In “Swamps and Ashes,” Sun Woo reflects on the contemporary desires and fears borne from our increasing interaction with and use of commodified technologies. Evoking visceral feelings against the backdrop of fantastical virtual environments, her paintings create a tension that reveals her experience growing up on the cusp of two cultures—she was born in South Korea and raised in Toronto—and generations.
Just as technology fractionates our sense of space, so too do her eerie compositions, in which she attempts to affix conceptual sensations. Sun Woo’s works mimic the surreal (yet now ordinary) feeling of viewing the world through a screen; her depictions of everyday objects—ironing boards, ashtrays, drains and keyholes—are altered by absurd and disconcerting elements, and thus enter a realm unbound by physical restrictions. In Long Shower (all works 2023), an unsightly sea wool sponge, larger-than-life and swathed in glistening, spidery strands of hair like something out of a body-horror film, sits in the middle of a living room replete with plants and mid-century modern furniture. A mysteriously impervious lamp glows in the background while rain pours inside the room, and the sponge drips a swamp onto the carpet below.
