The exhibition title is an interpretation of “I’ve got peace like a river,” an African American spiritual that the artist grew up singing in Korean churches, with the song’s musical notation serving as a compositional structure for the installation. Hand-blown glass vessels filled with local Savannah River water and cast glass fossils adorn the gallery walls, giving sculptural form to the symbolism of rivers as sites for processing grief and for generating life. In commemoration of our ephemeral existence, a stream of layered images runs through the center of the gallery, leading viewers to a bed of hand-shredded silk flowers collected in a baptismal font. Hur also shows a series of intimate drawings and writings that engage with archival photographs from the postwar period in Korea, shifting once-periphery narratives of emotional and physical trauma into focus through poetic intervention. In bringing these works together, the artist reroutes the circulation of images and materials with the river as her guide, contemplating untold stories and offering a new course for healing.
Gyun Hur
'There is peace like a river 저기에 강같은 평화가'
With this exhibition, South Korean-born artist Gyun Hur (SCAD M.F.A., sculpture, 2009) marks a return to Georgia, the U.S. state to which she immigrated as a young teen, presenting a new body of work that reflects on personal and collective memories of the American South refracted through her family history and heritage.
With this exhibition, South Korean-born artist Gyun Hur (SCAD M.F.A., sculpture, 2009) marks a return to Georgia, the U.S. state to which she immigrated as a young teen, presenting a new body of work that reflects on personal and collective memories of the American South refracted through her family history and heritage.
About the artist
Gyun Hur (b. Daegu, South Korea) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose lived experience as a daughter of immigrants deeply fuels her practice. Born in South Korea, she moved to the U.S. state of Georgia at the age of 13 and currently lives and works in New York. Hur has participated in residencies with Stove Works, NARS Foundation, Pratt Fine Arts Center, BRICworkspace, Danspace Project, Ox-Bow, Vermont Studio Center, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She is the recipient of a Bronx Museum AIM Fellowship, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, Artadia Award, and the inaugural Hudgens Prize, among others. Her works have been featured in publications including Art in America, Art Papers, Sculpture magazine, Hyperallergic, Cultured magazine, The Cut, and ArtAsiaPacific, among others. Her interest in art-making in public space has led to presentations at the TEDxCentennialWomen; the international street art conference Living Walls, The City Speaks; the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center; The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; The New School, and many others. Hur has contributed to fLoromancy, The Brooklyn Rail, and The Forgetory.
Install Views
Credits
There is peace like a river is organized by SCAD Museum of Art assistant curator Brittany Richmond and presented as part of SCAD deFINE ART 2023.
