| Sea and Flower in Chung, Young Han’s painting-About the Pastiche_ Lim, Chang Sub | |
Sea and Flower in Chung, Young Han’s painting-About the Pastiche Lim, Chang Sub (Chief Curator of Busan Museum of Art & Litt.D.) Chung, Young Han’s painting shows simple picture plane that is composed of gentle wave as a background and flower or petal. In his painting, the flowers with breaking waves or surf from horizon have different looks as hibiscus, lily and chrysanthemum. Instead of bunch of flowers, there is only one flower or some falling petals in the space, and there is crushed newspaper which filled with readability words as well. His painting is reminiscent of a verse ‘this is a silent shout’ in a Yoo, Chi Jin’s poem ‘flag’. The serenity of empty-silent parody is found in his painting. Also, postmodernism we thought the past revolved around in our heads. During 1960s, the violent gale of Postmodernism raged to all genre of Western culture. By the early 80’s, the gale of wind has hit in our country and it was the warm argument broke out about Postmodernism from the mid 80’s to early 90’s. In 2000s, Postmodernism vanished without a memory so now it is doubtful of the existence. In Western countries, of course, Postmodernism argument did not make any process despite sharp criticism in the 60’s. The reason was that the term ‘Postmodernism’ cannot figure out the social transformation any more. But in our case, it will be right that Postmodernism disappeared before attempting to apply it to us. Because Korea at that time was not postmodern society, it is hard to experience Postmodernism theory-it was an inescapable situation. It is needless to say that the term ‘Postmodernism’ was coined as reaction to Modernism. Postmodernism is a new style which made by new generation who thought that Modernism is a model for a few persons’ interest which is a lifeless, oppressive, and bourgeois. The Main cause of this cultural trend is based on no clear-cut line between something important, no discrimination between high class and lower class or popular culture. We really saw this cultural trend in our society till New-millennium era. From the vantage point of the present, there could be several social tendencies as follows: simple and immature TV commercials, raunchy magazines, punk or hard rock clubs around Hong-Ik University, broadcasting for celebrities’ private lives, B-class movies or thrillers, some artworks as known as Korean Pop, mixture of different genres, and so on. We are heavily into the society which is full of these trends. It is hard to make a long story short evidently we belong to disposability and cut-and-dried laughing, indifferentism, and society which is awash of confusion reality with virtual. Art surrounded by sense of obligation to imitate the beauty of nature and human, but today’s art threw the traditional rules of fine art hundreds of years ago. In spite of that the reason for the existence of art or contemporary art is an important medium that implies our present life and story. In this sense, Chung Young Han’s painting containing the calm as ‘silent shout’ is also one of media to keep present of our society. Therefore it will be possible to read and interpret social phenomenon of 21st century and Postmodernism. The scene of sea and flower as the unlikely two objects or seascape with stalkless, bladeless flower doesn’t look like optical illusion or an abstruse philosophical discourse. This is differentiated from precedent artists’ works surrounding expert view or socio-political theory and literary criticism decades ago. Now, our generation realized meaningless of the boundary between philosophical, social and political discourses, moreover, we are not interested in these matters. From this point of view, Chung Young Han’s artworks and Postmodernism as it called have many similarities. And his artworks are regarded as the vessel containing of a figure of our society today. More specifically, the cultural phenomenon of our society is as follows. We look at inter-textual relationship between each genre, for example, interior design, architecture, movie, music, TV commercial, art, and so on. Just as border-less between fashion magazine and art critic journal, disregard for ontological metaphysics, teenagers’ collective action and its dilemma, overusing of rhetoric, growth of superficial meaning, and no limit to fetishism. In addition to blind love devotion for celebrities’ style, fragmented life and cultural, political, existential crisis, de-centering body and loss of subject, distrust in grand narratives, destruction and composition of meaning, collapse of cultural order, side effect of micro-technology, media-centrism, overconsumption and the cycle of creation and extinction in multinational relationship. These incalculable phenomena are already found in 60’s postmodernism which expire nowadays. But, now, we live in this society and experience a so-called postmodern society. If we tell Chung Young Han’s art works about broad expense seascape and beauty of flowers, we may be live in modern-age, not postmodern society. We may dismiss him as a man who is swimming against the stream of times. It’s a fact to each his own life style, there is no room for discussion. In this sense, we need to have a closer look at the technique of Chung Young Han’s art work. His painting looks like very