Sankeum Koh (Born 1967, South Korea, currently lives and works in Seoul, South Korea)

Sankeum Koh’s meticulously assembled pearl beads and steels balls create an illusion of blurred texts. Sourcing from newspaper columns, books, and poetry, Koh transforms these literary words into fragmented visions, and draws upon the viewer’s frustration at not being able to read the cryptic codes. Leaving the viewer to question what it is they are actually ‘reading’, these works challenge the validity of such original texts, and debate the trusting, dogmatic approach of modern readers.

Koh eliminates the information that is obtained from the original texts, leaving only the visual configuration of the written words. Thus the written article transcends into a purely visual form that is independent from the arbitrary content of the original. In daily life, once the visual process of ‘reading’ has begun, a reader will have no choice in receiving the author’s intended information, in Koh’s works however, the viewers are given a choice. They can choose to know that the formation of pearls is an article written in memory of Nam June Paik, or experience ‘a kind of recalling’, to ‘something that has been forgotten, or is strangely familiar.’

Sankeum Koh holds an MFA in Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute, New York and an MFA in Painting from Ewha Womans University, Seoul. She was awarded 12 x 12 x(12) from Islip Art Museum, New York and the Dong-A Award from the Modern Art Museum of Korea, Seoul. Koh’s works are present in Kyeounggido Museum of Art and National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea.