Jewyo Rhii: Of Hundred Carts and On

Barakat Contemporary is pleased to present Jewyo Rhii’s first solo exhibition at the gallery: Of Hundred Carts and On from August 31st to October 27th, 2023. Centered around the project Love Your Depot, to which Rhii has been dedicated since 2019, the exhibition engages in Jewyo Rhii’s undertaking to empower seemingly small and feeble peripheries outside the mainstream and the recent transition in her usage of materials.

Awarded the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea’s 2019 Korea Artist Prize, and also currently publicly installed at the Gungmaeul Park in Suseo-dong, Gangnam-gu, the various manifestations of the Love Your Depot series is an open storage system that houses and displays artworks neglected from the dominant art market logic. As an “institution that supports the life of artwork based on its physical reality,” it is both a technical device and political attitude that nurtures the longevity of works post- or even excluded from exhibitions. Along with the works by her artist colleagues, Rhii’s significant past works, Lie on the Han River (2003–), Unidentified (En)Lightening Object (2004–2017), and the Typewriter (2010–) series are amongst many that will be exhibited on the Depots. These works, which begin with a personal narrative but are eventually completed with the involvement of others, are means of telling a story entangled with the physicality of the presented objects. Moreover, the artist’s metal recasting of works made in wood, is a new attempt that suggests the direction of her recent works towards stability and durability, just as Love Your Depot provides a more robust conveyance for a wider diversity of artistic practices. 

Like stacking things up on a cart one by one before proceeding to the next destination, Jewyo Rhii tells us that artworks and stories also bear the weight of reality, and thus, she continuously creates a foundation that can mobilize while firmly supporting them. Five carts will become one hundred one day, and they will definitely not be underestimated then.