SARAH MAYHEW discovers small is definitely beautiful at the High House Gallery in Clanfield when she visits RE/VISION, a solo exhibition by Minhong Pyo

Everything about the new Clanfield exhibition space, High House Gallery, is small but perfectly formed, and the work that forms RE/VISION is no exception. RE/VISION is a solo show by early-career artist Minhong Pyo. Another example of High House Gallery’s insight into contemporary art, and ability to cherry pick names that few art school lecturers have yet to commit to memory; Minhong Pyo graduated from Seoul Institute of the Arts in 2007, and is currently taking an MA at Goldsmiths, University College of London. RE/VISION at High House Gallery is Minhong Pyo’s first UK exhibition… the first, I strongly suspect, of very many.

RE/VISION is made up of incredibly intriguing, small scale, painted canvases. At first glance it’s difficult to assess what one is looking at and what medium is being used. They appear like porcelain plaques that span time. Hung like precious, revered objects from history… with photographic transfers on them.

Who is this artist, where and when have they come from, what am I looking at? It’s a slightly disconcerting feeling, but a fascinating one. The viewer is put on the back-foot of unfamiliarity, and it’s a very exciting feeling and place to be as the ambiguous imagery and intimate scale of the works grab the viewer firmly by the wrist, drawing the viewer in, and keeping a firm very grip.

So what exactly are we looking at, and have we seen it somewhere before, if not as a work of art, then similar imagery squirreled somewhere in the recesses of our memory? Minhong Pyo’s work examines truth and memory, while questioning our perception of reality, by looking at representation in photography. As an exhibition RE/VISION is one of blurred boundaries and carefully manicured manipulation; it examines the interface between the real and imaginary, at times using constructs sourced from the artist’s own imagination, which the artist then stages and photographs, at others the artist uses enigmatic photographs documenting the real world as his vehicle. In all cases it is virtually impossible to differentiate between what is real and what is not.

The porcelain plaques (which is not what they are) hang uniformly on the gallery walls, punctuating the otherwise white cubes like windows in 1970s architecture. Similarly, a photograph is often seen as a window to absolute truth. Flash! An objective recorder reproducing what is seen and what is present. Fact! Or not, as the camera, the 2-d snapshot, can only provide one version of many truths, furthermore, photography can easily be distorted and manipulated at various points along the production process. As Martin Jenner, Director of High House Gallery says: “A photograph is not a memory, but a representation of a memory; it does not tell a story, but represents an image that might influence its telling.

“Pyo wants us to question our perception of the world with works that are at once recognisable but which are not however clearly explained or defined. One is never able to precisely identify a face or a setting and the viewer is prompted to conceive what the picture is and what lies beyond.”

All is not as it seems in this pocket–sized exhibition in High House Gallery, Clanfield, and in my opinion, it’s all the better, and infinitely bigger, for it!

  • High House Gallery, Main Street, Clanfield, OX18 2SH
     
  • Contact 01367 810126, info@highhousegallery.com or highhousegallery.com
     
  • RE/VISION, a solo exhibition by Minhong Pyo continues until November 18.
     
  • The gallery is open Thursday to Sunday 11am to 5pm