The time traveler, The image alchemist Sangwoo Kang's Small pictures and installation
Sangwoo Kang's time passes in counterclockwise motion. Kang’s works are like looking at his past through the hole. It is more correct to say that as if he sticks his head out into the hole rather than just circling around the hole. He does not remain here, in fact he remains there. There is no present for him. For him, the state of the present comes as neither meaningless greyish space nor soundless conversations taking place in unrealistic realm. The only light captured by his conscious dose not exists here, it lies with his past and dreams. While he is obsessed with images, events, people and certain facts that are inhibits his memories, he gets the greatest fuzz out of recording his own observations and analysis of his own feelings and attitudes. Kang investigates his change of moods through the medium of personal memoires and memoir that reinforceable and variable and even extinctable for personal benefit. Then he re-constructs and re-produces those memories into drawings, paintings, sculptures, installations and photographs. Sometimes he emprunts movies, videos, animations advertisements or masterpieces that are imprinted in his mind.
Around 1500 colour drawings smaller than the size fists and just bigger than the size of fried egg are drawn in A5 size sketchbook made over the ten years is the trail of his own time travel stories. He uses conté, transparent marker pen according to his secretive technique. Do not be fool by the size, it contains such a fine details and aura easily match for the fine paintings. There are great ranges of repertory. First of all, childhood memories or imagination, dreams related to his family captures at the first sight. ‘A mummy whale and a baby whale’, old dolls and toys, the snack time with two brothers, gently messaging mum’s arms are the common subject matter between a mother and a child. There is a picture where Kang captured the essence of the first encounter of his niece. Sangwoo Kang said such a scenery of quiet and peaceful suburbia while he was studying aboard might have triggered nostalgic feelings towards his own childhood memories. He continues to capture the U.F.O, clouds at night sky, drawing of Icarus and the imagery and the scenery of his vivid dreams. Kang continues to capture what is appears to be instant moments played by the act of ludicrously and eccentrically, such as a girl annoyed because she was unable to spit out chewing-gum from her mouth happened somewhere in Dutch street, flipped car on upside down road and etc. In addition, he makes or arranges his nostalgic feelings towards images awaken by the motion pictures, music, cartoonistic illustrations, sometimes western paintings and prints are appropriated. There is a picture which contains a poster image of the motion picture tilted ‘Doll Eye’, incapturating the moment of when Guan Yu‘s head armor got stricken by a Huang Zhong’s arrow in Woo Young Go’s cartoon ‘Three Kingdoms’, San Wol Lim’s member Chang Whan Lee’s song, American country musician Jonny Cash, the motion picture ‘Whale Hunting’, Hyun Se Lee’s ‘Fearsome Wae In Gu Dan’. Certain images are given direct, specific and expressive approaches, other images are given metaphorical, abstract, and encoded approaches.
'Sleeping Beauty'(2008) is a small sculptural piece which evoked feeling of fear when he encountered certain image during his childhood, as it provides insight of how the artist choose to use his images regards to his memories and feelings.
It was 1985 while Sangwoo Kang was attending primary school 23 years ago he had his first encounter with Walt Disney’s animation, later he realized the source of his fear came from particular scene opposing to be more dimensional than other scenes within the animation. He has intended to conceptualize the shocking feelings by recreating the ‘truth’ about his experience. To actualize this, he places a female figure facing the wall so that her abundant hair and dress wrapped around her back line can be revealed as it’s shown in the animation. And the rear side(invisible side un-shown in the animation) reminds the beauty stunned by the witch’s prickly forest with the claw marks deep as cliff. It metaphorically deigns to evoke fear, which is associated with a witch’s magic. Realistic and strange way, it could be called ‘Deconstructional Realism’ the way he led the image. Like useless, pointless and small(highlight the fact small-for-size) object similar to melted candle wax. It is informalized(formless form), semi-structionalized(anti form). The object has qualities originated from his childhood, impacted both physically and constructionally expanded its territories like installations made by the theater designer, in same time it takes the affects of psychological deconstruction.
'Ill Zeeman' 2009 is a work taken from clothes manufacturer company’s logo which turned into dimensionalized form. It started from the artist's curiosity of an image of a boy' body in the logo. As the image turned its shape into three dimensional form from two dimensional form, clues and sign can be added onto the image. For example, to create a sculptural piece of a boy (like a mentally disabled person or physically disabled person) driveling, Kang finds then adds imaginative mental state or illnesses. Overall, Kang’s subject matter of his installation works has personal quality, has a strong focus and has sensitive craft quality. Perhaps his approach (internal approach) might have originated from intense concentration. 'Trace'(2007), 'Is Anyone Here, Except Jerry?''(2007), 'Landscape'(2007), 'Sweet'(2007), 'Rain Brings Misery'(2009), 'Horizon&Skull'(2009) share similar feelings. Kang is currently working on ‘Project Rapture’. Since he has witnessed ‘rapture incidence’ in same time he began to take personal interest in the context of Christianity in 1992, he was deeply feared by the unavoidable images relate to existence of god and heaven and hell. This is one of the works displayed on the floor presented in this show.
For Sangwoo Kang, livings in fantasia land thicken by cloudy night sky and devotion for the unique art (“Making art is only thing I can do”) has same weight. There is no relation between himself and the current state of mind, perhaps, apart from the weather and the music, his sole energy is consumed by searching for the ways of pulling out his memories from the past, the things he can appropriate, taking references. He said he might make works about Korean television series ‘Soon Poong Obstetrics and Gynecology’ which became a hit ten years ago.
He has no interest in what people do. According to him, for that reason he has chosen to study abroad in Netherlands. He has faith in art as much as religion. It is pure, there is something about his seriousness and there is also something about his weightlessness, personally I feel anxious about these choices. There is a sculptural piece called 'The Cloud of the Rapture'(2008). It is actual model of clouds with full of apocalyptic moods motivated by collection of illustrations made by the apocalypticist. The word ‘Rapture’ has duel meaning (it means the greatest joy however it also means the clouds of the day of apocalypse). His overall image overlaps with this image of clouds. “I am really curious about my future” taken from his sketchbook. I can only hope that apocalypse will miss his art.
Wan Kyoung Sung(Art Critic)