Chongbin Park - Inside Outside

Chongbin Park addresses issues of cultural alienation and social vulnerability through sculpture, performance and photography. Originally from South Korea, the artist has lived in London since 2003, and has often felt culturally and environmentally detached from the city. His sense of separation is best described in Child in Time (Hiding), a gigantic blue cardboard arrow containing a proportioned cardboard figure. We are unaware of the presence of the figure until we read the book which accompanies the work and see the process of making and concealing its contents. The piece really evokes a sense of estrangement, which Chongbin describes as a feeling of "invisible vulnerability," exaggerated by struggles with language and heterogeneous culture. He also finds identification with two small birds, shown in a series of photographs and makes reference to his own fragility and social unease through picturing the birds living and growing within the confines of a dark interior. Circle, a video projection installation in a wooden tube, also shows an entrapped figure, but in this work the figure is visible and brightly lit as it explores the proportion of the tube in relation to its body. Overall this show is full of content, but perhaps relies too heavily on a prior understanding of the issues it addresses. Nevertheless, this is an eloquent body of work.