Latest News:

【4 corner of eroticism】

corner of eroticismLuminous Poem

By Dan Piepenbring

Look

7702

Airan Kang,Pining for Mother by Shin Saimdang, 2014, LEDs, custom electronics, and resin, dimensions variable.

It would be an understatement to say that Airan Kang is fixated on the book as a form—the South Korean artist’s exhibitions have bibliophilic titles, almost to a one: there’s “The Only Book,” for instance, plus “Hello Gutenberg,” “Light Reading,” “The Bookshelf Enlightened,” and “Luminous Words.” Her latest, “The Luminous Poem,” which opens tomorrow at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, continues a career-long project that “opens up the idea of the book from a concrete, self-contained object into a virtual space for the imagination,” as the gallery puts it. You’d be forgiven for finding that high-flown—but even if Kang’s installments don’t explode your whole approach to the written word, you can still count on them to rewire some synapses. The enigmatic title piece projects Romantic poems across an enormous mirrored book that the viewer can walk through; the effect is like a planetarium for words, with serifed stars. Her shelves of books, meanwhile, their spines and covers etched in retina-scarring neon, conjure both your neighborhood bookshop and a Jetsons-era take on space-age amenities. It’s as if some time-traveler whispered the words electronic bookinto the ear of Hanna-Barbera cartoonist circa 1963—Kang’s works are proof of concept.

“The Luminous Poem” is up through June 13.

469Airan_Kang

Luminous Words, 2013.

436AK_install1

An installation view from “Light Reading,” Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, 2010.

748AiranKang-scrolledbooks

Scrolled Book 4, 2014, LEDs, custom electronics, plastic, wood, 40″ x 19 1/2″ x 5 1/2″.

839TheLuminousPoem

The Luminous Poem, installation, 2015.

Dan Piepenbring is the web editor of The Paris Review.

Related Articles

  • Best Presidents' Day deal: Save $250 on Peloton Bike
    2025-06-27 02:40
  • 9 British and Irish Christmas traditions you need to adopt right now
    2025-06-27 02:40
  • Woman smuggles cat in her carry
    2025-06-27 02:19
  • OMG, look at these original 'Legend of Zelda' design documents
    2025-06-27 02:05
  • In Paris Agreement speech, Trump never acknowledged the reality of global warming
    2025-06-27 01:56
  • The most memorable lines from Obama's 8 years in office
    2025-06-27 01:41
  • Enjoy 2016 reimagined in gingerbread form
    2025-06-27 01:41
  • Dust off your dream journal: 12 of the world's best hotel pools
    2025-06-27 01:08
  • Super Bowl LIX livestream: Watch Eagles vs Chiefs on Tubi
    2025-06-27 00:50
  • What we want our boyfriends, The Chainsmokers, to buy us for Christmas
    2025-06-26 23:58

Popular

Top Reads

Recommendations