Cheryl Yun's "Mirror/Repeat" art exhibit at Gallery 210 is amazing in its simplicity.
Upon entering the gallery, it is noticeable that the room immediately transforms into a costly, upscale boutique. Various bags line the shelf beautifully.
They resemble Louis Vutton, Fendi or Dooney & Burke handbags. Hanging on racks are baby doll tops, miniskirts, halters, teddies, all of which are some really pretty, sexy things. To see them is to be drawn to these items. These garments desire to be touched.
I noticed the material of the garments and bags, made of paper, newspaper and Gampi tissue. After closer inspection of these garments and handbags, I saw images such as stark faces, skies, flags, newspaper articles and scenes of events.
Some of them, such as images of war, disaster and other struggles of the world, were very familiar. Yun even has a handbag that depicts images of the New York Fire Department around 9/11.
Yun begins this artistic journey by first creating the "fabric" with a photograph from the New York Times or the Internet.
This picture is chosen because of its storyline and photographic composition. Yun scans, manipulates and prints her chosen image. She then places each copy together continuously.
Yun cleverly takes the viewer down a path of clarity by creating this very close look into the world's unification through tragedy.
These purses, ever so tasteful, ever so well-fashioned, symbolize the baggage of America, the baggage of the world.
An example of the titles of the bags is a Hezbollah satchel called "Hezbollah becomes potent anti-U.S. Force."
Then, there is a beautiful and sexy halter teddy with a suicide belt. The first thing that I noticed was the sensuality of this garment.
Then, I touched it and noticed images of soldiers with their weapons drawn.
This garment's is titled "Kidnapping, Beheadings and Defining What's News (The Secret Islamic Army there is no God but Allah, Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah)."
There are other parts of this exhibit, such as a continuously playing DVD exhibit.
One of the DVDs has a kaleidoscope effect and it is of women in fashion-forward parts of the world on metropolitan streets.
These women are all carrying beautiful real, name brand handbags.
The other part of the exhibit is a wall that contains running headlines of past news.
The titles are strung together. A running header reads "-Five victims of Bronx * Fire laid to rest in Mali." Yun is saying all these places are different and far away, but they all are the same and meet at the point of tragedy.
Yun shows that there is no immunity to tragedy. She uses all of these unique places around the world to acknowledge some common effects such as shock, horror, pain and similarity.
She states that we, as a nation and as a world, are more delicate than we would like to admit. This collection of artistic excellence is so well executed. Seeing this exhibit may broaden your view on life and the world.
"Mirror/Repeat" by Cheryl Yun will be shown at Gallery 210 on campus through Dec. 8, 2007. To see more of Yun's work, go to http://www.cycollection.com.
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