| A Transcendental Journey Through the Love Between Trumpet Vine and Butterfly | |
| A Transcendental Journey Through the Love Between Trumpet Vine and Butterfly Ahn Yeong-gil (Ph.D. of Philosophy, Art Critic) The trumpet vine and butterfly, the defining themes of the artist Hwang Seon-hwa, harbor multiple meanings. The convergence of the trumpet vine and butterfly, which symbolically represent the dynamism of her life, sublimates the personal history including love and separation into a happy consensus of empathy featuring emotional expressions in various colors. Trumpet vines, traditionally planted in palaces and aristocratic houses in Korea, bloom red flowers that signify the unwavering dedication to the king or a loved one. Because of its noble characteristic of growing towards the top without looking down or sideways, Confucian scholars deemed the plant to have the ethos of their religion. Trumpet vine flowers exhibit pathos, blooming passionate red flowers before dropping their beautiful blossoms without regrets. They dutifully adhere to the principle of causality as they complete their engagement in this world. By featuring butterflies that symbolize her free soul, the artist embarks on a transcendental journey to the utopia where there are no conflicts or contradictions. The destination for that journey, where the artist’s soul can rest in piece, is the utopia spoken by Zhuangzi, of “a countryside without nothing in existence,” and the world of “leisure in rites,” where wisdom and emotions enjoy their full existence in freedom. The theme of “love between the trumpet vine and butterfly” pictured by Hwang Seon-hwa in recent years is a transcendental journey leading our souls to liberation, and the love of butterfly that projects the soul of the artist is the keyword of her artistic world. The Korean word for butterfly, “nabi,” originates from a term that means “flying light,” which again signifies the soul. In a similar manner, the ancient Greek term “psyche,” referring to the mind and soul, is symbolized through the butterfly. By creating combinations of flowers that symbolize her body and butterflies that signify her soul, Hwang aims to attain the freedom of soul, as well as to embark on a transcendental journey toward the ideals of beauty, where she can “fly freely,” as said by Zhuangzi, in a world where she can enjoy leisurely freedom. The world where she can “fly freely” like the butterfly is one of the ultimate beauty transcending perception. It is like a state of freedom from all obstacles or a state of “sound body through leisurely existence.” As such, as in Zhuangzi’s poem “The Butterfly Dream,” the artist in her world can exist in a state lacking the conflict between the subject and the object, in addition to enjoying a reified existence devoid of obsession for love, separation, death, and life. The world she occupies is one of flower rain, where existence and emptiness reach harmony. Then what is love, eros that serves as the medium towing this journey of transcendence? For the artist, love is the source of all pain and happiness. At the end of the transcendental journey sought by the artist is the absolute freedom in which we can rise above all else to enjoy a leisurely existence. According to Plato, the goddess of poverty Penia, who was not invited to the party that celebrates the birth of Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, slept with the god of bounty Poros and gave birth to Eros. From this origin, Eros retains the characteristic as a mediator that endlessly venture between poverty and bounty. Eros is an inherently incomplete being born with poverty, but it is also a concept represented by a god that has a strong yearning to discover the epitome of psychological beauty. Because Eros was conceived on the day that the goddess of beauty was born, it can be said that beauty gives rise to love. This process begins with the physical and sensual, developing into a spiritual something. Love is the yearning for beauty in the process of enriching something impoverished. As such, eros that is expressed by the artist as the butterfly, is the strong pathos-like impulse of the mind that seeks to enjoy beauty, almost resembling a type of mania. The mind is led by eros, beginning with a sensuous form of beauty to seek that of higher dimensions. In the process, the level of existence is elevated, ultimately contemplating the ideal beauty, while at the same time intuitively perceiving the reality of the truth. This is the state in which one can “fly freely,” the destination of this transcendental journey. “Love Between Trumpet Vine and Butterfly” series, created under the themes such as “living freely” and “facing each other,” exhibits a variety of panoramas that can be seen in the transcendental journey for love. The image of a girl wearing a flower coronet and that of a grown woman with the hair of the soul in the form of free butterflies are the self-portraits of the artist, attained through her self-reflection. Cats, new characters in Hwang’s artistic world, are beings representing pride that does not beg for love and approval, curiosity that is undaunted by new things, and special existence that can enjoy solitude without being tied down to anything else. These may all be characteristics that the artist herself seeks to employ. In addition, the combination of cats and butterflies traditionally symbolize health and longevity in Korea. The transcendental journey that Hwang Seon-hwa seeks not only display pathos of senses and emotions, but also ethos of will and rationality in a balanced manner. The state of “leisureliness” attained through the process of reification and transcendence in turn develops into a world in which one can enjoy a leisurely existence to purify oneself to obtain ekstasis, the highest joy. As in Ni Zan’s words “I simply enjoy myself,” such experiences convert into source of creativity for artists. Hwang also participates in this transcendental journey to sublimate her own desperate yet secret feelings of love, expressing them through the joining of flowers and butterflies. Such eros-like longing budding from the artist’s subconscious is revealed well in the process in which her art is created. She empathizes with the flowers and butterflies, in addition to equating herself with that emotion, to enjoy the state of oneness with the world, enlightenment, of freedom of soul that reaches catharsis. Butterflies with various colors and gestures symbolize the frequencies and vibrations of of the artist's emotions and soul. The traditional colors and modern sculptural sensibilities on the screens are products of self-healing for reconciliation that overcomes conflicts, in addition to the sublimated absolute freedom that was attained through transcendence. The message of love through the joining of trumpet vine and butterfly is delivered through the artist’s reflection of and beliefs about life. For Hwang, butterflies are guides who lead us into contemplation about free soul as we submit to our fate. The artist acknowledges the desires of the pure soul through this aesthetic sublimation and transcendental journey, while demanding her audience to enjoy the catharsis of self-healing and liberation of mind (Zhuangzi's concept of reification) that comes with the state of oneness with the world attained by overcoming conflicts between the part and the whole. The world of “leisureliness” that Hwang Seon-hwa aims in her artistic world is the sublimation of love that can be found in the transcendental journey through her artistic world. |
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ARTIST Criticism
