Various Smaller Fires (VSF) is pleased to present OFF THE CLOCK, a solo exhibition of new do the job by Wendy Park at the gallery’s Los Angeles area. The exhibition delivers jointly ten paintings and debuts an augmented fact working experience (AR) that investigates and reconstructs Park’s childhood reminiscences of developing up as the daughter of Korean immigrants in Larger Los Angeles through the 1980s-90s. Her will work pay homage to her late father, mom, and Southern California’s indoor commerce tradition. The new functions characteristic humble objects that emphasize her parent’s fleeting times of leisure as performing-course vendors.
Equipment from the Park relatives enterprises juxtapose objects of self-care, as observed in paintings Tiger Balm Sign up, Levis Stock, and Heart Apples and Hangars. Park vividly remembers witnessing her mother standing on her toes all day behind the sign up or managing about to refill the clothing inventory. She recollects the scent of Tiger Balm applied to soothe her mother’s aching muscle tissues, the considerable fresh new fruit on a table that underlined her mother’s appreciate, and an open up register that was obtainable for other sellers to break transform for their businesses.
Savored times of rest and link are also shared in Park’s new entire body of do the job. The exhibition’s titular work, OFF THE CLOCK, captures the artist’s father’s publish-function schedule. He would return house, sit on the Korean silk flooring pillow next to the abalone shell desk, and convert on the Tv set to Korean information. Rounding out his night regimen, her father savored a cigarette and nightcap of Crown Royal, which Park remembers always had a few ice cubes. Crown Royal Supplies depicts the whiskey’s legendary purple bag repurposed as a pencil pouch, a nod to her family’s resourcefulness, immigrant practices, and Park’s continued approach to reusing and recycling in her observe.
Park’s new body of work gives an included layer of nuance by recreating memories that lengthen beyond her subconscious and personalized narrative. In Poker Story, she illustrates her father’s knowledge for the duration of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, when neighboring Korean distributors would take shifts on the roof to guard the swap meet up with building against looters. Concerning their transient periods of rest and motion, they would interact in poker game titles to go the time. The 3 performs from the Hwatu series speak to the Korean flower card recreation she realized from her father. Park remembers enjoying the activity on her father’s wool blanket and recalls the stark distinction among the purple playing cards and army eco-friendly fabric. Shin Raymun and cigarettes accessorize the card video game, talking to the relaxing mood of the collecting and times of consolation. Her experimental AR job invites you to be a part of in the enjoyment.
OFF THE CLOCK reveals a collection of function that feels acquainted nonetheless distant, as substantial-scale compositions come to be fractured into vibrant, colourful windows of Park’s childhood recollections. Her works introduce certain social and cultural backdrops of escalating up as an Asian-American in Los Angeles through the 1990s. By bringing every day objects and familial routines into central focus, Park weaves an intimate narrative, paying homage to her parents and reminding the viewer of the power of one’s have story in shaping how we fully grasp and value the daily.
