There is a land beyond the river 저 건너편 강 언덕에

2021

12 hand-blown glass vessels and Chattahoochee river water (iteration I)
18 hand-blown glass vessels and Harlem and Bronx river water (iteration II)

Gyun Hur has created teardrop shaped glass vessels that hold river water in memory of the victims of the spa shooting in Atlanta on March 16th, 2021. As the artist grapples with her emotional proximity to this tragedy as an immigrant daughter of the Atlanta Korean community, she expresses grief through this sculptural wall installation. Glass vessels are hand-blown in various sizes, alluding to the forms of raindrops or tears. Hints of yellow refers to the racialized color for Asians in America as well as the ‘golden’ color of bells in the lyrics of the Christian hymnal “There is a land beyond the river.” 

River water is hand-collected and carefully transferred to these glass vessels. Hur sees the river’s constant movement as a choreography of letting go while generating life. In her childhood memories from South Korea, rivers were sites of mourning, washing, and rejoicing. In the larger context, rivers hold ecological memories of abundance, eradication, borders, and power. Over the period of the exhibition, the sediments of collected river water will settle while evaporation occurs.