Audio By Carbonatix
For its Present Box series, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art invites artists to interpret the venue’s gift-shop space in whatever way they choose. The most recent one to do so is South Korean Sammy Lee, whose work is presented in the form of detailed artist books. For her Present Box exhibit, titled Beat. Spread Out., Lee has transformed the space into a studio and paper-processing plant.
Lee uses joomchi, a traditional technique for creating textured paper by hand with water. Over the course of two weeks, she will make the paper and then turn it into an artist book, working continuously during museum hours; guests are invited to watch throughout the process.
“It’s a really intense process of agitation and stress, one that she translates from an old Korean laundry method,” explains BMoCA’s Mardee Goff. “It is a symbolic ritual for South Koreans, if you can imagine walking through South Korea at night and seeing all of these women doing this repeated beating method of the laundry as it makes a beautiful sound. It’s a cathartic experience.”
Beat. Spread Out. opens today at BMoCA, 1750 13th Street in Boulder, and runs through March 30, with a closing reception on March 29 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. A visit to the Present Box is free; for more information, call 303-443-2122 or visit bmoca.org.
March 17-30, 2014