real based on an accurate observation on the subject. But, look more thoroughly we are discovering the different way from ‘Hyper-Realism’ painting. As a genre Hyper- Realism, by definition, focuses on details and the subjects as realistic as possible. Aesthetics, philosophical, and ideal meanings are produced to support this logic, but, Hyper-Realism imitates the real after all. In comparison, Chung Young Han’s painting is not quite exact to real life. He makes virtual character borrowing from artificial images regard as real existence. He creates his own way to reproduce of image made from virtual character. Chung, Young Han, it seems, is seeking the real of image which exists in someone’s head. Just like Plato’s Idea. It is an artificial sound to open a soft drink bottle cap in the TV commercial. We feel actual sound when we hear this artificial one, but we are under an illusion. It is the same that the National Geographic makes more darker-skinned African people than real skin color to print the magazine. While watching TV drama, we have actuality mixed up with a ghost image. To reproduce the image of image, Chung Young Han use his own technique to get rid of brushstroke traces on canvas. He draws plain image using chillingly unsentimental brushstrokes. Again, sea and flower in his painting are the image of image, not the real. Therefore, it is impossible to find a story or meaning of sea and flower. For him, the actual image of sea and flower is not concerned with sea and flower as the objects of his painting. Chung, Young Han, may be fairly enjoying his own play about the meaning of history and culture. According to Frederic Jameson, it defines ‘pastiche’. Pastiche, a literal translation of ‘hybrid-imitation’, means ‘empty-parody’ or ‘hollow copy’ which is referred to the cultural phenomenon without criteria and customs. When Modernism arrived at the utmost limit, it speaks its specific language. And, finally, Modernism reached sort of cultural island separated by each individual one with unique code and localism. Soon, Modernism in itself is disappeared and time has turned into Postmodernism. Chung, Young Han proved our postmodern using pastiche as the image of sea and flower which imitates the Modernism of Modernism. Chung, Young Han appropriates Modernism style but he is trying to eliminate the image and the story of sea and flower in his painting. He suggests androgynous character without satirical or farcical factors. Through the traceless seascape and flower, especially long-deferred flower to one side and his own way of pastiche, he is building his own art world by throwing the virtual character into this postmodern society. His painting may be one visual awakening to us who live in image but may not have known. |
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| Chung Young-han’s New Painterly Attempt – A Mechanism of Paradoxical Sensibility Codes | |
Chung Young-han’s New Painterly Attempt – A Mechanism of Paradoxical Sensibility Codes A recent tendency in painting is diverse and interesting. Figuration, combining with other mediums, techniques, and technologies. Investigation and reflection itself ensures painterly necessity, beyond its painterly destiny, 'flatness'. The mainstream of this type of experiment involves comparative studies of images combined with photography, plus traditional materials, to maximize the life of painting. Chung Young-han’s painting explores the latter aspect. He creates images with oil and acrylic in such experiments to evoke pictorial emotion, and pose questions like, what is painting today how should painting be done; what features do oil and photography share what is painting’s relation to acrylic; and how does a plane exist in painting? His painting does not always associate with these questions though: his aim is partly to rebuff any possible inspection and reflection. To seek yes but blindly. Contemporary painting is usually marked by a pictorial system and its mechanism. Chung also enhances his painting by condensing its pictorial system and inner-mechanics. By doing so, he amplifies a sort of virtuality, which simulates imagination, to emphasize our role at the painting. Subsequently, he extends a sense of space, by embracing for example a horizontal seascape. He also extends a sense of time, by locating petals at the front and rear of a canvas; to its right and left, falling without gravity. With such a picture we can experience an extension of time and space, and at a glance, something surreal but can be interpreted as a completely disparate style: a complex world of waves surging forward with petals falling endlessly in a relation of sublimity and grace. His painting offers contradiction between real and virtual space by stressing uniform brushstrokes and a photographic surface to maximize the viewer’s imagination. Wherefore, Chung’s painting exploits illusionism, which is a weakness in conventional painting, with extreme sensitivity. Consequently, Chung opens up an age of new sensibility by connecting his own to a mechanism of visual, paradoxical codes. Yoon Woo-hak (Art Critic) |
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| Myth of Sea and Object Image Crashing _Jong-Geun Kim | |
