About the artist—
Chun is a contemporary Korean artist best known for his large sculpture and two-dimensional reliefs made with small triangles of foam wrapped with printed mulberry paper that he has tied with threads of paper. The paper, taken from hundreds of old books, is covered with text that after his cutting, shaping and wrapping, has lost its textual function, and replaced instead by a textural one. His choice of material and shapes reference the ubiquity of this sort of paper stock in Korea and the medicinal herb parcels wrapped and hung in that paper on the ceiling of his uncle 's pharmacy.
His large sculptures have the appearance of meteoric boulders, pocked with divots and irregular surfaces. His “flat” works combine the look of meticulous building block constructions with the randomness of discarded scraps.
About the press and process—
These “prints” are produced by a press house in Los Angeles that has developed a proprietary process. They work exclusively with artist that they invite to collaborate on small editions. Their process creates three-dimensional plates so that the finished works have significant depth and texture. They choose artists whose works lend themselves to their rather distinctive press output where depth becomes a significant component in the finished work. They, the press and the artists, create a printing plate that maintains or creates similar or commensurate texture as the artist 's “other” works dictate. When imagining the plate and printing process, thing Vacuform, not etching. The plates have signifcant depth. During the press cycle, each work is made from handmade paper where the pulp slurry is simultaneously pressed and printed during the print run. As you look at these works, their three-dimentional look is real rather than clever shading.