Working at a vast scale, Seung Yul Oh crafts sculptures that bring together a high-gloss pop aesthetic and a sensitive understanding of how sculptural form operates in space. For Cordis Auckland, his large, suspended cluster of orbs, Anechoic Assemble, hovers in the double-height ceiling of the VIP Lounge. 

Seung Yul Oh’s practice spans a wide range of media, incorporating painting, installation, sculpture, video, performance and public art. He is most well known for his playful artworks that defy judgement or category, as he contrasts everyday objects with incongruous scale. In some works, a small mouse or bird toy is supersized or, in another, a bowl of noodles is rendered larger than life. He combines everyday objects – often loaded with instant sensory or emotional associations – which are rendered as commercial products in slick, high-gloss fibreglass that prevents an affective response.

The large spheres of Anechoic Assemble are typical of Oh’s practice in that they bridge the divide between East Asian pop culture and a more humorous, lyrical approach to Western minimalism. His sculptures express a unique understanding of space, and the way in which he might manipulate and redefine it, through capturing or articulating air. For Anechoic Assemble, Oh has selected colours that are reflective of te whai ao – or the transition from night to day. The colours of the dawn are present in the pinkish-golden tones, while the deeper greens and blues evoke the sky as it transitions from inky blue to the bright, light blue of day.

With this artwork, Oh thinks through the notion of the orb as a cycle – whether it be an organic natural cycle or a solar system; the circle is a central structure that connects all elements within the natural and man-made worlds. These spherical forms also describe the cycle of guests and visitors, and the smooth movement of people who pass through Cordis Auckland, night and day, in the endless offering of welcome and care. The orbs hang like a string of multicoloured bubbles, surreal and out of scale, above the VIP Lounge and beside the central lift lobby. With some of the orbs rendered in high gloss, they cast a warm, almost familial, gaze over the movement of guests reflected in the glossy surfaces. 

Anechoic Assemble welcomes the guests lightly, holding them in its reflective surface, and easing them with a gentle, yet uplifting, colour palette. Visible from the street, this work is an invitation to consider the joy that can be found from looking up, in wondering and in thinking through the power and beauty that is present in our cycles of nature and care.

Selected photography: Sam Hartnett. Images courtesy of the artist.