A school of fish is swimming as swift as an arrow. No one has asked them to but they show us a magnificent sight just like water buffaloes traveling several thousand kilometers in search of the green in Serengeti. The black fish draws a large circle to rise in a spiral as if performing acrobatic feats in groups and flocks together to the center in a whirlpool. But most of them traverse from left to right. Their speedy and uniform parade, speed, and the sight of thousands fish make us sigh with admiration. They travel deep inside the sea and explore everywhere they reach.
Looking at the deep dark sea painted by Yoon Woo-seung, I seem to become a diver exploring the sea. The silver fish dividing the dark sea in two gives me an exquisite inspiration. But at this point, I question myself whether what we see relies on just the readvent of the sight or it has some other implications.
Mostly, we would see printed pictures when appreciating works of art rather than paying a visit to a museum. We tend to think that we have seen a real work of art while looking at a printed piece or a photograph, which is an indirect experience in reality. This is just like when we think that we have met a real celebrity while looking at her/his photograph. But printed materials or illustrations can't make us feel the real beauty of a certain work of art. This applies to paintings of Yoon Woo-seung. Details that a camera lens won't detect seem to take the most part of his works of art.
The motif in his paintings is the sight under the sea but his whole works of art are not confined to delivery of the motif. This means that he is really careful to show 'the quality of pictures' and appreciators must pay good attention to the depth of the pictures.
The sense of depth can be divided in two. One is 'the process of materialization of fish' and the other is 'the surface processing'. Firstly, based on the process of materialization of fish, the fish floating on the screen like buoys is differentiated from descriptions of other works of art. They are not just fish images but each image is born after a painful process corresponding to childbirth. The artist draws an image, sprays to cover the image, redraws the image, and sprays on the image again. The process takes place many times and the overlapped fish image would look close to or far away from us.
The surface processing is as important as the materialization of fish. Covered with a transparent membrane, the picture will be clarified and become elegant, which is a surface-finishing technique that is unique to the artist. As described in advance, once the materialization process is finished, the artist gives a touch to the surface by using paints for automobiles with gloss and proper preservation.
To coat, he applies a traditional method by using lacquer. Lacquering is a very old method of coating. To lacquer, ancestors would apply transparent liquid from lacquer trees on ear shells or apply it on a clean surface. As well-known, lacquer would give gloss on the surface or work as a protective material against corrosion. So the method has been usefully applied to home furniture such as wardrobes, dressing tables, and stationery chests. Yoon uses materials that are somewhat different from this but the coating process is exactly same to lacquering. The artist has learned traditional coating techniques and applies several tens of coating process until the surface obtains rich gloss. The scars from the coating will be filled and the lumps will be smoothened with sandpaper. Then, he uses metal polish and the glossing process called 'Mulpephasil' will take place. It is to grind dirts by watering the fine sandpaper and produce a glossy surface. The artist got a job at a furniture-manufacturing plant to learn this technique. Who would have imagined the good usage of coating applied when processing woods.
There are no unnecessities in his paintings. They are smooth and sensual but his work process is traditional and conservative. Traditional cultures considered to be conventional and invalid are reborn in his works of art freshly and contemporarily.
The title of his work is <LiFish>, a compound word from Life and Fish. His works of art are not only about stories under the sea but also our life stories. The dreamy mystery with the comfort of nature revives the world of healing and comforting through silent meditation and supernatural images. The images reminding us of silence and meditation give the rest and peace to appreciators. Along with this, the internal traces of time are revived on the screen to closely express his life experiences with fish.
I said that his works of art contained something that a camera lens wouldn't detect. The coat painting has a mysterious expression. According to the artist, the process "would give a feeling of moisture". Water acrylics and oily paints meet together to produce amazing harmonization, which gives the effect presenting the sight deep inside the sea. Even the best camera won't mimic or advance to produce the moist feeling, resilient surface, distant feeling, and the quietude. This kind of secret is only available through hand-made works of art. If I have to prioritize between hands and machines, I would have no hesitation to prioritize hands. Nothing is easily done without the touch of his hands in his paining. The thorough handicraft from the background to gloss, the perfection of an artisan without a single error, and the artistic senses show the master's status, which can be described as No Traces on the Snow (踏雪無痕), meaning that a person leaves no trace while walking on the snow.
While he has been working on this only for a few years, we can clearly see that he has gone through many more years of preparation. His past works of art, including a coated work on the biological image (2000) and the installation piece of an aluminum cutlassfish, must have become a foundation for his current works of art. We do not know whether this will be a destination or an intermediate point. The fish series are not only unique in concepts but also have great potentials for future development. I have this elated feeling that is likely to be felt by a fisherman catching a big fish when I appreciate his pictures.
Painting by Yoon Woo-seung: No Traces on the Snow
Seo Sung-rok (President, The Korean Association of Art Critics)
