Viewing the Front Page Artwork of the Newsletter (9) ‘Loose Death’ by Myungjin Song
2016-09-26 l Hit 1064
Viewing the Front Page Artwork of the Newsletter
(9) ‘Loose Death’ by Myungjin Song
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Autumn is in the air and chilly wind blows day and night. It is a season for contemplation, so I am introducing the work《Loose Death》by artist Myungjin Song.
It was last summer that I first requested an interview with the artist Myungjin Song for the front-page artwork of the newsletter. I was expecting to see her greenish artwork when requesting the work for the interview and thought I could provide readers with a visual sensation of refreshment in the hot and exhausting weather. However, what she sent depicts dark and crawling intestine-like shapes, which surprised me for a moment, since the artist was well known for her work filled with green colors on a canvas; for many people Myungjin Song equaled the artist of green colors.
I asked the artist whether she will use green in the future or not and she replied as follows. “I had been working with green until 2010, and then I began painting these winding images after a certain transition period.” I was wondering what caused her to change from exceptionally green and bright colors to this dark work.
“After I concluded my green work in 2010, I exhibited my work in transition via the solo show at Gallery Ihn in 2012. Through the show, the winding images, the foundation of the work, appeared. At that time, I wanted to talk more about the characteristics of painting, rather than focusing on the actual meaning of the images, so I simplified the color palette and painted ambiguous shapes with a sense of volume. My work these days emphasizes the characteristics of those images,” she continued.
The artist’s recent work reminds me of spread-out intestines. It is not obvious where the organs came from; it seems like they could belong to humans or animals or the artist. The artist explained that they represent the human body, not a specific person. She thinks intestines are the primitive organs that constitute the human body. Meandering shapes, like intestines, are the images that best show a condensed body within its skin, representing the body’s energy and flow of life.
“The fact that I feel unwell could be one of the reasons for creating this type of work. I realized that until now I have been thinking only about certain events, thoughts, and consciousness, not about the body, which contains consciousness. Moreover, it was interesting to me that organs are in my body, but I can’t see them without an X-ray. My work brings the body itself out from the shadows, into the light, and examines it,” she added.
The artist has more things to talk about within this concept, so she will continue to create this kind of work for a while. She added that she could go back to bright work one day, as she naturally moved to the dark work from the greenish work.
Meanwhile, the artist Myungjin Song is participating in a group exhibition《Storytelling》with Stefan Petersen, and Boyoung JEONG at UNC Gallery from September 29th to October 20th.
Photographed by artist Myungjin Song
2016. 9. 30 ⓒKorean Artist Project
《Text and images may not be reproduced, reprinted, or redistributed without express consent.》
