One Breath, Many Echoes | 숨·결들 

Jongwook Park | Eastern Edge | June 12 – July 25, 2026

Reviewed by Than Brown

One Breath, Many Echoes | 숨·결들  by Jongwook Park explores language and identity, through adaptations of Korean writing and folk art across various media. When you enter the space at Eastern Edge, where it is a new exhibit that runs through July 25, you step into a monochromatic world of flowing drawings, organic ceramic forms, and digitally enhanced artwork.

The dominant feature of the exhibit is a collection of large hand drawings. These drawings are somehow both minimalist and intricate—minimalist in that they contrast deep black forms with clear white negative space, and intricate in the level of detail that goes into the animals, writing, figures, and weaving forms that make up the drawings themselves. This is Jongwook Park’s interpretation of Minhwa, a Korean folk art. This work retains forms and traditional themes from Minhwa, such as the recurring tiger and bird figures, but with a modernized and monochromatic style. Also heavily featured in the work is Hangul, the script used to write the Korean language. The Hangul characters are not captions or overlays, but are part of the drawings themselves, folding into the artwork.

Park extends these themes to the third dimension with a collection of ceramics. These are abstract, sculptural forms in a black glaze. Various weaving, organic forms and Hangul characters are carved out of the surface with mesmerizing attention to detail. As objects, rather than two dimensional drawings, they provide a different way to experience the perspective and themes that unify the exhibit.

Jongwook Park, One Breath, Many Echoes | 숨·결들, exhibition photo by Laura Sbrizi

Displayed on a screen is yet another medium—video art. The video cycles through a selection of Park’s drawn works, brought to life and motion through various effects and manipulations. Motion graphics as a medium is newer to the artist. This portion does feel less developed, and does not have the authoritative presence of the other elements of the exhibit. It is nonetheless compelling to see the otherwise still work become animate, as the video provides another approach to the material. Especially noteworthy is the use of colour, something otherwise absent in the exhibit. I do have a soft spot for motion graphics and video art, and hope to see more of his work in the area as Park develops it further.

At first I wondered if I was the right fit to review One Breath, Many Echoes | 숨·결들. I had not heard of Minhwa before, and Hangul is fully outside my knowledge base. Yet this lack of prior knowledge turned out to be appropriate. This collection of work comes out of Jongwook Park’s experience moving, as an adult, from Seoul to Montreal, where he was surrounded with French and English. Language and cultural barriers here are the point. These barriers are not portrayed as a negative experience. Instead, the impression is one of creative exploration, wandering through the paths of language and culture while discovering ways of expression, and understanding of both self and others.

Originally from New York State, Than Brown moved to St. John’s to study folklore, and simply never left. Aside from writing for Riddle Fence, you may know them from playing octave mandolin in a number of local bands. She is also continuing their scholarly work on an independent basis.