#1. Unknown Artist about 1900
During the hot and humid summer of 1997, I found a bunch of standard sized 3x5, black and white photographs all tangled and stuck to each other by mold in the damp air of an antique shop in Hwanghak-Dong, Seoul. There were pictures of a small harbor, taken from the top of a desolate hill. Among those pictures, I found a few images of 2 western ladies, 3 western men accompanied by 1 Asian man dressed in western style. They were all staring at the camera. The reverse side of these photos, displayed a barely legible signature and date, penciled in with a tiny stamp that seemed like a trademark. I felt these photos were telling me something hard to describe and imparted a strange feeling, as if I was there and even I could feel the sunlight, humidity, scent of the air, and intensity of the wind of that day.
The purpose of these pictures seems ambiguous. They don't seem to be taken specifically for portraiture, moreover these landscape photos are rather mundane as far as artistic sensibility is concerned. Regardless, those pictures recorded a compelling slice of everyday life, from a time long gone but they don't clearly say anything about artist's intention or the artist himself. Although the artist may be one of people in the photos, it is not obvious. The photography and the photographer are perfectly isolated from each other. The artist remains unknown but we obviously know that he was there with them(just like the consistent absence of fathers in family photos). Even though I can't see him, I can strongly feel him seeing the same things what he saw through the lens. The people in these photos see me now, their existences abandoned at the corner of an antique shop revived once more to speak to us of their brilliant days.
#2. As light....flickering.
His main subject is of secluded countrysides, not urban sprawl. It is simply the landscape itself, devoid of people. Perhaps it is about artificial traces, like the wooden fence, grave yards, and ruined country towns that have been so greatly degenerated into their environment, they are difficult to distinguish from nature. In his pictures, the trace is not only these artificial structures but also people as a suggestive form of the past, traces and absence. This artist's work points to absence instead of existence. It suggests that there were men at that moment, in the past.
- Ko Chung-whan (critics): Extracted from the preface for Keetae Kim's solo show "Forgotten Garden" in 2008 -
Scene 1.
On a bright day, under the deep blue sky, sunlights warmly and breezes gust softly. As you go along a little hill, there was a small tree, making its cool shade by a little meadow. The meadow had a brook that can hardly be seen as it winds it's way through the overgrown grasses. An unfrequented place, a little while away from the village is a good meadow and shade for a picnic. Probably many people have already done this from a long time ago. Perhaps a lovely couple had whispered here long ago, or travelers going a long way, took a break to mop their brow. Then again, after another decade, maybe a severely wounded solider ran away from a battle that was ensuing over the hill. He took hard his last breath, missing the home that he had left. They have left here, their sweet whispers, smells of exhausted sweat and breath. The last gesture fades, with eyes getting darker. A long time has passed since then, the traces that they have left, begin to shine, swaying and smooth as if it wants to show their beautiful days. With a gentle breeze, some of them are climbing far, far away into the sky of those days.
Scene 2.
Again other days have passed away, after everyone has left, no one comes to this places anymore. Like that, all of the traces have been covered, crumbled down, scattered and slowly erased. In one summer, there was a landslide caused by a big rainfall, after that, severe winters came, yielding heavy snowfall day after day. On some other day, a couple of trees were uprooted by a sudden gust of wind. In this way, time has slowly changed all of these scenes.
...........................................
It has been a long time since we have had such a beautiful day, it isso happy a feeling, that sun light's wave comes to my whole body. In this afternoon, a small birds' chirp has whirled around me, and has already gone without our knowing. A slight breeze goes through the small, solitary hills, now one is hardly able to say where it is. It is a wonderful thing, a path is found in the middle of nowhere that seems untraveled. This road tells a story about someone, by things like a little bottle which was found occasionally or a rotten twig which looks like some kind of handle. While I walk down this unknown trail, I am getting apart from the world, becoming part of nature and turning into oneness. Transforming into the wind, I look down from above and then becoming a tree, I take a rest for a while. Turning into a sound, then I land softly on this field, being a body of sunlight. Now, a very extraordinary scene from the usual is presented. The sounds, and scents made by this isolated path and the humid air that comes from around, gather, make a small aura and a streak of a light which was suddenly beamed out over the field seems to stay a bit, moves to somewhere else and is gone.
