JAYE MOON

THIN RED LINE

November 15th, 2018– February 2nd, 2019

Opening reception: Thursday November 15th, 6 - 8PM

Marisa Newman Projects is proud to present Thin Red Line, a site-specific installation by New York-based artist, Jaye Moon.

The term "Thin Red Line (Of Courage)" is used to express respect for firefighters who have died on the job. When firefighters protect others’ lives, the last ounce of courage that is deeply embedded in the soul to overcome fear is called a thin red line. “Thin Red Line” originated as a military action in the battle of British troops in 1854 in the Crimean War (featured in Robert Gibb’s painting The Thin Red Line, 1881 oil painting). In 1962, James Jones used the term as the title for his novel about American infantry soldiers fighting in Guadalcanal during World War II.  The novel was adapted to screen twice, and Jaye Moon has used the later, 1998 film adaptation by Terence Malik as an inspiration for the installation at Marisa Newman Projects.

Jaye Moon created Thin Red Line as a floor installation using minimal abstract language. The artist reinterpreted the script of the film into English Braille, translating the language and image into a form that is neither visible nor audible. Having herself experienced the threshold of death due to cancer in recent years, Moon found that the process of battling the disease was surrounded by silence and the silence was sometimes harder to take on than the fight itself.

The entire floor of the gallery space is covered with 56,576 pieces of plastic tiles creating camouflage patterns. Since the floor is constructed using delicate materials, the audience will cautiously walk on the installation with an uneasy feeling of fragility, suggestive of walking amongst landmines. To get to the thin red line, walking through landmines is unavoidable. The work suggests that the audience search within themselves for answers, even though they are limited as War and Death are inescapable truths of human existence.

Jaye Moon was born in 1963 in Seoul, Korea. Moon received an MFA in Sculpture from Pratt Institute in 1994. Selected solo exhibitions include Build Up, Hanmi Gallery, Seoul, Korea (2017), All in the Game: The Art of Jaye Moon, Brick Lane, Seoul, Korea (2015) and Playthings in Modernism, Gallery MoMo, Tokyo, Japan (2015). Breaking the Code, Newman Popiashvili Gallery, New York, NY (2012), Modern Living, Max Estrella Gallery, Madrid, Spain (2007). Selected group exhibitions include The Discovery of Space, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Gyeonggi Do, Korea (2016) and The Shade of Time, Queens Museum, Queens, NY (2014). She won the Pollack Krasner Foundation Grant, New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Artist Fellowship, and AHL Foundation Grant. She participated in the CJ Art Studio Residency in Korea, Fountainhead Residency and BRIC/Rotunda Gallery Video Residency in the US. Her work was reviewed in Art in America and Artforum.com, and she was selected as a top ten artist in NADA Art Fair in Miami in 2012. Moon lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

We would like to thank Sohobricks for their sponsorship of the exhibition.