The Practice of Transparency
: From Natural to Man-Made
School of Visual Arts - Artist Residency 2025
133/141 West 21st Street, 9th Floor (Room 919), New York, NY 10011
June 25, 2025 5-8 PM
About the Work During her residency in New York, artist Sol Kwon began her practice by focusing on objects that may be common in the city, but felt unfamiliar to her as a newcomer. Two such subjects stood out: a particular window in Midtown Manhattan and an oyster mushroom first encountered at a local farmers market. While these two objects may seem unrelated at first glance, both drew the artist’s attention more than others.
In this project, Transparency doesn’t refer to literal physical clarity, but rather to the act of seeing something without distortion— without dramatization, manipulation, or excessive staging. Despite their contrasting material natures—one man-made, one natural—both are observed not for what they are made of, but for how they can be seen.
The first object, the window, is notable for its lack of ornamentation and its subdued translucency. Functionally, windows allow one to see out or let light in. Yet this particular one, located along an emergency stairwell, offers limited outward visibility and is often overlooked. Still, its hazy surface refracts light in subtle, intriguing ways. The absence of clarity, and its very impracticality, paradoxically draws attention to the color and quality of light itself.
To photograph the window, the artist did not fix the time of day— no daily 2 p.m. ritual or rigid routine. Instead, she simply photographed it once per day, at varying times. This approach wasn’t about tracking changes in light or weather, but rather emphasizing the quiet, shifting nature of the window itself—how it reveals a slightly different presence each time, in spite of its sameness. Displayed side by side, the photographs allow viewers to observe the delicate variations that accumulate over time.
The second object, the oyster mushroom, was discovered at a farmers market—a space that, to the artist as a visitor, felt deeply rooted in local American culture. Its form, color, and texture were entirely new to her. Continuing her ongoing still-life practice, she photographed the mushroom from various angles, avoiding theatrical lighting or staging. The aim was to highlight the mushroom’s quiet character, using minimal retouching and allowing its natural lines and tones to speak.
Through both subjects—the singular window and the humble mushroom—this project invites viewers to pause, look again, and find understated beauty in the ordinary. Even the most overlooked objects can offer moments of reflection when we choose to truly see them.
