WOVEN HORIZON by Soon Yul Kang

Date: January 5th to January 31st 2009
Venue: Colne Gallery, 1st Floor Colchester General Hospital, Turner Road, Colchester, Essex CO4 5JL
Email: artbyclive@yahoo.co.uk or soonyulkang@yahoo.com
Phone: 07971 536534

THE COLNE GALLERY, on the first floor of Colchester General Hospital, aims to support the widely held belief that the arts can improve well-being and transform anonymous and empty spaces into stimulating and interesting ones.

The New Year is celebrated with a solo exhibition of Soon Yul Kang’s works, it runs from January 5th through to 31st of January at the Colne Gallery. The works in this exhibition are hand woven tapestries dating from 2002 to the present time.

Soon Yul Kang is originally from Seoul, South Korea. She studied textile art in Korea and Japan and at West Dean College in UK. She completed an MA in textiles at Goldsmiths College, University of London and has been a resident artist in Kew Studio in Richmond since 1998. She developed her subject inspired by the concepts of ZEN-simplicity, stillness and emptiness in terms of meditation and healing in her tapestries with serene landscapes. Her work is on permanent display at West Middlesex University Hospital.

“The process of creating a hand woven tapestry is very slow and it can take a long time to complete. It is a very meditative process and it involves a lot of attention to the process and to the subject matter. For a number of years my works have been concerned with contemplation, meditation, healing and time. The inspiration for my tapestries comes mostly from nature, from various serene landscapes. I have also been inspired by Zen concepts such as simplicity, stillness and emptiness. I am still developing these ideas in my tapestries with tranquil landscapes and misty seascapes that involve subtle changes in colour and light that reflect changes in perspective and mood. Subtlety of woven colour is more important than actual depiction of a scene. As the title of the exhibition suggests, WOVEN HORIZON, the exhibition is about creating a feeling of serenity from landscapes that I have experienced. I hope that my tapestries give their viewers a feeling of calmness and peacefulness,” said Kang.

All of Soon Yul Kang’s tapestries have been created by hand using traditional tapestry weaving techniques, by the use of very subtle mix of colored wool threads. She creates smooth gradation by using subtly blended colour threads just as a painter uses a colour palette.