A consistent part of Song Yun-ju’s work has been the examination of the sensitive and subtle qualities of materials. In her upcoming exhibition she conjures up intersections between images and signs. The works that feature in the exhibition have been divided into two categories: works that present an all-encompassing view from an omniscient viewpoint; and works where the imagery appears to be free-floating, as if the viewpoint has been turned out toward infinite outer space.
Works from the first category, such as Seoul, JukJeongGwanHakDo (竹亭觀鶴圖), and Dream of Mountain and River (山水夢) have parallels to landscape paintings or maps. Building upon the idea that Korean painting and calligraphy both use ink and paper, Song studied the painting-like characteristics of ancient pictographic characters and applied these qualities to her own artworks. Seoul, which is composed of pictographic images that can commonly be seen in maps of the city, encourages the viewer to closely examine every nook and cranny of the work, as if hunting for treasure. Song used a variety of old Chinese characters to depict the four gates to the North, South, East and West of the city, and the mountains on the outskirts, adjusting the densities of the ink color in the characters as they embrace the pathways, rivers, and palaces situated in the center of Seoul, thereby suggesting the functions of the characters on a semantic level and at the same time, on a symbolic level, the qualities of painting.
JukJeongGwanHakDo features, at its center, a pavilion surrounded by mountains, with a bamboo forest behind it, while in front of the building a figure watches a scene in which ducks and cranes swim upon a lake. It creates a scene that, in Song’s way, suggests a very Taoist painting-like landscape. In depicting elements such as mountains, or buildings in her work, Song suggests a variety of shapes. By adding specific marks to some letters, appearing as if rubbed into their surfaces she reflects her longstanding interest in the materiality of surfaces, clearly continuing through into this new series of work, whilst maintaining a perspective that presents the entire canvas as a composite of images.
Even though it appears to present the simplest set of forms among these works belonging to the first category, Dream of Mountain and River demonstrates the way that images can be conjured up through intersections between calligraphy and painting The mountains that dominate the upper parts of the work, with their thick lines on the achromatic canvas, are both letters and pictures at the same time, as well as appearing both modern and yet traditional in its vigorous application of ink. In contrast with the thick, bold lines used for the mountains, the water in the lower part of the canvas has been depicted with fine lines, while the irregular thick strokes among them seem to be a Chinese letter, implying water as a pictograph, and at the same time, depicting the shape of the mountains as if reflected on the water.
The second category for Song’s work includes pieces such as Sun and Moon, Song’s Astronomical Chart (宋氏天文圖), and Chaosmos. As seen in the works from the first category, which suggested the forms of landscape painting or maps, these paintings also employ a similar framework in their use of achromatic ink brushstrokes on a background presented in the artist’s characteristic way. Song has selected variations of pictographic letters implying the sun and moon as primary images for composing the canvas, and attempted to broaden their boundaries through her own interpretation and transformation of such astronomical elements.
As suggested in the title, the work Sun and Moon, takes variations of the Chinese characters 日 and 月 which represent the sun and moon, and arranges them in a large circular form, delineating the sun’s trajectory in the upper half of the circle, and the moon’s trajectory in the lower half. Suggesting a variety of aspects of the sun and moon, these natural phenomena that occupy a central position, among the innumerable stars in the sky, are a primary source of life. Sun and Moon suggests that Song is reaching out into infinite space, in order to come closer to the essence of human life and the truth of the Universe.
Song’s Astronomical Chart and Chaosmos show her broadening interest in these phenomena in the universe. Song’s Astronomical Chart takes the artist’s family name and incorporates her contemplation and observation of planetary movements in space. Song’s Astronomical Chart developed from Gebulnori, a work in which the free-floating pictographic characters that represent the sun and moon delineate curvilinear forms, as if in the trajectory of its fire bowl. These ideas are expanded to Chaosmos, in which each of the countless stars in the sky shines in its own way, while at the same time they all operate within some sort of order. In Chaosmos, pictographic characters symbolize the way that all the things on Earth, as well as in the sky are brought up as elements of imagery, and put into the spatial orbit that the artist has delineated. In these works in which the artist’s contemplation and observation develops into a variety of images, the viewer is encouraged to feel the visual pleasure and rhythm of the canvas, which create a panorama as expansive as the creation of the Universe.
Through this exhibition, Song took a series of interactions between imagery and signs from our surrounding environment, and opened them up to depict the universe, creating rhythmic energy moving freely in the infinity of space. Having adhered to the basic principles of Korean painting, in terms of the materials and the types of brushstroke that the artist has continued to use, Song pushes its boundaries through an expanded approach to the characteristics of her idiosyncratic expressions. In this way she demonstrates the possibilities available to Korean painting, incorporating elements of contemporary art to further enrich the tradition.
Visual pleasure and rhythm within panoramic scenes
By Ha Gye-hun, works as an art critic and a professor of Dankook University
