작가노트

나는 추상페인팅 작업을 위해 캔버스를 포함한 다양한 패브릭을 사용해 왔다. 특히 패브릭의 표면의 질감, 밀도, 유연성 그리고 투명성에 관심을 갖고 다양한 채색기법으로 작업해왔고, 캔버스 프레임을 기준으로 프레임의 안과 밖 또는 프레임 없는 페인팅을 연구해왔다. 또한 이러한 작품들을 다양한 공간에서 장소적 특성을 바탕으로 현장에서 즉흥적으로 연결시키는 작업을 하고 있다. 설치과정에서 일어나는 우연적인 일들과 필연적인 요소들의 뒤섞임을 ‘전시’라는 형식의 이벤트로 펼쳐 보이는 일에 큰 관심을 가지고 있다.

이번 개인전은 나의 지난 작업들과의 연계를 바탕으로 ‘Hive’라는 주제를 가지고 진행한다. 벌집모양을 연상시키는 육각형 형태의 2 차원에서 3 차원의 페인팅과 설치 작업을 통해, 예송미술관의 전시실 전체를 하나의 예술적 벌집으로써 관람객에게 보는 것을 넘어선 체험형 전시를 제안한다. 또한 자연의 벌소리와 인공의 벌소리를 대형의 hive 설치물에 삽입하여, 인공적이지만 자연적인 것을 지향하는 ‘육각의 추상장소’(Hexagonal Abstract Place)의 일부가 되도록 한다.

‘Hive’는 일반적으로 벌이 알을 낳고 먹이와 꿀을 저장하며 생활하는 곳을 말하는데, 일벌들이 분비한 밀랍으로 이루어진 육각형의 방이 여러 개 모여 하나의 구조물을 형성한다. 기하학적으로 육각형 형태의 방은 인접한 다른 육각형의 방들과 주어진 공간 안에서 최대한 효율적으로 많은 방을 연결시키는 구조를 만들 수 있는 형태이다. 일벌들이 Hive를 만드는 것은 학습된 것이 아니고 본능에 가까운 것이라고 할 수 있는데, 이와 같이 일벌이 본능적으로 공간을 효율적으로 사용할 수 있다는 점은 매우 놀랍다고 할 수 있다. 이러한 육각형의 공간적·기능적 특성에서 착안하여, 육각의 형태를 활용한 페인팅과 설치작업으로 추상의 장소예술로서 전환된 ‘Hive’를 관람자들이 체험할 수 있도록 제안한다.

관람자들이 자연에서 온 형태인 육각형으로 가득 찬 전시실의 공간에서 육각의 예술적 변주, 즉 전시작품들을 통하여 자신의 ‘Hive’는 무엇인가 사색해보는 시간을 가질 수 있기를 기대합니다.

아티스트
셀레스틴 김



전시서문

예송미술관의 이번 전시에서 관람객은 전시장에 들어서자마자 작가가 만든 'Hive'(벌집)에 초대된 이질적인 존재가 되어버린다. 전시장 1 에서 들리는 벌들의 행진소리와 벽면을 가득 채울 것 같은 유연한 육각의 우드패널, 다양한 패브릭이 부드럽게 자리 잡은 두 기둥 사이, 셀레스틴 김 작가는 이번 전시에서 전시장을 하나의 거대한 캔버스로 승화시켜 자신만의 'Hive'로 빚어내어 관람객을 초대한다.

작가에게 있어 'Hive'(벌집)는 일벌이 알을 낳고 먹이와 꿀을 저장하는 공간이듯, 작가의 작업을 생산하고 다음 작업 모티브와 영감을 얻는 매개이다. 작가노트에서 일벌이 ‘Hive'(벌집)을 만들어내는 것이 본능에 가까운 활동이라 말하는데, 작가의 작업 활동 또한 이와 비슷한 맥락을 갖고 있다. 작가는 모든 작업에 있어 우연성을 강조하고 있다. 하나의 고정된 틀에 갇힌 작품이 아닌 설치 도중에 나오는 우연한 효과와 그에 부합하는 자신의 작업을 매치시킨다. 이 또한, 일벌의 활동처럼 본능적인 우연성의 조합이라 할 수 있다.

특히 이번 전시에서 작가의 ’Hive'가 잘 나타나는데 평소 작가는 전형적인 캔버스 화면을 넘어서 패브릭, 나무 합판, 시트지 등, 작업에 활용할 수 있는 다양한 소재를 생활 속에서 발견하여 자신의 작업 안으로 배치하고 그 위에 추상페인팅과 함께 그려내는 작업을 지속해왔다.

이번 전시에서 ‘Hive'라는 주제에 집중하며 기존의 작업방식에서 우연성이 더욱 강조되는 모습을 보인다. 전시장은 벽면과 가운데 두 기둥을 활용하여 육각의 형태가 밀집된 모습을 보여주며, 두 기둥 사이의 유연한 패브릭 안에서 윙윙-거리는 자연에서 들려오는 벌들의 행진 소리가 전시장을 더욱 'hive'스럽게 만든다.

