Born with a Void
T293 is pleased to present Born with a Void, an exhibition of new paintings by Si On (South Korea, 1979) at Le Scalze. This is her first solo exhibition in Naples and comprises three large canvases, displayed on the altarpieces of the church.
Having experienced a suffocating patriarchal society while growing up in South Korea, Si On is engaged at investigating topics such as sociocultural identity, grief, anger and sexual politics. The artist is mostly interested in exploring the human condition, especially its oppressing and traumatic characters. Her artistic practice is largely based on shamanism, which stands as a significant part of Korean culture, as well as on her own personal history. Si On translates her personal experience of trauma into a broad range of formal approaches, creating vigorous and highly expressive paintings.
By following surrealist and dada lessons, Si On’s creative process relies predominantly on automatism and instinct while considering artmaking an alternative to therapeutic methods. Materializing her ideas in a cathartic, almost trancelike state, Si On’s process while creating her artworks is a performance itself. The mental and physical engagement that the artist doubtlessly devotes to her practice are clear on her pictorial activity, and the results are emotional figures born from the idea of perpetual tension between harmony and decay, beauty and ugliness.
The exhibition at Le Scalze presents three large-scale paintings, each figuring self-portraits, a recurring quality in the artist’s practice. Her cartoonlike protagonists act out dramas of profound physical and psychological uneasiness, reflecting instinctual doubts and anxieties. Si On’s compositions are steered by her irresistible sense of the absurd, emphasized by the visceral approach the artist has with color and the materiality attributed to paint itself. In Born with a Void Si On focuses on exploring existential matters, meditating on her own relationship with herself while showcasing contrasting collective dichotomies: good and bad, truth and dishonesty, life and death.
Having experienced a suffocating patriarchal society while growing up in South Korea, Si On is engaged at investigating topics such as sociocultural identity, grief, anger and sexual politics. The artist is mostly interested in exploring the human condition, especially its oppressing and traumatic characters. Her artistic practice is largely based on shamanism, which stands as a significant part of Korean culture, as well as on her own personal history. Si On translates her personal experience of trauma into a broad range of formal approaches, creating vigorous and highly expressive paintings.
By following surrealist and dada lessons, Si On’s creative process relies predominantly on automatism and instinct while considering artmaking an alternative to therapeutic methods. Materializing her ideas in a cathartic, almost trancelike state, Si On’s process while creating her artworks is a performance itself. The mental and physical engagement that the artist doubtlessly devotes to her practice are clear on her pictorial activity, and the results are emotional figures born from the idea of perpetual tension between harmony and decay, beauty and ugliness.
The exhibition at Le Scalze presents three large-scale paintings, each figuring self-portraits, a recurring quality in the artist’s practice. Her cartoonlike protagonists act out dramas of profound physical and psychological uneasiness, reflecting instinctual doubts and anxieties. Si On’s compositions are steered by her irresistible sense of the absurd, emphasized by the visceral approach the artist has with color and the materiality attributed to paint itself. In Born with a Void Si On focuses on exploring existential matters, meditating on her own relationship with herself while showcasing contrasting collective dichotomies: good and bad, truth and dishonesty, life and death.
Si On
oil and spray on canvas
460 × 270 cm (181 ⅛ × 106 ¼ inches)
True or false
2022oil and spray on canvas
460 × 270 cm (181 ⅛ × 106 ¼ inches)
Si On
oil and spray on canvas
460 × 270 cm (181 ⅛ × 106 ¼ inches)
Peel away lifeless face
2022oil and spray on canvas
460 × 270 cm (181 ⅛ × 106 ¼ inches)
Si On
oil and spray on canvas
approx.: 400 × 270 cm (157 ½ × 106 ¼ inches)
Meaningless universe
2022oil and spray on canvas
approx.: 400 × 270 cm (157 ½ × 106 ¼ inches)
