Constellation Congress documents a three-part exhibition of work by Koo Jeong A (b. 1967). For over twenty years, Koo Jeong A has been steadily and rigorously constructing a visual language of evocative riddles and playful environments that highlight the idiosyncrasies of the world around us. In the artist's work, nothing is ordinary; on the contrary, any object—be it a pile of charcoal, a piece of iron, or a puddle of water—is given dignity and reverence and incites the surprise of a first encounter.

Her presentation for Dia at The Hispanic Society will be the fourth in Dia’s multiyear series of projects by contemporary artists for the Society’s Beaux-Arts buildings, in Washington Heights. Occupying the Society’s East Building Gallery, Koo Jeong A’s installation will comprise new multimedia works that were commissioned by Dia. These will include architectural interventions loosely evoking feng shui principles and a dual-projection video installation. Additionally, Koo Jeong A created an olfactory artwork, Before the Rain (2010) in collaboration with perfumer Bruno Jovanovic, of International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc., that employed ingredients such as dry woods, minerals, fern, musk, tar, and lichens, among others. The publication includes a text by exhibition curator Yasmil Raymond and newly commissioned essays by art historian Molly Nesbit and Harvard University Professor of Astronomy Dimitar Sasselov, among others.