{"id":85496,"date":"2015-05-06T18:35:01","date_gmt":"2015-05-06T22:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=85496"},"modified":"2015-05-07T12:34:44","modified_gmt":"2015-05-07T16:34:44","slug":"the-luminous-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/06\/the-luminous-poem\/","title":{"rendered":"The Luminous Poem"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"7702\"<\/a>

Airan Kang, Pining for Mother by Shin Saimdang<\/i>, 2014, LEDs, custom electronics, and resin, dimensions variable.<\/p><\/div>\n

It would be an understatement to say that Airan Kang is fixated on the book as a form\u2014the South Korean artist\u2019s exhibitions have bibliophilic titles, almost to a one: there\u2019s \u201cThe Only Book,\u201d for instance, plus \u201cHello Gutenberg,\u201d \u201cLight Reading,\u201d \u201cThe Bookshelf Enlightened,\u201d and \u201cLuminous Words.\u201d Her latest, \u201cThe Luminous Poem<\/a>,\u201d which opens tomorrow at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, continues a career-long project that \u201copens up the idea of the book from a concrete, self-contained object into a virtual space for the imagination,\u201d as the gallery puts it. You\u2019d be forgiven for finding that high-flown\u2014but even if Kang\u2019s installments don\u2019t explode your whole approach to the written word, you can still count on them to rewire some synapses. The enigmatic title piece projects Romantic poems across an enormous mirrored book that the viewer can walk through; the effect is like a planetarium for words, with serifed stars. Her shelves of books, meanwhile, their spines and covers etched in retina-scarring neon, conjure both your neighborhood bookshop and a Jetsons<\/em>-era take on space-age amenities. It\u2019s as if some time-traveler whispered the words electronic book<\/em> into the ear of Hanna-Barbera cartoonist circa 1963\u2014Kang\u2019s works are proof of concept.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Luminous Poem\u201d is up through June 13. <\/p>\n

\"469Airan_Kang\"<\/a>

Luminous Words<\/i>, 2013.<\/p><\/div>

\"436AK_install1\"<\/a>

An installation view from \u201cLight Reading,\u201d Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, 2010.<\/p><\/div>

\"748AiranKang-scrolledbooks\"<\/a>

Scrolled Book 4<\/i>, 2014, LEDs, custom electronics, plastic, wood, 40″ x 19 1\/2″ x 5 1\/2″.<\/p><\/div>

\"839TheLuminousPoem\"<\/a>

The Luminous Poem<\/i>, installation, 2015.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Dan Piepenbring is the web editor of <\/em>The Paris Review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It would be an understatement to say that Airan Kang is fixated on the book as a form\u2014the South Korean artist\u2019s exhibitions have bibliophilic titles, almost to a one: there\u2019s \u201cThe Only Book,\u201d for instance, plus \u201cHello Gutenberg,\u201d \u201cLight Reading,\u201d \u201cThe Bookshelf Enlightened,\u201d and \u201cLuminous Words.\u201d Her latest, \u201cThe Luminous Poem,\u201d which opens tomorrow at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2384],"tags":[18036,35,17,18037,7332,14784,7221,18038,14034],"class_list":["post-85496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-look","tag-airan-kang","tag-art","tag-books","tag-bryce-wolkowitz-gallery","tag-installations","tag-neon","tag-poems","tag-projections","tag-sculptures"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAiran 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