An Exploration of New Work (2) 'Knock,' featuring the work of artist Seung Young KIM
2017-08-28 l Hit 1361
An Exploration of New Work
(2) 'Knock,' featuring the work of artist Seung Young KIM
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There are two types of artists; some artists explain the intention of their work and present viewers with ways to appreciate it, and the others minimize their intervention between viewers and their work and feel that the connection between viewers and their work is important. Artist Seung Young Kim, who will be introduced in this month's newsletter, belongs to the latter group.
I heard of the artist's new solo exhibition and asked for an introduction to his new work. He said that he is very careful when explaining the point of his work. Artist Seung Young Kim has created meditative installations with the theme of creation and destruction, memory and communication, healing and reflection, and so on. Because meditation is very subjective, he worried that a specific description of the work could narrow viewers' points of view on the work. Therefore, in this newsletter, rather than introducing a piece of his work, I planned the content in such a way that it shows the recent trends of artist Seung Young Kim's work. After consulting with the artist, we decided that 'Knock' would be the title of the newsletter, with the intention of expressing more specifically the flow of his oeuvres.
Bricks have been used in his work for a long time. Typical examples are 'Feelings of Bars'; a work made up of gold bricks stacked neatly in a steel-barred window, and 'Reflection'; a work in which broken or disorderly bricks were installed. In this newsletter, focusing on the two pieces, I will introduce work with 'bricks', which consistently appear in his recent work.
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"Before describing the work with bricks, it is necessary to go back and explain the work, 'Memory,' first. 'Memory' is a piece that I created by writing down the names of people, such as family, friends, colleagues, and journalists, who have influenced me, like the ending credits of a movie. However, there is a difference between ending credits and my work; the ending credits of a film go up from the bottom, and the names in my work go down from the top. At first I wanted to find 'myself' in the relationships with people through the work. Then the names gradually disappeared and I came to think of the 'feelings' left in the relationships," he explained.
The bricks are engraved with various words expressing feelings, from words like love and gratitude to abhorrence, hatred, and rage. They encompass the entire emotion, not just a part of it.
"It is likely that we have used familiar feelings over and over again, so we have only been able to develop certain feelings. It would be like a right-handed person using their left hand; it is unnatural. 'Love' is a familiar feeling for someone, but for someone else it is not; they do not take the word 'love' out of their mouths once in their whole lifetime. It is not easy to show feelings that were not expressed in the past, just like using unused muscles is uncomfortable. Maybe, they do not know the feeling of the emotion at all. As I was reading the book「Status Anxiety」by Alain De Botton, I was amazed at how 'anxiety' could have such a wide variety of feelings," artist Seung Young Kim continued.
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In his artist's note, artist Seung Young Kim says as follows:
As Louise Bourgeois says,"I am a prisoner of emotions. I have to tell my own story, forget about it, and forgive. Only that frees me." My work is a way of communicating with others and a means of relieving my mental suffering.
Through my work, I talk about how time permeates life and my thoughts about life; a kind of hope, fear, anxiety, desire, and immortality; and dream of freedom.
Both 'Feelings of Bars' and 'Reflection' started from the question; 'Can an artist be free from those emotions?' In other words, 'Can I be free from myself?'
The work 'Feelings of Bars' quietly reveals the weight of emotions. The artist painted bricks with a golden color that is thought of as precious, carved his feelings onto them, and piled them up neatly inside a steel-barred window. According to the viewer's interpretation, the window can be interpreted as a symbol to confine or protect emotions.
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'Feelings of Bars' is a work that accumulates emotions preciously, meanwhile, 'Reflection' is a piece that captures the image of raising emotions out of a deep inner well. The well is installed on the floor of the exhibition hall. Thick chains are located under the ceiling, rotating in order to bring emotions up from the well, and creating calm waves on the surface of the well water. The work resembles our swaying minds. Also, it seems like emotions, pulled from our deep consciousness, are piled up freely. In the process of being pulled up, certain feelings are broken and scattered all over.
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Both pieces deal with emotions, but the way they deal with emotions are totally different. Therefore, I asked the artist what would be a proper title for this month's newsletter and got an unexpected answer from him: "What about 'Knock'?" He explained that feelings can eventually be understood by paying attention to one's own mind and that symbolically means that the person knocks on his or her emotions, so he suggested that 'Knock' would be the title to put the two different pieces together.
Korean Artist Project Team
2017. 9. 13. ⓒKorean Artist Project
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