You Remained Dismembered
Helen Cho
15 June – 28 July 2018
Opening Reception: 15 June 2018, 6-8PM

Is sound intelligence?

The earth is also sound
guided by sound
and so are all things of the earth

Rocks are her ears recording all of her events from the beginning
My earth body returns to hers
where the earth worm also sings
Inside/ outside vibrations
My bones resonate
My stomach, spleen, liver, kidneys, lungs and heart resonate
These organs are sound
contain sound

– Pauline Oliveros, The Earth Worm Also Sings: A composer’s practice of deep listening (1993)

You Remained Dismembered is a new body of video and sculptural work by Helen Cho that considers alternative interpretations of seemingly trivial day-to-day materiality to fabricate formative concepts of home. You Remained Dismembered draws parallels from the poetic, fractured English language spoken by many first-generations and the invention of representative “traditional values” laden upon objects and object-making.

The video piece So Many Wind is the second part of the Tai Lam Trilogy, a series of work featuring a Vietnamese immigrant who came to Canada in 1986 as a refugee after spending three years in a refugee camp in Indonesia. So Many Wind presents his recollection of the perilous journey as a refugee, after leaving Vietnam without a fixed destination.

Through the conceptual and aesthetic elements of the Korean cultural practices of Pyeongsang, Chaekgeori, and Suseok, new sculptural work titled Materiality Reconstructing a Desire for Auspicious Life reconstructs and re-stages notions of home, work, and belonging. The pieces explore the prosaic and seductive qualities of mass-produced materiality, in parallel with narratives of poignancy and tenaciousness suggested through trivial objects. Cho composes a still-life arrangement of inanimate forms, made of synthetic, massed produced materiality, striving to live as though they are organic and sentient beings.

In conjunction with the exhibition, a new text by Fan Wu was commissioned titled Homeland: Broken Waves/Pizza Parlour.

BIOGRAPHY

Helen Cho’s artistic practice spans sculpture, ceramic, video, performance, drawing, text, and photography. She received a MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, University of London (UK). Her artworks have been exhibited at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; Kunstverein Wolfsberg, Wolfsberg; Kumho Museum, Seoul; Artspeak, Vancouver; Articule, Montreal; Galerie Martin van Zomeren, Amsterdam; Galerie Magnus Müller, Berlin; G Gallery, Toronto; Onomatopee, Eindhoven, among others. She has participated in artists-in-residences at Ssamziespace, Seoul; the Banff Centre, Banff; and European Ceramic Work Centre, Oisterwijk, the Netherlands.

Image: Helen Cho, So Many Wind, 2018.