written by Kim Seung-ho/ Doctor of Philosophy
Hong Sun-hoan had a solo exhibition at KunstDoc, a non-profit space near Kyoungbok Palace. Having an exhibition as director of KunstDoc is apparently different from having an exhibition as an artist. Although it is on the line extended from his Daegu exhibition, this Seoul exhibition is quite different from the latter one in terms of scale and contents. The artist expands his art activities from Daegu through Seoul to Europe. Despite he can hardly afford to continue his own activities of arts because they are irrelevant to commercialism, his world of fine art continues to expand its meaning.
Gallery KunstDoc located at Changseong-dong, Jongro-gu, Seoul was filled with Hong Soon-hwan's art works attracting the audience. The floor of the exhibition hall was filled of the tiles in order, while one of the walls was featured by a flag swaying lightly. The picture frames on the other walls showed the photos of the foreign scenes we could see during our overseas travels. On the second floor exhibition hall, water drops on a mat faced the wall, while video images were turning in a corner. Artist Hong's solo exhibition connotes a world of gravity crossing the boundaries of painting, photography, installation, drawing and video. However, we should not simply assume that such features of the visual fine art connoting a world of gravity as diversity of media, crossing among genres, and the like may be all about artist's competence. The art works installed at KunstDoc are both light and heavy, both placed and hung, both fixed and free, both cold and warm, both geometric and soft. In short, they are playing between crevices. Both emotional and reasonable discords are bound into materials and structures, and further, into the exhibition and created spaces in an organistic way. As it is, the exhibition requires reading of crevices.
Hong Sun-hoan's works are read differently depending on the exhibition themes. The story about the works we capture at the exhibition and that about his main concern or the structure of gravity are interesting. Here, the doubt how much artist's view of the world can be understand is receding behind, because his exhibition makes tour to Daegu, Seoul and Dusseldorf (including the solo exhibition in 2011) in both terms of his art works and ordinary activities. What are the advantages of the free movement between regions for the artist? What attitudes do domestic and foreign exhibitions require of him? Despite the sufficient public awareness of him and despite the difficult domestic conditions for criticism of his art works, we should not simply dismiss the reading of crevices required of the audience.
It is not easy to read his exhibition and its crevices. For his world of arts crosses the boundaries of all genres of our contemporary fine art, while he releases or binds the connections among painting, drawing, installation, media and objects. As a result, the net of relationships among them is both specialized and individualized, and in this course, the aesthetic challenge 'seeing' arises. The contemporary fine art invites the artist to explore the net of relationships among genres, entering into the net. Here, he raises the doubt whether 'seeing' is true and real. Hong Sun-hoan engaged in the visual world finds his identity as artist in the contemporary fine art, but the behavior of 'seeing' targets the exhibition proper. As it is, he hints that the exhibition requires the challenge of seeing truth and reality. It is neither a relay from past to future nor a connection between here and there.
Hong Sun-hoan unfolded this exhibition with difficult but useful story about crevices. Reading of crevices gets deep with such elements as simple and rough painting elements, light and feeble ordinary elements, strong and cynical sculptural elements, hard and cold furniture elements, grand and historic architecture elements, formal and mechanic factual elements, formless and artificial physical elements, natural and rhymic spatial elements, etc. However, the functionality of materials is deprived due to the internal structure combed by objects. Painting is roughly associated with the minor everyday life, sculpture requires a cynical dialogue with the hard furniture, architecture faces the real world mechanically, and so on. Thus, our human body in the space of arts becomes flexible, being responsive to the flexibility, and in this process, the crevices get a sense of vitality. For Hong Sun-hoan has deprived the materials of their functionality and instead, has added up an aesthetic challenge, gravity. Painting, sculpture, architecture, video and installation have started with 'seeing' ultimately, but 'seeing' is assumed on 'invisible.' Aren't all these schemes based on artist's belief that things cannot be visible but perceivable? The aesthetics of gravity is invisible but perceived. The gravity acts only when there exist painting, sculpture, architecture, video and installation. We as observers judge how the gravity can be perceived from cloth, iron, paper and tree, how the spatial gravity should be understood from tile, flag and mat, and how the gravity is structured on plane, cube and video. However, the aesthetic value of gravity is a gift from the history of fine art. Hong Sun-hoan confirms and perceives the aesthetic gravity by seeing it, and thereby, requests us to be aware of the value of crevices.
Hong Sun-hoan active in Korea and Europe deepens the meaning of the aesthetic gravity by making use of a community among genres, the invisible world where things are deployed and arranged. Therefore, you may feel difficult to understand his exhibits, being urged to review them beyond the conventional criticism. What is clear is the fact that this Seoul exhibition at KunstDoc has given us an opportunity to read the crevices, while solidifying the reading of crevices. Although Hong Sun-hoan as artist and the artist as speaker for crevices are like both sides of the coin, we need to admit that it is a difficult and hard journey in the history of fine art to visualize the invisible world.
HONG SUN-HOAN
EDUCATION
1991 Bachelor's Degree in Painting, Chung-AngUniversity
1997 M.F.A Graduated from Kunstakademie Duesseldorf
(1997 Meisterschueler 2000 Akademiebrief
bei Prof. Beate Schiff, Prof. Siegfrid Anzinger)
E X H I B I T I O N S (solo-selected)
2010 Gallery Jean+Jean Art Center, Seoul. Korea
2008 Gallery Kunstdoc, Seoul Korea
2007 Gallery Laden 44, Duesseldorf. Germany
2004 Gallery Dukwon, Seoul. Korea
2003 Gallery artsWILL, Seoul. Korea
2003 Stellwerk im Kulturbahnhof, Kassel. Germany
2002 Marronnier Art Center, The Korean Culture & Arts Foundation, Seoul. Korea
2000 Gallery Kwanhoon , Seoul. Korea
1998 Gallery Bloemkes & Poette, Wuppertal. Germany
1998 Gallery Kleinerathaus, Odental. Germany
1998 Seoul Art Center, Seoul. Korea
1996 Gallery ,Kleinerathaus, Odental. Germany
122-9 Changsung-Dong, Jongro-Gu, Seoul 110-034, Korea
c.p. +82 10 2707 7121
e.mail. hong1598@lycos.co.kr
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