A Shadow Book

Artist/Instructor: Sun Young Kang
Saturday, October 25
10:30 AM–2:30 PM (with lunch break)
Fee: Members $75 | Not-Yet-Members $90

Register Here

Supplies are included, but participants might want to bring several materials. A Shadow Book explores the delicate, translucent quality of Asian paper through paper cutting. Participants will engage in creating intimate spaces that capture the fleeting nature of shadows by carving images into the paper and overlaying them with additional layers. The outcome is a simple folded book that can be spread out or held in the hand, allowing for a delicate interplay of light and shadow. This process invites reflection on themes of loss and the ephemeral aspects of life, as each carved piece is contained within a small book. The final work features a minimal and quiet aesthetic, emphasizing the inherent beauty of the paper itself. This approach highlights the simplicity and fragility of the materials, encouraging contemplation on the transient moments that shape our existence.

Sun Young Kang is an artist who is exhibiting at the Common Currents: Contemporary Art from Western New York and Northeast Ohio exhibition.

Sun Young Kang 
Sun Young Kang is a book and installation artist. From small, intimate books to room-size installations, she uses paper with its duality of strength and delicacy to create physical and conceptual space. Kang received her MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA, and her BFA in Korean Painting from Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul, Korea. Kang’s work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts (NYSCA/NYFA), West Collection LIFTS Grant, Whanki Museum/ Foundation in Seoul, Korea, and the Center for the Emerging Visual Artists in Philadelphia. Her work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally at venues including Whanki Museum in Seoul, Korea; Nanchizi Museum in Beijing, China; Museum Jindřichohradecka in South Bohemia, Czech Republic; Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, MI; Queens Museum, NY; Carnegie Museum of Arts; Pennsylvania State Museum; the Susquehanna Art Museum, PA; Pittsburgh Center for the Arts; Mainline Art Center and Philadelphia Art Alliance, PA. Her work resides in the West Collection, Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Pennsylvania State Museum, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and numerous libraries’ special collections. 

Optional Supply List

• Self-healing mat
• ruler, or triangle
• exacto knife
• bone folder.

*If a participant wants to use a favorite poem or text to go along with the shadow images, you need to send Kathy Shiroki the text you want to use before the workshop so the artist can be prepared to print it in the book.