Julie Ahn

𝐏𝐞𝐛𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐢𝐝 𝐃𝐨𝐭𝐬, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓. 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘻𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘶𝘵 𝘒𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦. 14”𝘹30”𝘹5.5”.

When my family lived in Brooklyn we were lucky enough to have an elevator in our apartment building. And when you looked down to see the matte almost rubbery surface it looked like a hundred tiny nails hammered in a perfect grid. I stared at it enough over the years that when the interior light reflected on the nail heads it made me think of the way abalone inlay would peek through wood; a familiar surface I associated with intricate craft work I saw in houses growing up or at the Korean wing at the Met Museum.

Pebble Stonescape with Abalone Grid Dots loosely interprets fragments of an associated past combined with everyday surfaces to create an intimate landscape.

Drawing from the concept of Ancient Scholar Stones (Gongshi, as known in China starting from the Tang Dynasty, Suseok in Korea and Suiseki in Japan) where stones were selected based on their unique characteristics personifying a living spirit within - the notion that nature is alive. I wanted to make a series of work interpreting the many phases of this spirit becoming, wanting to unveil itself and then finding itself trapped again, a timelapse between the stones we associate with ones from nature and the ones man made -reconciling everything in between, therefore becoming a new moment in itself.

**Private Purchase of @knoll now currently on display at the Knoll Showroom at Piazza Luigi Vittorio Bertarelli, 2, 20122 Milano MI, Italy**

Shouts to my friend @salemvanderswaagh for her friendship and support 🙏🏻💓