AUGUSTO & REMINGTON

Mimi Jung
September 15 - November 24, 2019
Opening: Sunday, September 15, 2:00pm Augusto & Remington

Augusto & Remington is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of artist Mimi Jung in Los Angeles. Through the systematic and meticulous processes of weaving or deconstructing a wide variety of unconventional materials—from luscious mohair yarns to synthetic utilitarian textiles, poly cord, and paper—Jung examines the space in between: weft and warp, process and material, viewer and art-object.

Through rigorous ingenuity, Jung’s work dispels all connotations of decoration and craft that the medium of textile periodically induces. Her use of this medium instead facilitates its acceptance amongst contemporary art disciplines, as she endows it with the same conceptual weight as abstract painting and process art. By drawing with a three- dimensional line, Jung not only toys with the viewer’s perceptual assumptions, but with their tactile impulses as well, through her experimental use of material, form, and color— tempting them to touch the mohair yarn or investigate the construction of the paper cords. As one of the five senses that is not often employed by wall-mounted works, touch here adds a sort of three-dimensional experience, or curiosity, to Jung’s work while still remaining just out of reach.

Upon entering Augusto & Remington through the enclosed garden, viewers will first encounter some of Jung’s most innovative sculptures hanging from the courtyard walls. Though possessing a similar motif and aesthetic as her iconic woven works, these pieces were produced by casting the woven works in bronze and aluminum, forging natural and malleable materials in an unyielding medium and enlivening the cognitive and tactile dissonance that arises from such a dichotomy.

Occupying both the interior gallery space and the staircase landing are two works from Jung’s newest series, entitled Fallen Fence. These monumentally scaled pieces quite literally enter the third-dimension as Jung has pinned them to the wall at various intervals in order to produce—through bulging, hanging, and pinching—an effortlessly organic structure. Spanning two walls in the interior gallery space, Neon Yellow Fallen Fence (2019) takes on a life of its own, proposing a circumnavigation of the room. White Fallen Fence (2019) similarly exudes a sense of movement as it quietly traverses the staircase landing, camouflaged by its white on white on white construction. This austere aesthetic invites an appreciation of the delicate variations and oscillations in color, line, and form that are present within the monochromatic piece.

Positioned in concert with both Fallen Fence pieces are works from Jung’s Ellipse series. At the top of the staircase, a periwinkle mohair ellipse stretched over aluminum backing suggests a sort of close-up view of White Fallen Fence, and thus serves as a more intimate and delicate version of its larger counterpart. In contrast to the subtlety of these white monochromatic works, those featured in the interior gallery space—Neon Yellow Fallen Fence, Pale Blue Ellipse (2019), and Torus Bronze Cast (2019) on a wooden plinth—all possess pungent complementary colors, clashing, albeit beautifully, with the wall-to-wall coral carpet.

Traditionally private domains are repeatedly embraced by Augusto & Remington as apt exhibition spaces, the most unconventional of these is an upstairs balcony located off of the master bedroom. Freestanding works from Jung’s cast series can be found here. Strategically placed in each of the four corners of the balcony, these porous sculptures engender a dialogue with one another and with the tree tops above, as the shadows of both intermingle and dance across the white tile. These works thus embody a characteristic emblematic of Jung’s expansive oeuvre, wherein their physicality is counterbalanced by the weightlessness of their immaterial being.

In keeping with the thoughtfully curated Mount Washington abode that is Augusto & Remington, the works exhibited were carefully chosen by Jung so as to harmonize with the space, to complement and seamlessly integrate with its inherent charm.