Jiwoo Park works with photography and video to project the vulnerable, suppressed self on to natural objects. In her work “The Highest Good is like Water”, flowing water becomes the natural object of focus.

Three printed fabrics display waterfalls that unravel into vertical threads at the bottom, the remnants of which lie temporarily in a cracked ceramic bowl. The bowl cannot carry the water’s energy, leaving it shattered as the threads leak out to create a puddle that subtly leads toward another place. Occupying opposite sides of the space and presented as a digitized analog film, water is displayed in motion. Monitors are placed between the two levels to convey a sense of gravity and direction.

In reality, water falls vertically from top to bottom due to the laws of gravity, but the different media of the installation shift the water’s orientation by giving it shape and form. Its flow and fluidity take on a new behavior within the sculptures: through the textiles it fills the ceramic bowl and moves upward again, in the video it shifts back and forth from top to bottom and reverses its descent. The flow of water in the installation creates an arc and restructures the space, allowing for the audience to interact with it.