LUXURY STONE – LV MUN-GI YANG

WORK

In 2012, sculptor-artist presented his exhibition Story of Luxury Stone at Okgwa Art Museum in South Korea. This exhibition revealed a specific attention, which gives significance and symbolism to luxury handbag by exploiting the aesthetics of stone. In this exhibition, 45 works interrogate the nature of object and of human beings, as well as question the structure of social mechanisms in developing the contemporary desire. Although it seems like these Luxury stones are at first parodic objects of Chinese counterfeit handbags of famous brands, such as Louis Vuitton and Chanel, they go beyond a simple imitation or representation of these objects. Through the characteristics of stone-made items, the useful function of bag disappeared. The object loses its useful features and is now transformed into a symbol, an icon. Only the desire of possession, which related to each brand’s unique visual identity, is kept. The desire here is sublimated by the stone, polished and carved as jewel on the one hand, and its untamed nature and timeless peculiarity for statuary tradition on the other. This diversion carries thus both the modern luxury items and material. The weight of Luxury stones suggests the massive and fetishist characteristics of luxury consumption in Asia, at once the human sacrifices involving the production process and acquisition of luxury goods. These works question the deaf persistence, through the modern market economy, the stress and imperative of being successful in the society.

Video about the process of creation, click here!

ARTIST

Mun-Gi Yang was born in 1970 in Gwangju, South Korea. He graduated from Fine Arts at Chosun University.

In 2012, the artist-sculptor presented Story of LUXURY STONE at the Okgwa Museum of Art, South Korea. This exhibition revealed the particular attention he pays to the meaning and symbolism of the luxury bag by exploiting the aesthetic potential of stone. In this exhibition, 45 works proposed to question the nature of the object and the human being and the structure of social mechanisms in the elaboration of contemporary desires. These Luxury stones, although initially appearing as parodic works on Chinese counterfeit bags from major brands such as Louis Vuitton or Chanel, go far beyond a simple imitation or representation of these objects. By the very characteristics of these stone objects, the useful function of the bag disappears. Losing all functionality, the object is now transformed into a symbol-object, an icon.

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