TOUCH-INDUCING COLORS: SEOUL

 

Ko Yeonsoo (art critic)

At a glance, they may look like artworks of a single artist, but this exhibition combines the work of the two artists, Back In-Kyo and Lee June. The humble harmony of their artworks in a cheerful and lively atmosphere can be attributed to the working style these two artists have in common. If you take a close look at their work, you may find the similarity in their styles in that both of their artworks are composed of fabric painstakingly woven into different shapes as well as various colors placed and combined in many different ways.

 

The industrial revolution and the advent of photography served as a catalyst for visual artists to break free from stereotyped and traditional materials or refined themes, giving rise to an exponential increase in types of art materials, including somewhat odd materials, that have been reconstructed into different genres of visual art. Fabric, among these materials, has been considered as the material that can be used to render many hidden stories and meanings for its unique characteristics that seem unlikely given its original material property. You may not know the artworks mentioned by Lucy Lippard, but there are many examples-including the sculptures in organic forms by Eva Hesse who said that we all were already connected to her artwork in one way or another due to her constant effort to connect with people; the installation work by Louise Bourgeois who projected the image of a human, or herself, with a deeply broken heart into the delicate and soft sculptures, thereby symbolizing the strength of humankind in an ironic manner; and various fabric works by Tracey Emin that may look different from other provocative artworks in that fabric is meticulously sewn and stuck to one another in her work but, in fact, reveal her raw emotions and her life boldly-where the fabric, the material that is commonly woven into the work of all these artists, can be seen even as a medium, rather than a mere material, that involves an intention of healing hurt feelings and subsequently recovering human relationships as well as an act of sewing and connecting the materials together.

 

This exhibition surely features the fabric works of two artists that are closely connected to each other, but what sets them apart from the series of artworks mentioned above is that they are weighed less heavily. The artworks produced in various colors combined in a way that boundaries among them are distinct are freely placed and scattered around a space so as to lighten up the vibe of the artworks. While fabric is a flexible, soft and receptive medium, the color emits light and has different reflecting points, stimulating our vision in various forms. It has long been the mission and responsibility of visual artists, who have admired or tried to control these colors or light the most, to find the best and ideal harmony and compromise among these different colors, for which they have been willing to dedicate their focus and even souls. Against this backdrop, the two artists seem to be different in terms of their approaches to color, how they treat color and their interpretation of color, which are manifested by means of fabric. While Back In-kyo's work can be said as the "introverted" variable installation art that looks as if it embroidered and embraced the space, Lee June's embroidery artworks on exhibition are the glittering "extroverted" sculptures illuminating the light.

 

What is intriguing about the exhibition is the subtle but undeniable difference and gap between the two artists in their converging points that can be observed in a vibrant and lively atmosphere of the space where their artworks are showcased in a rhythmic harmony. 
Back In-Kyo, who focuses his efforts on conceptualizing materials in a way he wants without undermining the original nature of those materials, would make the most of the heart-warming property of fabric or even tone down the ceramic work of glossy color and light with his unique method of adjusting color hues. An artist needs to create a soft "touch-inducing color space," in particular, because such a space has interactive characteristics which make viewers engage proactively in the artworks instead of merely observing them. Such artwork is not presented to viewers as a finely finished work but is meant to be changed at any time by traces of viewers' hand touch or gestures that may be added to the artwork, and, thus, an artist needs to select materials that can resonate with viewers in their texture and color so as to arouse viewers' desire to touch the materials. For this reason, most of the variable, large-scale installation artworks use soft and resilient fabric or cloth as their materials, and these art pieces of rhythmically-combined colors appeal to viewers, softly making their bodies and minds responsive to the artworks. The modern visual artists follow the footsteps of traditional craftsmanship in that they strive to make the most of the original characteristics of a material, but, additionally, they make various attempts to produce their own unique color tone to connect with viewers in a comfortable and attractive way.

 

Each of the three-dimensional artworks in an image of humans or things, thoroughly wound with brilliant-colored fabric, takes different texture and different colors from one another just like human fingerprints. The colorful fabrics winding the work of Lee June emit the light at their maximum possible brightness. Even the black fabric glows because of its thick dark tone. Lee June expresses his account of human instincts, the uncontrollable brutal human nature, in his sophisticatedly-crafted sculptures. This does not necessarily mean that his artworks explicitly demonstrate his pessimistic or negative view. Using fabric and colors, he depicts the indifferent gestures and facial expressions of people who would not do anything even after seeing a person who is seemingly in serious trouble. A large group of sculpted people with glowing hues that remain idle, with all of them gazing into space in the same way-they are rendered in a pale image of human beings with some people wearing so-called hip or trendy, somewhat heavy-looking (colored) glasses and others acting as if they were trying to turn a blind eye to their senses by following their instincts.

 

Eva Hesse, Louise Bourgeois and Tracy Emin are the three artists who overreacted to the idea of separating art from life. They treated their own apperception caused by hurt feelings that were buried deep in their hearts with their work of art, and their artworks helped rebuild their relationships with the outer world and those with other people. Thus, "relationship" and "connection" mean much more than just a keyword in their artworks, and, for these artists, separation of art from life must have not been merely problematic as art and life desperately needed to be one in their view. In this context, their artworks are heavy-weighted in nature regardless of their physical weights or sizes. They are not forceful, yet powerful; and not dogmatic, yet independent. The material that is commonly woven into these artworks, of course, is fabric. The reason why the pain and sorrow expressed in these artworks is not necessarily hopeless lies in the visual artists' exceptional ability to extract the appealing elements from the material by using its positive and hopeful characteristics as their unique formative language. The two words, "relationship" and "connection," expressed by means of fabric, the formative language, represent the implicit vibe of the Back In-Kyo and Lee June exhibition, and the fact that this same formative language is also used by these two artists to render their own color tones makes this exhibition not only enjoyable and comfortable to see but also not that lightweight, thereby prompting viewers to see them using their other (emphatic) senses as well.

 

Watching the artworks of the two artists in turn, you may realize that "relationship" and "connection," apart from their function as a medium, may also be used to represent additional meanings in their artworks. The two artists set different distances between their artworks and viewers for different purposes, and these approaches are what set them apart from the traditional and universal methodologies that have long been upheld. Back In-Kyo promotes psychological and physical engagement of viewers in order to achieve "harmony" he emphasizes, whereas Lee June implicitly asks viewers to keep a certain distance from his work, including a large group of sculpted people and the ceramic work made by bonding small ceramic pieces together, not only to signify the physical distance but also a psychological distance that needs to be kept for viewers to perform the role of the "monitors." In a sense, the lively and bright images of their artworks seem to represent the two artists' desire to connect with viewers.

 

The spectacular and unique characteristics of visual arts can be found in the fact that visual arts can be experienced and enjoyed comfortably with all our senses, as if we were playing, and that our uncontrollable and not-that-beautiful instincts we feel reluctant to face can be reflected brilliantly by visual arts, especially through formative crafts. Now, it is our rights and responsibilities to determine how freely we would like to explore the spectrum of visual arts unfolded in front of us while seeing the work of these visual artists.