Jung, Boc su

A Memorandum of Existence: The Primary Relationship between Destiny and Desire

Kim Mi-jin (Professor, Hongik Graduate School of Art, Review & Planning)

Since 1979, starting with a private exhibition, Jung Boc Su has been working on the subject of the “body” drawing the face and the internal organs on the naked human form. He renders the internal organs on a stripped naked body with a bald head, drawing a simple face-the eyes, nose, lips, and ears in a three-dimensional manner, as if making a collage. The background of the canvas-as if connecting outer space and the human being-is left empty, while the individual and the society that surrounds him are represented by the human body, with words occasionally inserted here and there. Therefore, his drawings bring to mind anatomical charts that reveal unseen parts of the body, or of illustrations of meridian points commonly used in Eastern medicine. In order to expose the greed and excreting nature of humanity, Jung Boc Su refers to the stripped naked body, and like a tool kit takes apart, or amputates-so to speak-the area of the face, the insides and outsides of the body and reassembles them, creating human stories. Language is crucial in his work and by using metaphors in his titles, he is able to specify his subject matter, which assists in the viewer understanding his artistic motives and expressions. His symbolic and metaphoric way of creating art is communicated as an overall sensation through text and language.

In this private exhibition, his oil paintings, sculptures, and installation pieces from 2006 to 2011 are displayed, and unlike his previous works, in which drawings were dominant, these pieces are characterized by diverse mediums and bright, intense colors. Artificial flowers, dolls, masks, these objets d’art function as matieres on a canvas of paint, and the uninhibited touch and use of bright colors are an attempt to communicate the human forms pertaining to the times.

In the series, The Structure of Existence (2003-10, and 2004-10), Jung Boc Su illustrates that humans are beings of materialistic desires, an assemblage of parts. A chopped off face, body, and legs become fragments of organs and create a kind of microcosm on canvas, and as they connect they become one vision. On an empty background, these mannequin-like beings work with each other, and inside their heads or torsos, tiny parts attach or separate themselves, assembling the whole and operating as strategic instruments that comprise this world. In particular, the face can be attributed as operating as a kind of symbol of deceit that one can switch according to whether the situation is about faith, power, or money. In Existence's Mourning (2007-11), Anniversary (2011), The Art of Conversation I (2011), the expressions on the front, side, top, and bottom are all different on the masks, and are attached like a relief painting, extending these expressions beyond conventional limitations.

Masked people stand facing forward in the frames, imparting a sense of voyeurism, as they appear to be watching others without showing their own faces. At the same time, it is a work that wholly represents the face as a technical tool of communication that frequently changes expression in accordance with relationships and situations within society. These series also present three-dimensional works, created by drawing the interior of the human body on real mannequins. They are in stark contrast with the abstract and two-dimensional bodies, which appear rather virtuous and much like the image of God, and collide with the canvas, prompting the beholder to experience a new space and time. The ontological search of Jung, who has lived over half a century, ranges from human fundamentals-love, encounters, birth, death-o various social issues such as religion, freedom, politics and war. In Encounters (2006-11), faces are placed on top of human heads and genitalia; in Study of Relations (2006-11), one's ear is connected to another person's esophagus; in Nightmare-Childbirth (2005), a chest is a container and a mouth gives birth; Smiling Woman (2004-06) intensely stares, grinning ; The World Is (2005-11) depicts faces in various expressions yelling at the world; in Life (2007-08), the artist paints grey faces, which have endured harsh lives, and draws the phrase "Let us love life" like an echo. Just through facial expressions, all of these works deliver the artist's strong message. Facial expressions are represented as a function derived from an interaction between rules and relationships within society. Like Sartre's definition of a humanist, that is, in order to love humans one must first hate them, the faces of Jung contain sublimated lives from the bits of vomit. In Birth of Religion (2006-08), he presents the smiling face of God, whose hands-tools for indulging in materials-are cut off. The expression is that of nirvana, magnanimity and love. In contrast, the bodies sprinting towards something with every fiber of their beings are the motif of Obsession and Death.

