'In-gan(人間, meaning 'human being')' is a Chinese word for 'sa-ram(meaning 'man')'. Corresponding English and German word to that is 'man'. 'Man' comes from Latin word 'mens' which means a being of thinking. While 'man' emphasizes being, 'in-gan' put particular emphasis on men's space or men's world as a whole which could embrace every individuals. The fact that Latin word 'humus', meaning 'earth', is the root of the English word 'human' shows that spatial concept is introduced to define man in English as well. The word 'humus', on the other hand, does not imply three dimensionality as the word 'gan(間, meaning 'between')'. The earth could not stand for the world as a whole. Understanding of human being of the East, in that sense, focuses much on the whole than on the individual. This kind of difference in idea might be related to the tradition of the group-conscious disposition of the people of the East compared to the individualism of theWest. The concept of 'gan(間)' is peculiar indeed. It's very versatile word in describing space. In 'cho-ga-sam-gan(草家三間, meaning 'small cottage')', gan refer to a spatial unit. In 'ma-gu-gan(馬廐間, 'meaning stable')' and 'got-gan(庫間, meaning 'barn')', the trait of gan depends on the holding materials of the place. In 'in-gan(人間, meaning 'human being')', 'si-gan(時間, meaning 'time')', and 'gong-gan(空間, meaning 'space')', gan's referencestretched far beyond the simple physical space toward the man, time, and place on the whole. Basically it refers to an empty space but at the same time a filled one as well. All the concept of in-gan, si-gan, gong-gan is primarily on premise of empty space. Filling of that empty space with man from the first to the last, time from the beginning to the ending, and the spatial position from the nearest to the farthest is in-gan(human being), si-gan(time), and gong-gan(space). The premise of the empty space does not necessarily mean the order of appearance. Empty space and filled space share the same beginning and ending. It is only logical dimension that premises space for human being, space for time, and space for space. This singular notion begets relation-oriented view of the world of the people of the East. If you and I face each other now, between us lies a distance or an empty space. That empty space on the other hand does not only exist between you and I and merely differentiate you and I, but is an evidence that reveals the existence of a certain space including you and me. That is invisible but exists if there could happen an event or be enacted certain laws of motion between you and me, that is not an event or action taken place only between you and me but made possible with the help of the space. In that course understanding of the space becomes a way to fully understand about the event and action taken place between you and me. The quality which makes the event and action possible is nothing but the relations. Relations could be close or distant, solid or casual, and simple or complicated. Be it amicable or hostile, you and I interact in particular way in that relations. The string of the relations responds variously according to the event and action which taken place, and it delivers around the trembling. That's resonance. According to the quality of the resonance, people within the wavelength of the resonance, show diverse responses and express mixed emotions. Traditional art of Koreahas attached great importance to this kind of aesthetics of resonance. It considers capturing the resonance between the objects rather than object itself, and that between the object and me, and that between the painting and me as a primary task. Fully animated painting is nothing but the one which has this kind of resonance. Our traditional paintingmethods in the use of ink and the brush are not of great help in realistically depicting the object in detail. It is effective in conveying the resonance of the whole by shaking and dismantling the objects a little. Our traditional painting has ignored deliberatelythe lifelike description of the objects, the tenacity to the objects pervasive in paintings of the West. What we have been tried to express as a reality and as a truth is not the object but the resonance of the whole including the objects. Since modern era, this tradition of the resonance has come out as rough and plain rugged matire in Park Soo-keun as collected tiny spots like starry sky in Kim Whanki as abstracted group of people woven together in Suh Se-ok as innumerably repetitive lucid water drops in Kim Chang-yuel The aesthetics of resonance is still actively functioning in today's arena of our artistic creation seemingly dominated by philosophical concepts, technology, various media. Appreciating resonance and sympathizing with the aesthetics of resonance is all but an instinct to Koreans. This exhibition, gathering three seemingly different but mutually resonating world of art by HwangIn-kie, MoonHye-jeong, Yoo Geun-taek, will give a chance to experience our aesthetics of resonance of today still in action. The art of these, though not exclusively, has the real power of the aesthetics of resonance. Be it ever seem different their aim and style, they have an ultimate appeal of the power of resonance. Following the wave of that power, we could realize anew that is nothing but the rhythm of our pulse, and our nature. Hwang In-kie "We might even consider the silicon dabs as a marvelous metaphor of the way Asians often see themselves as but tiny moments in a greater body that stretches from their ancestors into the future." Alzaruba, an artist, commented like that on HwangIn-kie's when it first appear in this March in the States. Alzaruba see Asians who consider themselves as tiny moments from the silicon drops of HwangIn-kie. Silicon drops do not assert their individuality. Silicon drops are anonymous, gather together into the whole, and for that whole theyconsider themselves as tiny moments, minute trembling. In that lies big resonance. Alzaruba saw the resonance. And he assumed that is the way Asians see themselves. HwangIn-kie has made works of 'accumulating dots into a figure' using rivets, silicon drops, even lego bricks. The fact that the materials he adopts are the result of the industrial production may seem disagreeable with our traditional aesthetics of resonance. When the materials transform into a traditional landscape painting by HwangIn-kie's enlarged pixel painting, we could realize the cold industrial products of modern era can't escape the range of the encompassing power of the aesthetics of resonance. We could rather get a new chance to reconsider the size and greatness of the aesthetics of resonance encompassing everything. HwangIn-kie's work on this exhibition is based on the 19thcentury painter Lee