“The Korean Cultural Center in Hong Kong is pleased to present a solo exhibition of Korean Dansaekhwa master Chung Chang-Sup (Cheongju, 1927 – Seoul, 2011), in collaboration with Axel Vervoordt Gallery. The exhibition focuses on the artist’s final series in his career “Meditation”, which is a culmination of his forty-year quest to master the technique with tak, a natural material that’s made from the inner bark of the mulberry—a native tree in Korea.

Chung Chang-Sup was a prominent member of the Korean art movement Dansaekhwa. After two decades of studying and practicing Western abstract art, more particularly Art Informel, he experimented with hanji, a handcrafted material.

Chung stated that it was inevitable for him to rediscover hanji: “When I was young, the first thing I saw as soon as waking up in the morning was soft sunlight penetrating through a tak paper window. […] I felt a strong intimacy when reencountering the paper and I was immediately absorbed in experimenting with it for my art.” The core of his interest was the following: “Through the screen of tak paper, one can distinctively sense the wind, light and the flow of time outside his or her room, which allowed us to experience both feelings of being inside and outside. […] This is the realm of creation with no intention of creating.”

His final series “Meditation” is the culmination of the artist’s forty-year pursuit of this technique. For this series, Chung introduced other natural pigments, mostly out of tobacco leaves and charcoal, yet subtly faded and blurred into the yellowish tint from paper mulberry sap. In “Meditation”, Chung also introduced the geometry of form. By using a wooden stick, he opened up the thick pulp and shaped a large square, a window to the outside.

Associated with Chung’s exhibition, a special Hanji promotion event ‘Variation of Hanji’ will be held cooperated with the Korea Craft & Design Foundation. In this event, visitors can enjoy the Hanji crafts and goods exhibition; Hanji Preview Book which provides information on 400 kinds of Hanji produced by 18 traditional Hanji workshops; Hanji Wall which shows different Hanji samples classified by regions and colors; Stamping on Hanji experience and more.”

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