Viewing the Front Page Artwork of the Newsletter (7) ‘Sound of Water Sound of Wind’, by artist Bong Chae SON
2016-07-25 l Hit 1245
Viewing the Front Page Artwork of the Newsletter
(7) ‘Sound of Water Sound of Wind’, by artist Bong Chae SON
 ‘Sound of Water Sound of Wind’, 2013, Oil on polycarbonate, LED, 1600 x 1200cm |
Continual day-after-day heat waves are exhausting us this July. When standing under the blazing sun at noon, it makes us miss the cool breeze under the shade of a tree. We selected《Sounds of Water Sound of Wind》, created by artist Bong Chae SON in 2013, as the Korean Artist Project newsletter’s front page cover artwork in July as it gives us a feeling of refreshment.
Unlike the artist’s other major series《Migrants》, the trunk of the tree from《Sound of Water Sound of Wind》is very thick and strong. Moreover, the branches and leaves are spread in all directions from the center of the picture, evoking feelings of vibrancy, freshness, and a kind of heavy sensation.
The artist SON introduces the tree image in the work by saying, “The image represents five shady trees combined,” and added, “To be specific, they are the Zelkova Serratas located along the roads that lead to countryside villages. They put down roots in those places 200 to 300 years ago, and some are more than 500 years old. People believe that these big, old trees protect their villages and function as guardians that hold their villages’ histories. In order to create the tree in the work, I painted five different shady trees, located in five townships within Jeollanam-do, Hwasun County, where I live, and combined them together.”
 ‘Feast of Dreams’, 2016, Stainless steel, motor, LED, 6 x 6 x 10m |
There are many trees in the artist’s work. However, the artist explained that the meanings behind the trees are very different from series to series. For example, in the series《Migrants》, trees symbolize the lives of people these days who have lost their original base, uprooted themselves, and moved to the city. The series《Sound of Water Sound of Wind》depicts trees of life that hold the history of villages within themselves, and talk about life in the villages, the opposite of the trees from《Migrants》. The series《Sound of Water Sound of Wind》is more popular abroad than in Korea, especially in Europe, so he creates work in the series continuously.
The artist majored in sculpture in college, but gave up producing sculptures for a long time. Recently, he started making sculptures again. In fact, he was the youngest Korean artist chosen to participate in the Gwangju Biennale in 1997, where he exhibited his kinetic sculpture《Invisible Zone》, which consisted of approximately 270 bicycles hung upside down from a ceiling. According to the article ‘Artist’s Notes’, published in 2011 by online magazine「Art Museum」from the Korean Art Museum Association, he explained the reason for creating three-dimensional paintings by saying, “I made kinetic art like crazy in the 90s and realized that the cost of materials became a burden.”
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After 2000, he has been focusing on converting flat surfaces into three-dimensions with his work. Recently, he decided to create sculptures again and continued his kinetic art. Hwasun County hosted a sculpture contest to select a symbolic sculpture for the County and chose his large installation work《Feast of Dreams》as its representative sculpture. The sculpture shows the process and result of ‘flowers becoming fruit and fruit becoming flowers’ with repeatedly opening and closing metal spheres. The work will be installed after the placement selection process. In addition, artist SON is scheduled to hold an exhibition at Opera Gallery, NY this coming fall.
2016. 7. 29 ⓒKorean Artist Project
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