Dozens of artificially crossed varieties and names, such as Cheonhyehyang, Hallabong, Karahyang, Hwanggeumhyang, Redhyang, Jinjihyang, and Cheonggyeon, are displayed in the exhibition space. Although their ancestors are few, they differ in shape and size due to the variety of breeding. The landscape created by clusters of similar shape makes it more difficult to distinguish them. This is in line with the problem of made by the artist. This work, in which the wicks that get smaller and smaller by peeling the onion layers one by one, are cast by plaster, is placed right next to this citrus landscape. Like a senior artist who said, 'Painting from nature is not copying the object; it is realising one's sensations,' the artist's approach to revealing the various layers inherent in the subject beyond simple visual and phenomenal problems is revealed. Let's go a little further inside the exhibition.
There is a casted plaster work in which unopened packs of cigarettes are attached to each other in long thin rows. With plaster, the thinner the connecting part the weaker it is, but the finished form of this work is unstable. Instead of lying there, it leans precariously against the wall. The artist, who has not smoked since his 20s, is said to have been drawn to the etymology of the word 'Raison'. 'Raison D'etre (reason of existence)'. As a name for a cigarette, it is quite grandiose, but for a name given to an object that has meaning only when it becomes smoke, it stands out with a meaningful sense. This object, destined to disappear, is fixed with a material precariously.
Ginger inside the exhibition space looks interesting. It looks ambiguous, different, and the only words that can be described are 'it looks like ginger' that comes to mind. The jagged shape is connected by thin nodes. The artist grinds one side of this mass to make a flat section. As if carving a mountain to fill a lake, the volume and irregularities were compressed into a flat cross section. Paprika and bell pepper placed next to each other have distinct differences in taste and colour, but the identities of those placed in the exhibition are indistinguishable. This is because they are all cast in bronze. In these ingredients, which have erased their innate qualities and made them unrecognisable, the artist's tendency to like soft concepts and visual disturbances can be seen.
24-hour air conditioning and heater. There is no time to enjoy the snow in the repeating city life. It is the artist's job to discover clues to his work even while taking a walk in such an environment. He pulled out the inverted icicles created by the water from the flue between the sparsely populated alleys and the cracks that are difficult for people to pass through and brought them to the studio. The will of homeostasis, the seasonal weather, and the environment are condensed in the new body of the mass that he diligently collected while digging through the residential jungle during the winter.
This is because the water and other floats from the icicles were poured into the mould made before melting and cast together with the plaster as it was. The three chickens in different poses positioned opposite each other replaced the water essential for curing the plaster with three different liquids. This can be guessed by the colour and smell, and these are soju, beer, and makgeolli. This chicken, called the old-fashioned chicken, is characterised by its thin skin and the shape of a whole chicken. Karaoke Shrimp Crackers, which are made with white plaster and cannot tell whether the taste is spicy or mild, are also placed next to it
These white masses placed in the exhibition were made by actively utilising the properties of materials such as plaster and water. Even water has been drawn from the objects of reality he has captured, so there is no room for fiction to intervene. A landscape that is common and insignificant and the reality that composes it is held and integrated in the plaster. The time of the artist's body and mind is implied in the chickens staggering in a twist and the icicles endowed with a body that does not melt. The artist did not throw away or waste the remaining plaster generated in the process of making the icicles, but carefully rolled them into a spherical shape and placed them here and there. Light shades and a lack of sheen volume stands out against the dark purple background. The layer of mixed reality they create is maximised through dramatisation on the designed stage.
Some objects pass through the body and disappear to the other side of the world, such as delicious fruit or the smoke of a cigarette after a meal. The icicles frozen overnight and the whole chickens on display in a line will also disappear too. The artist held these to the moment with his dexterity. But this, too, is not fixed. If art is the artist's order of the materials of the world in a unique way, then the art placed in the exhibition meets the audience and produces an individual and independent interpretation. Whether in reality or in the exhibition space, we might be consuming order to produce disorder. From the past, the artist has turned bland jokes and clichéd rhetoric into a comedy that is intertwined with everyday life through intensive labor practices. White icicles and precarious cigarette packs make us think about the problems the artist carrying to this day.
There is a small crater lake filled with soju at the entrance of the exhibition, and an avocado cut in half at the inner space of exhibition. The mould of the outer skin, the flesh cut in half, and its seeds. A dry twisted reality resides in the core of the semantic networks he has concentrated. So, even the sweet water at the top gives only another illusion and a temporary sense of liberation. From the works placed at the beginning and the end of the exhibition, and from the work notes about body-to-body deal, the artist's longstanding worries are felt. For the artist, art may be a means to escape from the emptiness of life, or it may be the vividness of the motivation to create meaning. Here, in the exhibition, there is an artist's practice of creating cold and stunned objects through hot positive acts. Things that have vanished by inadvertently passing through are revealed through a thoughtful filter. Oh, the hand is quicker than the eye.
Stone Park
It's spring again. The cherry blossoms haven't bloomed yet. This sudden warmth is awkward. As the weather cleared, I lost interest in the project of casting ice collected in the city, which I had been working on all winter. In those days when I was dealing with plaster in cold weather, my heart was more peaceful. As the seasons passed, feelings went away, and now I am feeling a bit of loneliness.
Art is my profession, but creation is not just about happy days. I think I've said something similar before. Now I just do it. There is a solo exhibition ahead, and there is work to be done. However, the subject continues to blur. When I open my previous work notes, I see plausible words such as excavation, wunderkammer, and the other side of things, but now their meaning is lost. The meaningless logical thinking ceases and the reality becomes stale.
When I look at the process that I am working on in diachronically perspective, this creative process will definitely be my happiness. If I survive today and open a solo exhibition in June, I will be quite happy. Even if I go ahead as planned, time is tight, so there is no time to lose. Although it is a bit far from the black comedy that makes me smile, I believe that through this process, I will be able to create things that did not exist in the world. However, the premise of the question will be slightly different. It's time to set a new milestone.
The etymology of tobacco raison comes from the French 'raison d'etre' (reason of existence). I take comfort in this nonsense. I think of a person with his head bowed while erasing his image in the thick cigarette smoke of his exhaled breath. In this blurred landscape, he self-helps. 'The default value of life is solitude, and the background is the wilderness.'
The casted ice refers to the icicles that have grown due to water vapour from the boiler flue. This stalagmite-like ice contains the history of warming the space, the climate at that time, and the dust in the streets. I took this object that would melt even in half-day sunlight and quickly made a mould for the texture and mass of the surface. Then, melted ice water and plaster were mixed and poured into the mould to make a sculpture. This object gave all its flesh and bones to me. As a witness to the growth of ice and as a sculptor practicing alchemy, I felt a sense of responsibility for this work. Similarly, I now cast the tangerines, pat the avocados, split the chicken sides, and grind the ginger-shaped plaster. I am committed to committing myself to this body-to-body deal. As a rocker said, life is a journey, and you have to look ahead and walk. Hey tangerine, ginger, and paprika! Is there any salvation in living this life? Let's find out together.
Byeon Sanghwan (March 2022)
Press release courtesy SPACE SO.
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