Esplanade Curatorial Exhibitions 2

Date: 12 Apr -  30 Jun 2013 (Sat - Sun)

Venue: Concourse, Esplanade

From 12 April to 30 June, visitors to the centre will encounter a striking sculpture made up of thousands of pieces of charcoal hanging from transparent nylon strings above the Concourse Steps. Titled Spring of Flora, the sculpture by South Korean artist Bahk Seon Ghi will be more than 10 metres long and made up of pieces of charcoal arranged to depict a suspended barren tree branch.

Known for his ingenuity in creating hanging charcoal sculptures, Bahk attributes his choice of medium to the fact that he grew up in a small South Korean village, surrounded by mountains, deep valleys and trees. This close proximity with nature in the early part with his life inspired him to seek ways of expressing nature in his work. Bahk used trees as a starting point because they felt more familiar and were easier to depict than mountains or wind. In choosing charcoal, Bahk states philosophically that charcoal is wood transformed, bringing him back to his starting inspiration, nature. Spring of Flora is an Esplanade-commissioned work.