“The gun expressed the force of arms and authorities prevalent in structure of society hidden inside the inner-self of human beings in allegory with the clothes; the warmth of people is left behind as it was.”
- Kim, Mi-Ryoung
The fascinations of transforming clothing into ordinary beings are paintings presented by a Korean contemporary artist, Yoon Jong Seok. Yoon, is the first ever Korean artist to be showcased at Linda Gallery. Born in 1970, Yoon is a graduate of the Hannam University in Fine Arts and Art Education. His works have been shown in China, Italy, Japan, New York and Taiwan. He has attracted collectors such as the National Museum of Contemporary Art and Daejeon Art Museum.
Yoon, exhibiting works are made up of dots with no painting lines or planes that accentuate the transformation of clothing into different images by his ideas. He drives us into a deeper understanding that clothes have various roles and functions. Clothing can be a control of various human desires, a symbol of power, protection and human social relationship. For example, when a person dies, clothes worn by the decease becomes the most intimate object as the scent of the person is trapped in the clothing. An army uniform symbolizes authority and power with its camouflaged patterns that protect the soldier from being spotted by his enemies.
“The clothes that have lived upon human body end up voluntarily revealing certain shapes associated with symbols given on the clothes by freeing themselves from them. In such ways, clothes become various living creatures by becoming alive on their own or transform into everyday life objects.” – Young Taek Park, professor, Kyonggi University; art critic. It is like the clothes becoming gun, ice-cream, an animal or shoe which attracts one to encounter the moment of instantaneous wonderment through it.
The images featured in his works seemed to be ordinary beings yet carry a tremendous depth of meanings executed with an amazing technique and precision.
A Net hanging down the concealed inside
Kim, Mi-Ryoung 2010
In the transparent and clean net resembling he cotton thread,
I huddle myself up as a cocoon and contemplate on traces of time
that consists of ingenuous and tear-provoking experiences.
A line at a time, a layer at a time,
I couldn't help closing my eyes.
A light pouring down instantly at the moment.
It became a star just like that.
Dazzling and unbearable fear,
such mass of light is embraced in my heart.
Once in a life time or more, people get to examine the transiency in flow of time. People will have primary thoughts that time flows in principles and pure logic of nature and you may discover yourself naturally segmenting the flow of time based on the traces and track of your life while looking into the flow of time once again in the next stage. Even without mentioning onto logic concept of Heidegger stating the existence from the beginning of time has its unique significance in that it is being paid attention to by human beings of nowadays, human beings with limited life try to grant meaning to their lives by continuously asking oneself the meaning of one's existence and hiding or revealing the fear and anxiety within infinite flow of time.
Concept of "Time" and "Existence" is a key to the understandings of the works by Jongseok Yoon. The concepts that have been the foundation of his works from his first solo exhibition in 1997 to 2008 are said to form the coherence in series of his exhibitions.
It can be interpreted in that he tried to answer primary question in regards to the source of creation for the existence in allegory with the materials that captures the flow of time in remote ages including the fossil of clams presented in his first solo exhibition <Dreaming Time> in 1997, comb-pattern pottery and stone carvings from the prehistoric days, Baekje Yeonhwamunwoadang, etc to the plants that give life to the dead creatures presented in <Implementing the Fantasy Time>.
The artist attempts to give response to the inquiry in regards to the living and death of the existence by painting the image on living and death of the plant. Namely, the beauty of living in that particles of plant that consists of numerous cells are alive and active, image of death in that plant has dried off losing its beauty and the image that plant sublimates as a beautiful being once again after death in <Differences> in 2000 and <Pure Contradiction> in 2001-2002. Although the artist is superficial on time and existence, he is in yet another stages in that traces of inquiring into existence of himself is presented in the paintings.
In 2005 <Flower, Daily Lives>, the artist expressed his emotions, regardless of how trivial it is, felt in his daily lives with awkwardness and exaggeration using the techniques to visualize the minute dots introduced at the end of 2002. I saw it as the breakthrough of the artist Jongseok Yun since he seemed to have expressed the trivial emotions felt in his daily lives in paradox using the techniques of outstanding contrast deviating from presenting the superficial solemnity in life he attempted in stage 2 of his career. It is the period where inquiries and doubts on existence of the artist and refinement on the techniques can seen and it seems to be the crucial moment that links to the works of his nowadays.
After a solo exhibition in 2005, <Net hanging down the concealed inside> exhibition can be said to present the climax of concerns the artist had for 10 years. The exhibition consists of works with motive of image 'gun and animal' that is relatively threatening and authoritative contrasting the plant with warm and peaceful image presented in previous works of his. The artist is stating "I was deeply concerned about the works after the exhibition in 2005. As if self-examining on images of family, I attempted to continue the works of my father whom had died when I was in elementary school." It seems that the artist have traced vague memory of his on father during the rest and led in-depth contemplation on his existence. Namely, it seems that the artist had the time for the reconsideration on his life and started a quest on current state of his examining the object with traces of his father. The works that is said to present most dramatic change in his career are the creased clothes with the image of a gun and animals. It is expressing the force of arms and authorities prevalent in structure of society hidden inside the inner-self of human beings in allegory with the clothes the warmth of people is left behind as it was.