Ja-jang(李子長)'s <18 Arhan>. He enlarged the original painting 144 times and filled up the stroke with the silicon drops. The drop was attached, one by one, by the dot of the black and white pixel painting as a result of the computer processed film of the original painting. HwangIn-kie using 14 subway billboard as a canvas of this Arhan painting. The sacred and the secular clashes on this canvas. Arhan(阿羅漢) refer to the ascetics and ideal priests of Hinayana Buddhism. They have been regarded to have power to fulfill the whishes of the men and become objects of faith. That Arhan now strolls on the billboard paper filled with all the selfishness and desire of the world. HwangIn-kie said "morally impeccable Arhan takes its place on the billboards as a reproach for the fetishism of commodities and selfishness; but as time goes by, they seem to play together." That'the power of the resonance, too. It encompasses the dichotomy of the good and the evil. In that Arhan advented as resonance, the world cannot but resonate with the resonance. Moon Hye-jeong It may be natural to find the trace of expressionism in the works of MoonHye-jeong who studied in Germany. The expressionistic charactermight attract her to Germany. Affection of German expressionist art by many Koreans may due to the association of that with the elements of our traditional art like the diffusing effect of the ink, directness and dauntlessness of finishing a painting in one brushstroke. Relating to the aesthetics of resonance, expressionistic directness and boldness of her painting draw our attention. She is not interested in strict reality; not in logical and orderly composition. That doesn't have resonance. Instant and dauntless brushstrokes, like a harsh skid mark on the road, make a stir on our heart. Resonance arises. What MoonHye-jeongintends to draw, in that sense, is a stir or a ripple. If much more rough brushstrokes in former paintings look like ripples caused by stones thrown on the water surface at a time, 'lotus' series in this exhibition resembles big stir by a bulky stone. In any case her paintings focus on the ripple, disturbing the world passionately or silently. That's resonance. Blooming of a flower may not be a big deal. But the fact a being comes from nothing could be the biggest stir. All the being in itself is a tremendous event and stir. When we meet the one being in all beings, that could become a Buddha or Jesus and make a big resonance in our heart. In MoonHye-jeong's 'lotus' series, in that sense, ample void space could make an instance to enlarge the association of the resonance. Collected petty materials can deliver resonance, but only one or two objects on the canvas also can convey resonance. Empty and desolate space around the objects reminds the world of resonance spreading without trouble or obstruction. It's like the sound of a falling water drop in a silent cave could be heard as the sound of the beginning of the world. In the formal aspect, MoonHye-jeong's paintings may look like figural paintings, but the vivid spirit of the resonance makes them convey abstract atmosphere. The comment by Hans Gerke, director of Heidelberg Museum, "MoonHye-jeong's work is abstractive but is oscillating concrete objects" can be understood in that context. Resonance always tends to transcend the borders. In this exhibition we could find a collectively resonating flower pieces. That makes this place for a silent water drop on one hand and multiple vibrations of the objects on the other. Yoo Geun-taek The gaze of Yoo Geun-taek stays frequently in between. He said "I pay attention to the language coming out in between the artist and the object." That language is, basically, a resonance. Without the mutual response of the resonance, the object is dead thing for the artist. That can't intervene in my life and I neither. Between them no language exists. Without language we can hardly understand others. The objects without communication become far from the truth. Yoo Geun-taek's attention to the language in between is nothing but a will to reveal the truth by expressing the resonance. Yoo Geun-taekhas made landscape paintings a lot; but that has not been a physical landscape but 'landscape as a situation or circumstances'. He has tried to paint the trace of man rather than man, memory of the background rather than background itself. 'Landscape as a situation or circumstances' is, in another word, a 'landscape in between'. A situation or circumstances is a kind of the between. That's between one event and another event, or human activity and the object. There are full of resonance in between. Yoo Geun-taek's attention paid to the expressing the true color of the resonance. Take Yoo Geun-taek's recent work . On the ground scattered children's miscellaneous toysand toy-like small furniture. Gathering such small things itself, at first, deliver a certain resonance. The resonance of this painting goes far beyond the formal resonance caused by the gathering of the small things. This landscape of the resonance caused mental disturbance. Downsizing and being thrown of the furniture on the ground evoke uneasy feeling. Absence of the subject, crisis of existence, arrogance of power could be felt. This is a garden of our existence. This landscape of the resonance shows that the situation composing our life is in great tension at certain aspect. This color of the resonance is color of that kind of tension and crisis. In the case of , depicting telephone booth, floating likean isolated island, the artist evokes solitude or alienation by the situation of the painting. The landscape may seem very simple but the emotion is not. Actually his all paintings could seem simple and ordinary but they are anything but simple and ordinary. What makes a thing ordinary or extraordinary, simple or complicated is largely changeable. That depends on our heart that resonates with the resonance of the landscape as a situation, or landscape in between. Does your heart tremble a lot? In that case the situation is grave. However trivial it may seem, that is grave enough. All thing before us have this kind of potential seriousness and graveness. Yoo Geun-taek's painting is a tenacious report of observation. In stylistic aspect, Yoo Geun-taek's painting characterized by short and repetitive line rather than flowing curvilinear line, blurred color rather than vivid color, trembling and shaking touch rather than arranged one. This may be the inseparable style from his gaze at the resonance in between.
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EXHIBITIONS
Hakgojae Gallery
Resonance: an Aesthetics of Korea-
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DATE2004.11.03 - 2004.11.16
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ARTIST
Artworks