| Myth of Sea and Object Image Crashing Jong-Geun Kim (Art Critic, Prof. of Sookmyung Women's University) Recently in modern arts, one of the major trends is the enthusiasm on hyperrealism style of paintings. Artist Young Han Chung consistently uses sea landscape as a motive in the hyperrealism method of painting. His artworks which are mostly hyperrealism style of paintings can be summarized into two kinds. One is that it follows the hyperrealism trend and the other one is that it adds objet onto the hyperrealistic landscapes. What we need to see closely is whether the sea and the objet harmonize and get along well. That is, whether one of his intentional concepts the sea and the flower image harmonies perfectly. For Young Han Chung, it seems likely that there's no special necessity in relation of the landscape and the objet. However, the combination of two key words in his paintings, the physical landscape and the objet, gives freshness of the crashing which also creates the pleasantness of imagines. For example, different unmatching images gives us unfamiliar pleasant feeling as well as visible shocking. His landscape shows hyperrealistic images as if it's the actual sea. However, this method is one of the tricks in the painting. In French, there's a word 'trompe-lóei' which means hoodwinking. That is, the painting initially starts from hoodwinking and painting itself is originally a visible hoodwinking. All of his paintings with sea background gives romantic feeling. And there are always a large flower on it. This concept shows very close relationship with Dahlia Green <Meditative Rose> painted in 1958. That is, his paintings aren't unrelated with the hyperrealism. If Dahlia gave visible shock through unfamiliarity and extreme contrast by putting red rose on the blue sky, Young Han Chung positions the flower and the leaves on the sea. He drags the objet onto the plane surface and connects in certain relationship while creating a new situation. It seems that this physical and intentional crashing is the purpose of his painting. Even though the hoodwinking show unrealistic but the imaginary world, but maybe even the actual visible things might be all fiction, the allegory concept, could be in it. His purpose of the painting is not to draw exactly same as the sea but to show the crashing world like the sea and the flower similar to an abstractionist. To persuade the world more, he put the flower onto it but in fact, the flower in his painting does not contain any symbol or some meaning. It's just a false image. The sea image without any human or things but with the large flower and the leaves, he suggests the experiencing nature rather than the actual natural image. Moreover, the unexpected large flowers on the sea landscape moves from the realistic image to imaginary space. After all, he does not limit his painting into subjective or objective views but escape the images to visible enjoyment that free happens in our imagination. On the other hand, all the different shapes and colors of the flower images crashes with detailed sea painting which leads to a different landscape. In general, the flowers should be in the vessel, garden, or in the nature. The flower is not the objet to be on the sky or on the sea. However, he puts the flowers on the sea space and this is dépaysement method. It's a method that separates things or images from its original parts or backgrounds and put it on the extraordinary places that have no relationship at all to give psychological or visible shock. That is, by putting it on the new place and giving new meaning to it, it frees our unconscious world that's deeply inside our mind. Young Han Chung used this dépaysement method by putting the flower onto the sea which created series of 'Myth of Our Time'. Images in his painting could be more like imaged or printed as the surface is very neat and tide due to mechanical technique. He intentionally hided the brush marks for moderated feelings. Young Han Chung's painting transfiguration initiated by putting buildings or specific images side by side to city landscape and putting flowers onto the sea. His development simply end from the construction or format. With repetitionary sea images and from the meaning that he draws only the images that he'd like to see, he uses multivision and multichannel methods. However, his persistent expression unites the boundary of pictorial feeling and photos. Frankly speaking, in spite of different efforts on the modern painting to go beyond the hyperrealism level, new paintings are opaque and illusion and virtuality used in previous paintings could not suggest any new vision in imaginary pictures. In other words, the modern arts can not create new styles other than the styles that Rene Magritte and other hyperrealist painters showed. Nevertheless, it's valuable to see that Young Han Chung suggests for possibility of post-modern of modern arts and hyperrealism arts in his paintings. |
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| Problems of Image and Reality in Paintings; - Story of |
