For nearly two decades Jae Ko has worked in fiber, transforming ordinary materials like paper and vinyl cords into extraordinary sculptural objects. Her work ranges from discrete wall reliefs and small sculptures to monumental installations that evoke topography and movement. For her debut at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Ko will create a site-specific installation entitled flow 流, the newest iteration in a series she calls “Forces of Nature.”

Inspired by visits to Newfoundland and the far northwestern reaches of the United States, Ko reconstructs the melting Tundra, with its floating, fractured glaciers. The room-sized sculptural relief is constructed from nearly one ton of recycled commercial adding machine paper that has been re-spooled and shaped to fit the architecture of CAMH’s Zilkha Gallery. The very nature of the material appears changed within the space as it in turn alters the gallery’s concrete, stark architecture into undulating surfaces of white formations that suggest imperceptible movements that come from the material’s play with light and shadow.