GWON OSANG AT THE MANCHESTER ART GALLERY
August 02, 2008,
Written by The 405
A woman kneels on all fours, red trousers contrasting with the white surroundings, her wedge-like hair hanging down, half-covering an emotionless face just staring at the ground. Two women stand elevated on a podium, one wilting, almost melting into the arms of the other, who looks down at her impassively, ambiguously. Behind them, almost hidden against the wall, a biker, all denim and leather, has fallen to the ground in a foetal position, his helmet obscuring everything except his sharp, haunting eyes. Is he the victim of some horrific accident? Or has he simply been kicked in the balls?
To make these figures Gwon Osang first sculpts the subject in Styrofoam, creating a sketch of their shape. Next, he painstakingly takes close-up photographs of every surface detail that his model displays; the skin, clothes, facial features, hair, even the soles of shoes. Finally he layers these photos on to the sculptures, recreating these people with a disconcerting mixture of extreme photographic detail and rough sculptural approximation.
The results almost look like characters from early 3D computer games; polygonal models with 2D textures wrapped around them, the lack of technology rendering them unrealistically stubby and blocky. And yet sometimes, in the periphery of vision, or in the first fleeting glimpse, the clarity of the photos catches you out and the figures almost become human. One of them, a woman who has seemingly tripped from a low shelf and lies prone across the floor, gazes at you from ankle level with a haunting apathy.
There is the spectre of pop culture here too, references to Manchester's musical history, as well as an impressive rendering of one of the city's mounted police officers, complete with horse. But this doesn't plague the exhibition in the same way it often does here in this most nostalgic of cities. These are strange, affecting sculptures arranged by the curator in an intelligent way which encourages reflection and interpretation.
Gwon Osang will be at the Manchester Art Gallery until 21st September. More photos, not from this exhibition, are here.
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