WINGS OF DESIRE

March 19, 2022

A Brief Survey of Sculptural Paintings by Jaye Moon

March 25 – April 27, 2022

Jennifer Baahng Gallery is pleased to announce the gallery representation of Jaye Moon, and her solo exhibition, WINGS OF DESIRE, a brief survey of sculptural paintings from 2012 to 2022, with a focus on her work with braille. WINGS OF DESIRE is an exhibition that highlights Moon’s praxis of using braille as an art medium to create freer and wider ways to communicate and open possibilities to everyone. The exhibition will run from March 25 through April 27, 2022, with an opening reception on Friday, March 25, 2022, from 3pm to 7pm.

Viewers will experience Moon’s work through the brilliant colors, bold patterns, and the novelty of using universally appealing, unpolitical, mathematical toys as an art medium. Moon’s LEGO paintings also contain messages transcribed in braille. Braille, which is not a language but a code into which many languages can be transcribed, consists of six dots arranged in the formation of a rectangle. Moon uses braille in her work, presented either as dots arranged in a specific formation, or presented as numbers (with each number signifying what would have been a dot’s position in the rectangle). What viewers will find coded in the braille in Moon’s work are the intricate human stories that we share.

In the poetic and eponymous work, Wings of Desire (2022), LEGO bricks are sculpted to visually capture the opening scene of Wim Wenders’ film Wings of Desire (1987). It depicts an aerial view of two invisible angels looking over a city, and the segregation and power that cause one lonesome angel to feel isolated and desirous to connect with people. It also contains a specific pattern of raised dots on the surface, which form the braille transcription of the script excerpt of a poignant moment in the film. The braille is conspicuous but also seamlessly blended into the background. It is tactile and in plain sight for all to see, but at the same time, it transmits messages just for the traditionally excluded.

In the visually striking, Neon work, People Like You Need To Fuck People Like Me (2012), Moon’s rework of Tracey Emin’s 2007 iconic piece, Moon transcribed Emin’s tantalizing, confessional message into braille presented as numbers. It is another example of Moon using the mode of language for the unseen, for its visual and universal utility, this time to shatter the ice in the silenced discussion of female sexuality. Emin’s feminist message is widely received in the West, yet in many Asian cultures, expressing sexuality, especially female sexuality, is discouraged. By translating Emin’s raw message into numerical code, Korea-born Moon opens up the possibility to hail the same message in the face of discrimination, without fear of ostracism or penalty.

Moon uses braille as an art medium to break new ground in the contemporary human condition of isolation caused by barriers of sexuality and disability. She uses braille because it is based on binary logic that can transcend political, cultural, and social structures. It is also the mode of language for the people who are often overlooked.

WINGS OF DESIRE is an elegant and robust display of stunning, intricate, and inventive works that are both exploratory and instructive: as we shift towards more impersonal communication, we may lose the complexity of our own identities, but we also discover new ways to see our identities and gain a greater understanding of each other. In this pursuit of her own distinctive culture, Jaye Moon is undeterred.

Jaye Moon Soars On Wings of Desire by Paul Laster