Stuffed Animals and Found Objects Reconfigure in Sungho Bae’s Uncanny Sculptures

Like many kids, I struggled with bedtime. I was a naturally anxious child with a vast imagination and siblings who loved to watch scary movies, leaving me capable of generating an endless array of terrifying things that could happen once the lights went out. To remedy this problem, my mother designated a particular stuffed bear as my guardian, and before retreating to her own room, she would grab its squishy body and infuse it with her protective “power” should I need some comfort and safety during the night. For a time at least, this plush toy was enough to get me to sleep.

For Seoul-born, Chicago-based artist Sungho Bae, the meaning and emotion we ascribe to our childhood possessions gets flipped inside out. Bae gathers once-beloved toys from shops and disposal sites, which he then deconstructs and reconfigures atop a figurative armature. What emerges are uncanny sculptures and reliefs made of a vibrant, fleshy patchwork that resembles organs, tissue, muscle, and more.

In his exhibition Apotropaia, Bae presents a suite of new works likened to charms, amulets, and other magical forms that ward off evil. The title references the ancient Greek belief in mystical powers and nods to the ways in which humankind has long found meaning in objects, rituals, and materials. Why were these presumably cherished toys discarded? And how might their former significance be reshaped?

One of the less abstract and fantastical works is “Dansu,” a head and cross-cut neck with taxidermy eyes and feathers standing in for hair. The piece references a state in the Korean game of Go in which there’s only one move left before capture. Presented atop a weathered game board, the figure embodies the tension between natural and artificial and spirit and death, as he stares with vacant glass eyes originally designed to replicate life in a mounted animal.

Additional wall works, each titled “Gut,” are more amorphous. With wispy hair encircling an edge and bits of clay embedding into the mishmash of color and texture, the strange pieces revel in their ambiguity, inviting the viewer in for a closer look.

Apotropaia is on view through September 6 at 4th Ward Project Space. Keep up with Bae on Instagram.

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