In Freedom and Chaos (2010), body parts are even more dismantled and arranged freely in space. From the sign system of Deleuze and Guattari-where hands, the ultimate tool of technology, are contrasted with faces, the ultimate tool of language-the tools and language produced in a free competitive system emerge incessantly, creating only a chaotic state on canvas. On the other hand, in A Letter from Paradise (2008-2010), the man and woman lying naked on a bed of flowers appear peaceful. The middle-aged couple look like Adam and Eve, but have not succumbed to the temptation of the forbidden fruit, maintaining their innocence. The man has an erection yet he seems relaxed instead of desirous, and the woman is in fact sleeping in peace. This piece causes the viewer to simultaneously experience a point of view from above looking down, and a direct point of view, which allows empathy with the plastic flower petal objects attached to the canvas and the tree branches installed in front of the painting.

The spiral coexistence of the present and the primitive age in The Moment When a Flower Falls (2008-11), which was displayed with a three-dimensional work made from the head of a mannequin, present ontology within a macrocosmic world. Jung Boc Su continues to live and work in Korea, a nation that is experiencing drastic changes of modernization and ultramodernization, not only in politics and economy, but also in daily life. The personal story of relationships and communication experienced by the artist is concluding towards an epic saga of more maturity and depth. Today, events and accidents happening throughout the world are broadcast in real time and cause a bigger shock than any soap opera, taking us on an emotional rollercoaster. Living in this materialistic world of irrationality and madness, we can consider the life of the ordinary couple-existing along with nature and the time of the universe-a new paradise and a mystical model. In this exhibition, the personal memoranda of Jung Boc Su, previously conveyed as expressional paintings, freely move across mediums-paintings, sculptures and installation works-via raw materials found in the artist's daily life, expanding the senses of the beings of destiny and desire.   

Jung, Boc su 

1955 Born in Euiryung Kyongnam, Korea
1985 B.F.A in Painting College of Fine Arts, Hongik University, Seoul, Korea

1979~2011  the 21st Solo Exhibition

1995 Bachelor’s Painting, Hongik University, Seoul, Korea
1997 Korean Art 1997 - Humanism, Animalism, Mechanism, National Museum of Contemporary  Art, Kwachon
1997 FIAC’ 97, Paris
1998 Ahead of New Millennium, Kwangju Museum of Art, Kwangju
1998  Taipei Biennale, Taipei Fine Arts Museum
1999 Korean Pop, Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul
2000  The paintings that Make You Smarter, Savina Gallery, Seoul
2001 Korean Art 2001: Lottery of a Painting, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Kwachon
2002 Korean & Chinese Paintings 2002 New Facial Expression, Hangaram Museum at the Seoul  Art Center, Seoul
2003 Psycho Drama, Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul
2004 You Are My Sunshine, Korean Contemporary Art Museum 1960-2004, Total Museum, Seoul
2005 the 1st Pocheon Asia Art Festival, Pocheon Banweol Art Hall, Pocheon
2006 Korean Art 100 Years Tradition, Human, Art, Reality, the National Museum of  Contemporary Art, Kwachon
2007 Korean and Chinese Art Exhibition - Illusionary Giant, Sejong Art Center, Seoul
2008 Today’s Korean Art - Facial Expression of Art, Hangaram Museum at the Seoul Art Center,  Seoul
 Art in Busan 2008: Please Come Back to the Busan Harbor, Busan Museum of Art
 KAMI’s Choice “How Are You”, Noam Gallery, Seoul
 The 2nd Insa Art Festival - Between Beauty and Ugliness, Art Side Gallery, Seoul
2009 The Language of a Body, Touch Art, Paju
2010 Gaga Hoho, Woorim Gallery, Seoul
 Be Avid for a Body, Art Sagan Gallery, Seoul
 Power of Gyeonggi Do, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ahnsan
2011 Cross the Relationship and Duplicity. Art Side Gallery