Soo Sunny Park creates a tactile experience of space in Silver Linings, a site-specific installation that winds and twists through the Courtyard Gallery at Nashville’s Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art. Accompanying the installation is a video documenting the installation process, which marks her first time creating a work entirely onsite.
Though Silver Linings was originally proposed as a series of clouds, Park also became interested in the inversion buoyancy: the architecture of the historic Courtyard Gallery called up a sense of the “underneath” to the artist, who responded by pulling influence from a childhood experience of near-drowning.
The bulk of the installation is tar paper woven through gridded stainless steel, creating billowing curves of shadow that guide the viewer’s path through the space.
The gallery is heavy with the scent of tar, adding to the oppressive sense of weight, but the entire scene is punctuated with woven additions of silver Mylar, creating glimpses of light and reflection against the dark. Most satisfying are the watery reflections thrown against the ceiling of the gallery, like sunlight glancing off a pool. The light feels physical and deliberate, an embellishment of Park’s experience hand-shaped to pull the viewer into restructured spaces of air and light.
“Silver Linings” is on view at the Cheekwood Courtyard Gallery in Nashville through October 25.
M Kelley is a Nashville-based creative, an advocate for dialogue in contemporary art, an active contributor to a variety of diverse publications and arts initiatives. Kelley curates for the project space 40AU and the collective HAUS Rotations. Hir social practice revolves around a fascination with the complexities of communication and narrative; providing educational and developmental opportunities; and inviting others into collaboration through studiOmnivorous.com.
