Jae Kang

Jae Kang INOUTIN, 2019

Agricultural pipe, timber posts and fishing nets. 16000 x 24000 x 3000 mm.

Space, in and out, on and under, up and down, close and open. We don’t often realise how complex space is, yet we are always surrounded by it, experiencing it and breathing it in. Space also can be paradoxical and ideological. With a simple line, we define the space as ‘in and out’ but it can be reversed by where you are.

This large architectural installation of colourful fishing nets delivers a tactile and spatial experience – one that stimulates the imagination and invites interaction by touching and walking, around and through.

Using fishing nets, the most common material for this maritime industry, Kang delineates spatial zones without the use of walls, and allows viewing from either side, simultaneously promoting notions of catchment and freedom. INOUTIN plays with the question of who is trapped and who is free, where ‘in’ and ‘out’ are, and who the outsider is.

Jae Kang

Born South Korean. Lives and works in Auckland.

Jae Kang is known primarily for her large-scale gallery and outdoor public installations. Her work is focused on a form of immersive spatial drawing and site-specific installations that stimulate spatial imagination. Kang’s ethos is socially engaged, producing generous, layered works. She also displays an interest in community participation, often developing pieces people can touch and making public programmes an integral component of the work. She has a substantial history in producing outdoor public sculpture and regularly exhibits two-dimensional drawings.

In 2017 Kang made an ink drawing installation ‘Wave of your breath’ at Tauranga Gallery, developed an interactive installation ‘Knot Touch’ for children and disabled people at the New Zealand Maritime Museum. In 2018 she showed ‘A small step takes a big world’ at Papakura Art Gallery, and participated for Canberra Public Art Biennale. Currently, she is working on a commission for a public sculpture for Auckland Council. She received a Bachelor of Fine Art (First Class Honors) in Korea (1985), a Bachelor of Creative Art (First Class Honors) from MIT, Auckland (2014), and a Postgraduate Diploma at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland (2017).