The museum will be closed Tuesday, March 11th, while we install our new Arthur Griffin Archive. The museum will be reopen Wednesday, March 12th, with regular hours from 12-4pm.

Griffin Museum of Photography

Posted on

Chaekgado
Lim Soosik

April 17 – June 29, 2025

read more

The Griffin Museum is pleased to showcase, Chaekgado, the works of Lim Soo Sik in our Atelier Gallery as part of our broader exhibition, New Horizons: Korean Contemporary Photography.

Lim Soo Sik acquired his bachelor and master’s degree in photography from Jungang University in Seoul. Since 2007, Lim has actively showcased his works in galleries in Korea, US, Spain, China and others. His works are part of the permanent collection at National Museum of Modern Art and E-Land Space in Seoul and Reiner Kunze Museum in Germany.

Chaekgado, which translates to English as ‘bookshelf’, is a genre of still-life painting typical of the Choseon period in Korea. Lim’s interpretation of Chaekgado begins by photographically documenting various bookcases located at different people’s homes. Even though most of the bookcases resemble one another, every bookcase conveys a unique story and contributes fascinating visual elements to the project as a whole. This is characterized by the deconstruction and construction of perspective, as the artist photographs the bookcases in separate parts and from different points of view. The fragmented images are then printed on traditional Korean paper, which Lim assembles by hand-stitching. Through this process of photo-collage, the completed artwork not only obtains a visual distortion but also a uniqueness that a normal reproductive photographic work could not attain. Like a bookcase filled over time, this work is assembled piece by piece, carrying a unique value of absolute time.

MENU