DÉJÀ VU: IN SHADES OF GRAY

BY ARTIST SUNG OK CHO

In this solo exhibition, artist Cho, Sungok invites us to delve into the realm of memories and imaginings through her unified use of the color grey. Cho's Déjà Vu series explores the intersections of personal memory and collective history, contemplating our own experiences of nostalgia, loss, and longing. The grey color palette fills the emotional landscape with the duality of emptiness and fullness; uncertainty and tranquility.

Artist Cho has been taking photographs for three decades, primarily in China, during her 18-year residency in Shanghai and 12-year residency in Hong Kong. After returning to live in Korea in 2021, Cho created Déjà Vu as a computer-generated digital artwork using her photography archives. She deconstructs and designs fragments of one or multiple images, layering them to reinterpret and recreate her digital work. By fragmenting and reassembling images digitally, she generates dreamlike memorabilia and an atmosphere that bids us to question the nature of perception and discovery of truth.

Cho's feeling of déjà vu in her original photographs evokes nostalgia, disorientation, and confusion. In her digital artworks, she explores this concept by creating layered and fragmented images from multiple photos. These images suggest the rhythmic and subjective nature of memories, featuring multiple layers or elements that appear to overlap or fade away that creates a sense of temporal and spatial dislocation. Cho arranges the layers so that they appear to be superimposed over one another, creating a sense of depth and complexity in her artworks.

Cho commands her use of gray as a poetic visual representation of the blurred lines between memories and dreams, past, present, and future, and reality and imagination. By using gray as a unifying element, she highlights the ambiguity and fluidity of memory and how it can evoke both comfort and ease.

Cho's works provoke a sense of willingness and expression to search for one's true identity by seeing beyond one's boundaries. Through her exploration of memory and imagination, Cho invites us to contemplate our own experiences and emotions and to consider how they shape our understanding of ourselves and the world at large. Her works encourage us to embrace inexactness and adaptability as we navigate our personal journeys of self-discovery.