Salvage @ Gallery Imperato

SALVAGE
hair drawings by Youngmi Song
mixed media assemblage by M. Jordan Tierney
Gallery Imperato
921 e. fort ave. suite 120
Baltimore, md 21230

October 24 - December 6, 2008

Using recycled items in art has been seen many times before. However, never has it been presented with such intrigue and sophistication. Artists Youngmi Song and M. Jordan Tierney act as scavengers, salvaging items that would otherwise be disposed of and turning them into something both meaningful and beautiful. Loose strands of hair, found objects, and remains of 19th century houses are rescued, re-purposed, and given new life.

With fallen hairs from her own head, Youngmi Song painstakingly creates simple images on Korean mulberry paper. Images of furniture, trees and barns are impeccably and tediously rendered with individual strands of hair, giving the false appearance of drawings done with a
No. 2 lead pencil. While her early training focused on traditional Korean art, Youngmi began using mulberry paper in a contemporary manner while studying at MICA. Combining this historically used paper with the innovative use of that which her own body produces creates a connection between the past and present.

M. Jordan Tierney collects reclaimed timbers from renovated 19th century houses to create woodcarvings and constructions, an integral part of her work. She combines them with found objects such as old light fixtures, porcelain, furniture parts, tin tiles and other items to form three-dimensional assemblages. With their time worn surfaces, they seem to be relics of an event and appear to have accumulated naturally over time. By combining actual salvaged items with wood carvings fabricated to look like salvaged items, Tierney makes reference to the world as "a constantly shifting sedimentary process of alternating layers of natural and man-made systems".