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| Problems of Image and Reality in Paintings; - Story of <Myth of our time, 2005-8> CHUNG YOUNG-HAN, who explored "New Expression of Image", is a visual magician. The images he shows are very simple, but they are mysterious, gorgeous and attractive like magics which are shown in festivals. Furthermore, the motive he selected gives visional shock with the components of complex structure and description of reality by using various pictures. His image painting has been started from the general landscape of modern city. It shows various realities, transformation of image, and un-expectable and complex structure based on the topic of recent nature. Those are what make people think of reality of objects in the paintings. It can be interpreted by exploring the natural reality and unnatural reality of image through finding new images and change of structure. At the beginning of his image making, it was produced like a pictured documentary about <modern people-civilized humans). In the series of <Landscapes of 21st Century, 1999-2002>, he describes the landscapes of modern cities, torso, human nudes, Chinese characters, small circles, and flowers with extreme reality. Young Ho Kim, a critic, interpreted it as "The transition of situation and multiple compositions of picture images by production of landscapes of cities" (The preface of the 5th Private Exhibition, SUNGKOK Art Museum, 2002). The 21st century's landscape of cities like gray buildings of huge cities, apartments, buildings, black asphalt, and cars are appeared in the paintings. And the images that are painted with different colors started to show bleak cities and arises the problems of reality. That's the most important things which are the imitations, reappearance of nature and another start of art. Now artists don't think reappearance of image is the reappearance or reinstatement of simple reality. 'The study of new expression of image' is not the description of reality of image in the case of CHUNG YOUNG-HAN, too. He started with the reappearance of consciousness that the periodic situation of modern society and personal perception are shown. At the beginning, he expresses these problems which are related with the tradition of paintings by 1) The problems of reproduction, 2) Dissolution and Combination of Image, and 3) Display and Concealment of Objects. (Master’s Thesis of Young Han Chung, 1997) Base on those theoretical backgrounds, his images are not only representing the simple objects or illusion but also it gives the objective ideas to keep his recent works by representing the dissolution of selected objects or stereotypes. The new expressions of images, which had been started from the landscape of cities at the beginning, is started to think about reality of image by having interests with nature that urbanites lost in the mid of year 2000. This period was when the artificial reality of cities and natural reality of nature were started to coexist or changed. The natures that urbanites lost are reappeared by sea and flowers like virtual images by him. Chung Hwan Kho, a critic, says "It is reproducing of reality of nature with the fact that modern people were missed" (The preface of 9th Private Exhibition, Gallery WOODUK, 2006). In here, CHUNG YOUNG-HAN wants to express the relationship and virtual characters of reality of objects by artificial or natural way. The screen is filled with huge sea and flowers so it is reproduced based on separated structure. Also through the transformation, the images get simulcre to the natural reality. Furthermore, the extended and transformed images give visual isolation and shock by dual structure. Especially, virtual character becomes gorgeous by development through the application of pictures. The combination of objects, which are existed in different spaces, are used like a medicine that makes people experiencing nature for modern urbanites who lost the reality of nature. The virtual image is not the imagined expression of images, but it is inserting real objects to the virtual spaces. It stimulates vision by the description of extreme reality without maximizing the similarity of reality. Especially, in the story of <Myth of our time> which was produced after 2005, the author were focused on the virtual character, the change of image that picture media has. The screen is filled with sea and extended flowers can be both realty and virtual reality. Through the reappearance of nature images, which are more real than real nature and the space of dual structure, the virtual character is extended. In here, his virtual character is not just a reappearance of lost reality, but it is a visual phenomenon of our century. The author thinks it as an interesting myth making rather than thinking as the birth of great ideology. In today’s painting, returning to the reality of objects through image is a difficult question. But the image copying of art mediums are being developed through virtual characters like death of arts or death of the author. After the modernism, the dissolution of huge preface was like dissolution of image called illusion. But the image has been regenerating due to the emphasis of representation after the apocalyptic theory. By new image art of CHUNG YOUNG-HAN, the recovery of image of reality is the recovery of painting through the virtual recovery. And also it is the recovery to the artificial and natural reality. His unique image world through the extreme reality, extension, and transformation of real objects like sea and flowers make us think of typical myth like new visional language like a digital product which is a character of this century rather than ideology. The theory study, ‘New Image Expression’ for his image painting is actively being