The Topography of Absence
Asian American Arts Centre, New York, NY; November 19 - December 31, 2004
Featuring work by Steven Gwon, Amy Kao, Shin il Kim, Cynthia Lin, and Lisa Young
Traditionally topography maps a land for the purpose of making it understandable and navigable. Topography allows a landscape to be "read," making known what was previously unknown through a series of relationships and contexts. But as a form of mapping, topographies can be used to chart any realm of the unknown or unseen, not merely of the “natural” world. In this exhibition, each of the artists delves into a different kind of world, the landscape of absence made up by the overlooked actions, impulses and accumulations of our daily existence as a means of studying the topography of their lives, and in it, find those “absences” to be a kind of fullness instead. They remind us that there are worlds to be discovered, even in the most mundane of our experiences. What seems to be absence may actually be filled with meaning and wonder.
