PAUL RHO EBBS AND FLOWS | Rockella Space

PAUL RHO, EBBS AND FLOWS:

An Exhibition Curated By Yuyue (Eunice) Chen

Eunice is back at Rockella Space with a special exhibition by Paul Rho!

Paul Rho, Ebbs And Flows

Curated by Yuyue (Eunice) Chen

July 7-21, 2024

Public Reception: July 12th, 6-8pm

One Eyed Studios

1639 Centre St,

Ridgewood, 11385

Please contact paulrhostudio@gmail.com to schedule an appointment.

Opening July 7th at One Eyed Studios, Ebbs and Flows is Paul Rho’s debut solo exhibition in New York. Showcasing his multimedia work spanning photography, ceramic, installation, and sound, Curator Eunice Chen has created a space where people can experience the changes of time and space, nature and the cosmos, and engage with local communities.

A multimedia artist whose interest lies in the materiality of photography, Rho’s interest in the moon, which serves as a major inspiration for his work, begins with his fascination with time, tradition, and nature. As time passes in a daily 24-hour cycle, the sun sets and the moon rises. During the Joseon Dynasty, people made wishes upon the moon, and the moon jars, crafted by anonymous artisans, are considered the essence of Joseon white porcelain representing elegance and simplicity in response to the core Confucian value of ‘etiquette (禮)’ of the time.

When the artist spins the pottery wheel to create a moon jar, he contemplates the cyclical nature of time embodied in the rotating clock, the Earth’s rotation, and the seasonal changes following the solar terms. His interest in the fluidity of the universe and the cycles of time and nature are intertwined with the temporality generated in the process of image formation through developing photographs in the dark room.

The central piece, Tidal (2023), embodies this interest through the meticulously sculpted multimedia work. Made with a traditional Korean Mulberry Hanji paper coated with a gelatin silver emulsion which was then cast around a moon jar, also made by Rho, the work includes a sound component by Julian Zehnder. The twelve jars surround the space clockwise with Hanbok made by the Korean artisan Cheonshik Yang and ceramic bells newly created for the exhibition. The temporal shifts and temporal cycles created within this multimedia piece resonate with the artist’s own diaspora, who has lived in Argentina, the UK, and the United States after leaving Korea at the age of 14.

Resonating with Chen’s curatorial priorities which focus on migration and diaspora, body and space, environmental injustice, and critical urbanism, Chen writes, “(Paul’s practice) reminds me of a sentence by Song Ci: ‘People have sorrow and joy, as the moon waxes and wanes. The seasons turn, each in their own time. Ever changing, never changing.2 … Rho’s photographs are not just digital images; they are variable dimensions that measure space and invite viewers to walk in and experience the intricate interplay of time and space.”

The exhibition is on view from July 7 and runs through the 21, 2024.

About Paul Rho

Paul Rho (노바울, b.1989, Seoul, Korea) is an interdisciplinary artist dealing with personal memories through photography, video, sculpture, and performance. He began his studies at the University of Arts London and completed a bachelor’s degree in Photography at the School of Visual Arts followed by a master’s degree in Visual Arts at Columbia University. His practice concentrates on how photographic materials; paper, film, and light-sensitive chemicals can be transformed into sculptures rather than storytelling tools. The act of taking photographs has become our society’s behaviour of existence due to digital technology. His photography is about chemical reactions, not the digital translation of 0 and 1. To honour the pioneers of photography, he investigates various methods of photography processes and sculpts with chemical photographs. Meanwhile, his work is influenced by personal experiences, such as folding, sewing, traditional Korean pottery, and Korean traditional music. When he was 14, he left Korea and lived in Canada, Italy, England, Argentina, and the United States. After living as an expat for two decades, he is finally navigating and accepting his roots. He currently resides and works in New York.