Access a slow-looking exercise related to this work.

Transcript
Marilee Talkington: Jung Kangja’s mixed-media installation "Kiss Me" beckons the viewer with a wide-mouthed, toothy grin. First exhibited in 1967, this installation was refabricated in 2001. It measures 4 feet tall by 6 1/2 feet wide and 1 1/2 feet deep. In this freestanding sculpture, blush-pink plaster forms full lips with a prominent Cupid’s bow, open wide around two rows of blocky “teeth.” Jung formed the teeth using a gridlike structure of thin black wood frames, creating a row of twelve rectangular boxes at the top mirrored by twelve along the bottom. The boxes at the center are largest, progressively getting smaller as they reach the corners of the mouth and curve along the edge of the lips.

From the left, along the top row of teeth, the third, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eleventh boxes are covered with a thin white plastic panel and are illuminated, glowing from within. The remaining boxes are empty with the exception of two. A pair of bright pink rubber gloves with long sleeves, like those for dishwashing and domestic cleaning, are shoved into the fourth box from the left. A glass beaker, similar to a conical Erlenmeyer flask used in chemistry labs, sits in the ninth box from the left. A simplified eye is drawn in black on both sides of the beaker.

From the left, along the bottom row of the teeth, the first, third, and seventh boxes are empty, with the remaining boxes covered in thin white plastic panels and illuminated. Between the seventh boxes in both rows hangs a dark brown roughly carved wooden head, similar in shape and color to a coconut shell. The face is grinning with a closed mouth, and wears glasses with white plastic oval frames and no lenses.

There is no backing on the installation, and viewers can see through the empty boxes to the gallery wall behind. Effectively, Jung creates a flawed smile. She gives the impression of missing teeth and debris stuck in the boxes, glaringly obvious to the viewer, like food stuck between teeth.

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