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[Eng] N Gallery will hold the exhibition 《Ways of Recording》 from November 16 to December 20, 2024, featuring the works of Jihyun Jung and Jungwon Phee. This exhibition aims to provide an opportunity to confront and explore the ontological meaning of human beings and society through the works of Jihyun Jung and Jungwon Phee, who record social phenomena and personal experiences in their own unique ways using two different mediums, photography and painting. The act of recording by humanity can be traced back to approximately 40,000 years ago with ancient cave paintings. These early human records were not created for a single purpose but instead emerged as a complex act that combined various social and cultural goals, including shamanistic rituals for survival, religious ceremonies, the passing on of community knowledge, communication, and artistic expression driven by creative desires. Today, we continue to record in more sophisticated and diverse ways, using these records to define and establish our own existence, while connecting the inner self to the external world. This exhibition seeks to explore the existential narratives and meanings of the individual and the society they form through the two distinct methods of recording by Jihyun Jung and Jungwon Phee. Jihyun Jung records and reconstructs the narrative process of the destruction and creation of architectural spaces in the urban environment through the medium of photography. When viewed from a macro perspective, the phenomena of transformation that emerge between the destruction and creation of urban spaces can be seen as a cyclical system. He directly intervenes in the system of destructive cycles, such as creation for dissolution and dissolution for creation, and records scenes that capture the temporality and spatiality that are momentarily present in the constantly changing architectural landscape. The artist’s work confronts and gazes directly at the inherent materiality and essence of the subject of the phenomenon, reinterpreting it from an aesthetic perspective and conveying this to the viewers, rather than expressing emotions such as loss or nihilism in response to the sudden disappearance of spaces that had long existed, or offering social criticism of reckless development and destruction. This way of ‘recording’ provides an opportunity to reconsider the conventional perceptual concept of architectural space-a physical and tangible subject that forms the foundation of the reality we live in-and to project new perspectives onto it. Jihyun Jung observes the transforming urban spaces through his unique perspective, experimenting with and expressing the photographic medium in various ways, aiming to continue creating new ways of 'records’. Jungwon Phee contemplates the inner world and visualizes personal memories and emotions through abstract imagery. The ‘black’ that appears mainly and uniquely and in his work is an element created by mixing Eastern ink with Western black gesso, symbolizing the artist's own identity formed through his nomadic life experience in Korea, Canada, and the United States. Based on this signature 'black,' the artist experiments with and documents the textures and color variations of different mediums, using materials like cement powder and Galkyd oil, while continuously exploring the materiality of these substances The abstract matière that composes the surface of the artwork, along with the 'black,' serves as a visual bridge connecting the past and present of the artist’s life. It embodies the artist's identity and acts as a medium through which their personal history is interwoven with the present. The cracks, flows, and colors on the surface, which vary depending on the mediums used, resonate with the subjectivity of the artist’s memories and emotions-imperfect and ever-changing. In an effort to make these imperfections whole, the artist repeatedly layers materials over the cracks, as though time itself were sedimentary. Through this, the artist seeks completeness in both consciousness and unconsciousness. According to the artist's intention, viewers who engage with the artwork will reinterpret it subjectively, drawing on their own memories and experiences. Through this process, the 'record' of the artist and the 'record' of the viewer will overlap and merge, ultimately creating a new meaning for the 'record' within the artwork. As human beings, who are inevitably finite due to the nature of time, we can connect our past, present, and future through the act of recording, and by understanding life as a cyclical narrative, we seek permanence and can alleviate our existential anxiety. Through the metaphorical and aesthetic methods of recording presented by Jihyun Jung and Jungwon Phee in this exhibition, we hope viewers will have the opportunity to contemplate the impermanent existential meaning and value of humanity and society. Jihyun Jung (b. 1983) was born in Seoul and received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Photography from Chung-Ang University, where he also completed his doctoral coursework. His major solo exhibitions include Reconstruct (SONGEUN Art Space, 2021), CONSTRUCT (KT&G Sangsangmadang, 2018), Reconstruction Site (Space O'NewWall, 2016), Demolition Site (KT&G Sangsangmadang, 2014), and Construction Site (SONGEUN Art Cube, 2013). He has worked on various projects, such as the construction documentation for the Seoul Museum of Art and the Seoul Museum of Art : Photography (2022–2024), the documentation of the SONGEUN Cultural Foundation’s new building (2019–2021), and the Yongsan headquarters for Amorepacific Museum (2017–2018). He has received several awards, including the 36th Central Art Exhibition, the 5th Daegu Photo Biennale Portfolio Review Outstanding Portfolio, the 6th KT&G Sangsangmadang SKOPF Artist of the Year, and the 14th Photo Criticism Award. Jungwon Phee (b. 1993) studied Fine Arts and Art History at Pratt Institute in New York. After graduating, He has been working in Seoul and New York. His major solo exhibitions include From Darkness (Space Hyeong, Seoul, 2024), The Black Margin and the Abstraction of Memory (The Reference, Seoul, 2024), Confluence (Seojeong Art, Seoul, 2022), and Emotional Layers (Seongnam Cube Art Museum, Seongnam, 2022). His major group exhibitions include DEAR CABINET (Seojeong Art, Seoul, 2023), One Chair is Enough (Gallery ERD, Seoul, 2023), and Instead of a Result, a Process (M5 Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2023). He was selected as an exhibiting artist in the 2022 Hong Kong Korean Cultural Center Exhibition Competition and as a young artist at Seongnam Cube Art Museum of Seongnam Cultural Foundation in 2022.