The Landscape, a truly creepy sublimity_curated by JUNG HYUN MI
The title of Suntag Noh’s exhibition may call to mind gentle and warm photographs of nature scenery. But for those who are familiar with his series might take this rather unusual as his practice is mostly on revealing and questioning unreasonable and irrational history prevalent in contemporary Korean society. The subjects of his photographs include division of South and North Korea, current political situations, or inconvenient truth, mischaracterizing him as a documentary photographer.
If see it close, however, Suntag Noh’s works are quite different from typical documentary photographs. Unlike documentary photographers, he stands back and never set forth his take on the situations so as to make viewers question and contemplate the situations in their own ways. As a result, his photographs are open to any interpretations of the viewers making the viewing process more complicated and varied. Besides, the situations in his photographs are not easy to get hold of right away.
The people wearing colored raincoat in the series “String-pulling theory; An excellent mystery of the Container-Barricades made by 2MegaByte” seem to be enjoying an outdoor performance on a hot summer day despite the rain but in reality, they are running away from the water cannon at the demonstration. And in the series “strAnge ball” that appear to depict typical landscape scenery, the bright moon like object is in fact a radome, a protective housing for a radar antenna. As it is in these cases, the first impression of his photograph is different from reality.
For this exhibition, photographs were selected not from one specific series but from various series in order to present how he perceives the ‘landscape’ of Korean society. Though it comes from the tragedy of national division which is in no what so ever way beautiful, the ironic title ‘so much beautiful’ is to say that we must embrace those landscapes of history and overcome through what he lays with his perspective.
This exhibition is in an attempt to give a chance to face up to the reality that we live in and see Suntag Noh’s photographs not only from protester’s view but from different angles.
