The Shape of Time: Korean Art after 1989

• exhibition catalog
• 2023
• offset lithography and sewn paperback binding
• 205 x 250 mm, 264 pp

The exhibition explores the subject with five keywords: transition, tension, displacement, conformity, and feminist resurgence. The thirty artworks included “reflect the complexities of the rapid urbanization and industrialization that shaped the material and intellectual landscapes of South Korea, the unresolved political tension with North Korea and its impact on the daily lives of the Korean people, the continued use of traditional artistic practices and techniques, and the pressure to conform to societal norms surrounding gender and sexuality” (from the curators’ introduction).

The display lettering plays with a principle of Hangul, the Korean alphabet, applied to the English headings: the words are broken into syllables, each of which is shaped into a block. The results may look slightly unfamiliar to both Korean and English readers. For the text typography, two contrasting modes of arrangement are used back-to-back: the justified and centered arrangement for the essays, and the unjustified, asymmetric layout for the section introductions.

The front and back cover features Jung Yeondoo’s 「Eulji Theater」 (2019), which shows a half-staged situation of an observatory with a panoramic view of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and a part of North Korea.

• Editors:
• Elisabeth Agro
• Woo Hyunsoo

• Printer:
• Trifolio, Montorio Veronese

• Commissioner:
• Philadelphia Museum of Art