at Lombard
Fried Fine Arts

The title of this show, “interior schemes,” refers to the scheming of the artist to establish dubious systems of interior decoration and design. Kwon’s works reveal a world that is like Architectural Digest gone wrong as perspectival skews, distortions in size, and cyber-melding of images create uncanny effects.

The modern mannerism of these works evoke the uneasiness of domesticity as private spaces often affect psyches for better or worse. Media distortions of family, home, gender, consumption, and craft are suggested in these works.

Domestic space as seen by Kwon, is a place where the “average females” of her blueprints do not fit, though our society equates domesticity with the feminine. The manikin figures of her blueprints are the anonymous ciphers of the home.

Kwon’s best works are those that are subtle in their disorientation. Off kilter furniture (as in the digital collages, ottomen and foyer), fifty foot women in bedrooms, and displacement of objects, all cause an anxiety in the viewer which impacts at the realization of the cause of the visual problem. This impact is often manifold, as formal relationships are confused and the functional furniture, like so many domestic situations, becomes dysfunctional.

In other works, Kwon’s ideas of interior elements as art could be powerful, but she attenuates the works’ force by poor contextualization. The installation of the nippled Molding, for instance, would have far more impact at foot level as it would have taken on the essence of architectural trim instead of relief sculpture.

According to the press release and essay accompanying this exhibition, Kwon was inspired by the number of furniture stores in Soho. The intent of the artist to comment on this juxtaposition of the gallery and furniture worlds is a waste. Equally obtuse is the perceived self reflexivity of the works as interior decorations themselves, fit for hanging above sofas. Kwon limits the potential of her art with such inane objectives and turns her works into private little jokes so Soho-centric that they are hardly amusing even when understood.

The centerpiece of this show, the relief Master’s Drawing Room, heightens the disorientation of Kwon’s other works by adding multidimensionality to the visual problems. By exercising a different visual distortion in every furniture piece of this installation, Kwon does not allow the viewer to adjust perception, thus adding to the uneasiness.

The interior scheming of Kwon needs a narrowed direction that will allow her to make incisive artistic statements and do away with superfluous ambiguity. Kwon is best when dealing with far reaching psychological, formal, and lifestyle issues. She is worst when trying to be a comedienne.

William V. Ganis

Sowon Kwon: interior schemes is on view at Lombard / Fried Fine Arts,
February 23 - March 30, 1996.