Image: The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C
Se Jong Cho’s ‘Tile Mountain’ is being presented at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., as part of ‘Tomorrow the Sun Will Rise: The Phillips Collection Juried Exhibition,’ a group exhibition featuring work by artists including Cho, Joey Mánlapaz, Abdulrahman Naanseh, Bria Sterling-Wilson, Sharon Cheuk Wun Lee and Kyle Hackett. The museum’s newsletter describes Cho’s work as a focused exploration of symbols, translation and meaning.
‘Tile Mountain’ features a set of synthetic symbols based on the elemental shapes of Korean, English and mathematical signs. According to the exhibition material, these symbols ask viewers to consider their own “multiple cognitive structures” and the mental processes involved in translating inner thoughts, producing meaning and establishing communication.
The work places language systems alongside mathematical notation, bringing together forms that are commonly used to organize and transmit information. Rather than treating symbols as neutral tools, Cho’s project directs attention to the cognitive activity that makes them legible. Its stated concerns include translation, meaning and communication, while its visual language draws from more than one linguistic and symbolic tradition.
The Phillips newsletter identifies Cho as one of the artists featured in ‘Tomorrow the Sun Will Rise’ and includes a photograph of the artist with ‘Tile Mountain’ at the exhibition’s opening celebration. The same presentation includes Mánlapaz’s photorealistic paintings of Washington, D.C.; Naanseh’s non-traditional calligraphy; Sterling-Wilson’s ‘The Get Together’; Lee’s ‘Afterimage: Borrowed Flora’; and Hackett’s ‘After Return Investment.’ Those works are described separately in the museum’s artist features and are not part of Cho’s individual project.
The exhibition is part of the current programme of The Phillips Collection, the Washington museum located at 1600 21st Street NW. The institution’s newsletter lists the museum’s public hours as Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It also promotes videos and interviews with several of the participating artists, including Mánlapaz and Naanseh, alongside the written feature on Cho.
The group exhibition is scheduled to remain on view through September 20, according to the museum’s newsletter. The newsletter does not provide a separate run for ‘Tile Mountain,’ nor does it identify the work as a standalone exhibition. It presents Cho’s project within the juried exhibition’s broader display of artists and practices.
