Illustrator and printmaker Kelly Belter’s first solo exhibition opened in Busan this month at CSB Gallery, running from June 5th to the 30th. The exhibition, titled Passage, explores the stages of the creative process through various forms of printmaking.
The gallery is broken up into several distinct sections, which seek to reflect different parts of the creative cycle: initial ideas, first experiments, frustrations and successes, and finally the recycling of old work in efforts to begin all over again.
Likewise, each section of the gallery tells its own small story. The left side focuses on the cyclical try-fail-rest-repeat that coincides with new ideas. Meanwhile, the long, central wall bears spreads from a picture book that tells an original creation myth. The installation on the right-hand side depicts the process of overcoming final creative hurdles and the excitement of calling a piece of work finished. Finally, a wall of Risograph prints encompasses the idea of recycling old work into new as the creative process starts all over again. As the gallery is an open space, without interfering walls, visitors are encouraged to circle back on the process themselves and to begin again, finding themselves back where they started: the initial idea.
The process represented by Passage is exploratory. Kelly communicates this through her own explorations of form. She includes several mixed-media pieces and a collection of different printmaking processes and materials. Screen prints on linen, archival, and traditional Korean papers are featured as well as large-scale monoprints that are accented by patterned paper weaving. Textile artwork and ceramics also find their way into the gallery in the form of a long tapestry or a series of collages-turned-prints, respectively.
Passage means to move through, journeying between one place and another. Similarly, the exhibition emphasises that the process, not the product, is at the centre of our creative experience. ‘Passage’ wanders through the inner creative landscape […] before cycling through the process all over again. The exhibition explores the evolving relationship between the creator and their creations through various forms of printmaking. Together, silkscreen, Risography, mono-printing, and collage narrativize different parts of that constant journey.
Organised through local culture and arts magazine, Angle Magazine, Passage is taking place until June 30th at CSB Lounge and Gallery in Busan, South Korea.
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