Jheon Soocheon is a Korean artist best known for large-scale public projects and installation works. Born in Korea in 1947, Jheon Soocheon was educated first in Japan followed by Pratt in New York. The artist has over the past decades built an impressive exhibition career around the world, with major shows at the 1996 San Paolo Biennale; Massachusetts College of Art (1996); Norskbergverks Museum, Konigsberg (1997), Gwangju Biennale (1994, 2004), and Espace Landowski, Paris (2000). In 1995, Mr. Jheon was awarded an Honorable Mention from the Venice Biennale and was named Artist of the Year by the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul.

Following numerous indoor installations of clay figures and neon tubes, considered signature Jheon Soocheon 1990s works, during the past decade the artist’s interest has shifted toward drawing lines in nature—along a river, across a mountain, across a continent. Much like other international Land and/or Earth Artists his current project The Line That Crosses America (2005), is a conceptual work in which the artist “drew” a metaphorical moving line between New York and Los Angeles. Using a passenger train draped in white fabric the artist held a symposium during the eight-day journey.

In this context and following the spirit of The Line That Crosses America (2005), at White Box Mr. Jheon will present a site-specific installation titled, Beyond Bar Codes. In this work the artist transforms White Box’s entire floor into a giant bar code, which will also host several sculptures related to electronic consumer products. The floor’s bar code functions as a platform on which viewers will, by osmosis, become consumer products themselves. The related sculptures include a statue of a seated Buddha on a bar coded pillow and a huge globe covered by consumer waste a top a bar coded pedestal. While viewers are invited to walk around White Box’s floor, they are also encouraged to sit on the bar coded cushion and perhaps meditate for a few moments.