through a keen observation of qualities that do not immediately appear on the surface. This exploration serves as a medium that reflects his perspective as an observer while simultaneously creating a bridge to the viewer’s own gaze.

 

Meanwhile, Gus Monday, who grew up between South Africa and United Kingdom, integrates his personal experiences with diverse social, cultural, and historical elements to create visual narratives coded into everyday spaces. As an observer, he unveils the social codes embedded in space with a sharp eye, revealing how individuals interact with their surroundings. By juxtaposing stylistic elements that evoke both modern perspectives and nostalgia for the past in a single frame, he reinterprets the complex relationship between past and present, inviting questions on how the observer perceives and internalizes these contexts.

In this exhibition, Monday presents his Study and Sketch series for the first time in Korea. Far from being merely preliminary works, these pieces are the culmination of constant observation and documentation, captures pivotal moments in his creative process.

 

The two artists demonstrate that observation is a journey that reaches beyond visual surfaces to explore the multiple layers of meaning beneath. Audiences are invited to synchronize with the artists’ perspectives, shifting from intuitive viewing to more analytic engagement. Through this, viewers are invited to revisit overlooked scenes of everyday life, joining an artistic journey that reconstructs and reinterprets the reality.
Works