conducted by the introduction of the theory of medium. In this display, he gives his theoretical key words as shown below. The first one is sudden uncanny, transformed anamorphosis, and tautologie which have the structure of repeated structure of same words, and uncertainty of surface. It recognizes 1) regeneration, 2) dissolution and association of image, 3) display and concealment of objects which were presented in the theory of beginning. His operation, which is formed based on new discussion and theory, is not only a reappearance of reality or description of simple objects but also it has been progressed as more realistic and theoretical studies through dissolution or virtual world. First of all, the sudden appearance of some objects in the virtual world is the projective image like the combination of different image. In his painting of landscape of sea, a huge flower is appeared suddenly based on the dissolution of landscape. It is like surrealists’ dépaysement technique that an umbrella is meeting with a sewing machine in the dissecting table. But he doesn’t want to show surrealistic, but he wants to show the isolated landscape which is the nature of reality. He might want to tell the problem of isolation by objects of accidental expression which becomes myth of our typical life. So the modern people experience by image rather than the reality of objects. The sea and flowers, which are his motive, are the reality of original form of nature and emphasizes the meaning of isolation by sudden appearance. The isolation is a projected image that can be like a myth of our century. Also his image projection and transformation are focused on the image which is more real than reality rather than the description of extreme reality like pictures. That’s just a virtual image. Even if the sea or flower make people think of the existence of objects, the extreme images by digital camera is the image festival that occurs in the virtual reality. But at this point, the views realize that images are just images so they know that’s not the object of reality. The magical images of his are not reality of nature, but the viewers know that that’s not real but they just participate in them. In the space of dual structure, the projection and transformation of huge image, the viewers can read the myth of our century in the existence of virtual reality or dépaysement of objects without existence. Because creating myth is the most important thing in our century that has no myth. The image festival, which is created in the virtual world, is connected with myth so the natural reality of images gives new life to us. In the meantime, uncertain character of surface and the repeated structure of same words chase the image without time and space. The study of the repeated structure of same words of the author is being conducted based on the theory "the realization through repeat" or "repeated character that makes others obey"that Deleuze and late ideologists pointed. By the periodic character of ‘Repeat of difference," it is advanced to discussion and got relationship with multi-channels of media society. The repeated structure of same words and images, which he wants to show, are the images of reality that has no restriction of time and space. Despite of the application of images like pictures, repeated structure and image gets special value. That’s different from the mechanical image of digital age. The natural image of reality has multiple structure and meaning by the application of pictures. And also it switches to the new artificial image that is trying to overcome time and space. And also reappearance of objects and setting is important in his images. The setting (sea) which becomes setting of the object (flowers) and the flowers that is separated with the setting (sea) are existed in the same screen but located by special manners like the isolation. The setting is like the sudden dépaysement images which gives isolation of the image. His myth seems to refuse persuasive or explanative characters by un-expectable setting and isolation of images. In the paintings, the problems of reality are a regeneration of images. As a result, the repeated structure of painting or virtual character of CHUNG YOUNG-HAN is the question of reality that today’s artists are recognized as homework. In his case, it is expressed without difference between natural and artificial character. And also it is expressed without the restriction of time and space. In the case of traditional painting, it was made by the restriction of time and physical things for the reappearance of images, but today’s reality is expressed freely without the restriction of various interpretations and expressions. The appearance of digital images separates the basis of objects and virtual character in the reappearance of objects. In the end of arts, image creation is conducted again. And communication through topics, descriptive character of simplicity through isolation, and inserted concepts are reappeared. In these situations, the series of <Myth of our time, 2005-8> of CHUNG YOUNG-HAN makes people get another expectation by new image expression of reality in modern paintings. Chung Young-Han's Doctorial Thesis Exhibition May, 2008 Yoo Jae-Kil (Art Critic, Professor of Hongik University) |
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ARTIST Criticism
