A certain scenery
Oh Gwang-Su, Art Critic, Korea The Former Director of Museum San
“I encounter scenes, which I have unconsciously passed by throughout my busy life. Those nameless sights are changing as the time goes by and I come to feel a certain thing, then the sceneries that felt familiar become unfamiliar and unfinished as they are, which are things that cannot be defined.”
This quote is from Shim Moon Seup’s statement for his recent exhibition: Towards An Island. The remark may be short, but perhaps reflects the most honest part of Shim’s inner thoughts about his recent artworks. The
The landscapes without name, which seem both intimate and bizarre, are not scenes we commonly perceive, unless they are determined as certain objects. They remain unnamable because they continue to be unfinished and in the middle of the altering process. The scenery we know designates a cross section of the nature. However, the same from this artist is not an aspect of a phenomenon, but refers to a condition, which the artist constantly enters so as to relate subjects and objects. The artist does not put the object, which is the world, in a composition of opposites between the self and
the other, but rather tries to substitute the relationship as a continuous infiltration.
Shim says, “Recently, I spend a fair amount of time on photographs, photo drawings, and painted works.” Those who know Shim as the sculptor must feel a bit confused. Of course, Shim is not giving up or taking a break from his sculptural work. The comment means that the center of Shim’s work is one step aside from the concept of sculpture. When we enter Shim’s atelier in Tong Young, there are still a small number of large sculptures, but the canvases occupy a majority of the space. Making it most natural to question whether we have entered the studio of a painter.
Shim is processing his artworks through a wide range of media, including sculpture, painting and photo drawing, which is not just a territorial extension. The interior of his current artworks will not be accurately translated if the approach is made using an older concept for one simple genre. So, Shim is not just browsing many different fields as a sculptor, painter, or photographer, but is crossing the whole of art making as if there were no divisions. What we have to keep in mind is that Shim is
The Presentation, 112x162cm, 2014, Acrylic on Canvas
starting with the attitude that is not restrained by the concepts of sculpture, painting, or photography.
Therefore, all the sculptures, paintings and photo drawings reflect a slight awkwardness. The works are not easy to judge instantly, whether they are finished or in the mid-process. Many artists put their heart and soul in their work to achieve perfection, but the unfolding scene is quite different. Shim’s manner seems to be that it does not matter if the work is completed or not. Indeed, Shim is enjoying himself in the progress of incompletion.
Not to mention Shim’s sculpture works, his painting, which is his recent concentration, stands out and shows this character. So we might need to refer to them as a certain moment toward painting, or the possibility of a moment, rather than as a painting. The series of flat surface works, which are commonly called drawings, may not be trying to be paintings, but rather a secret presence in the moment of the brushing operation. The brush holds the pigment and slides onto the screen, and the artist rides the glide and attains the stage of “rocking on the waves and letting the body be pushed along by the stream and the wind.” From his boyhood,
memories have been secretly nurtured from when he faced the bare skin of nature with his own naked body; and now these memories are awakened through the smoothly sliding operation of his brush.
Its akin to when the whole body is placed into the movement of water and dives into an abyss, and suddenly comes up, out onto the surface, where the horizon is far away. Likewise,
the memories of an unknown mystery, which are brought up by the ray of light over the horizon, arise dimly on the screen. The first light in blue must be a certain indicator that sustains Shim’s life. So it cannot be the scenery, which is only a cross section of the natural phenomenon. What is presented is the harmony of human and nature, by the diving of the artist into nature. Like the idle nature of Lao Tzu, maybe this is the stage of idling, where the human becomes a scene.
The Presentation-To the Island, 167x227cm, 2014, Acrylic on Canvas