송파구립 예송미술관
전시기획  오연경

Abstract

This doctoral research is rooted in the development of an expanded form of painting and what I refer to as the production of ‘Abstract places’. This in turn is based on my specific cultural background, having lived and worked in both the Far East and the West. To open up the meaning and potential that an expanded concept of painting could have for contemporary painting I have imported certain concepts from Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology. 

Merleau-Ponty insists that “The body is our general medium for having a world”. In this way, my body is at the centre of my productions. All my works start from my body and are the trace of my existence. I thus perceive my body as an integral part of the production of expanded painting. For my project, phenomenology is itself a tool to be manipulated and reframed from my own embodied cultural perspective.Through a close reading of the work of Far-Eastern visual artists U-fan Lee (1936 - ) and Kunyong Lee (1942 - ) I consider how an Eastern approach nuances and inflects some of the conventional application of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology. In the same way, in order todevelop my concept to create artworks in the expanded field of contemporary painting, Ialso focus on the works of Western artists Robert Ryman (1930 - ) and Katharina Grosse(1961 - ). 

In between the Far East and the West, I further consider mixed concepts and fresh insights created by contemporary phenomenology of painting, and attempt to use these concepts in order to extend the current discourse of expanded painting in the multicultural field of the 21st century.

Celestine KIM

Induction


Qi is regarded as the life-process or the flow of energy in living beings, and first mentioned in the ancient Taoist’s teachings in the Far East. Everything, whether it is visible or invisible, has its own Qi, and the foundation of everything is the same. Therefore, there is no absolute good and evil or beauty and ugliness. In order to gain enlightenment of Tao, the sage Laozi who is the main philosopher of Taoism wrote in Tao-te Ching (6th century BC);

To remain whole, be twisted!
To become straight, let yourself be bent.
To become full, be hollow.
Be tattered, that you may be renewed.
Those that have little, may get more.

Moon Lee and Celestine Kim have considered Taoist’ thought for their artworks. Both artists use the concept of Qi, which is a result of the interaction between the artists and the universe. Through Qi, human beings are connected to all things, animate and inanimate. Their artworks are the representations of the flow and the breath of Qi. They encourage viewers into their artworks which were made by the flow of Qi, suggesting a sense of unity with the artworks. However, they have used different visual languages in order to materialize the concept of Qi. 

Celestine has worked in abstract paintings and installations by using western materials and methods, but her concepts are mainly from Taoist’s thought, such as using different painting materials and revealing the materials’ characteristics, contemplating the interactive relationships between the materials. Moon has used painting materials of the Far East but also has mixed various images influenced by western culture. She would like to show that different cultures are not absolutely separated from each other, but they can make harmony in her artworks through Taoist’s thought.

In this exhibition, Celestine and Moon invite viewers to the place of Qi, which is filled with their artistic Qi in the same and different ways.

Celestine KIM

Statement
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In order to show the embodiment of my thoughts to create an abstract place, in my latest solo exhibition ‘Separately and together’ (2015), I displayed paintings I created which focus on the relationship and interaction between the painted objects and space in the central gallery of University of Reading. 

Each of those paintings is slightly different from the others in terms of the materials and colours and the structure of the frame, but the painted objects form the relationship or are formed by the interaction through the similarities of the colours or materials, and the landscapes seen through the semi-transparent layers of the painted fabrics. In other words, each painting appears in another or has a different identity. However, each seeps into and interacts with both the space and painted object. 

To make the relationships between the painted objects and the gallery space, I utilized similar tones of colour; such as blue, red and black, and textures of fabrics. Each work has different distance from others, but the similarities of each work makes connection between my painted objects. For instance, I hung ‘Red on red’ (2015) on the wall of the central side of the gallery, then attached the work ‘Orangered’ (2015) to the column in the center of the gallery and this is located in front of ‘Red on red’ (2015). The work ‘Orangered’ is divided by a translucent section and a void section, and when a viewer stands frontally, through the void, ‘Red on red’ is seen. The similar red tones of the two works are vertically and horizontally placed in the gallery, and this aspect creates a visual connection between them through viewer’s bodily experience. In other words, they are separate, but together. Also, depending on a viewer’s movements, ‘Red on red’ can be a part of the void section of ‘Orangered’ or belong to the orange-red translucent section. This aspect means the viewer can define the exhibition space as his own place or an abstract place according to the perception and experience of the viewer’s body. 

On the other hand, in order to give a different identity to each of my painted objects, I displayed each of my paintings differently, such as hanging one on the wall, putting one on the floor, draping one on the painted frames, using a spot light to reveal creases and shadow of fabric, attaching one to the column and putting the side of one in front of the wall. However, each painting is connected by overlapping the painted frames and fabrics between them. Through the semi-transparent fabrics and the void of the painted frames, viewers can see other paintings or the gallery space beyond the works, and this aspect establishes the relationship among the paintings or between the viewers and the paintings. Depending on the body movements of the viewers, the painted objects have different landscapes. In other words, each painting can be separated or can be integrated to anther painting by the gaze of the viewers. 

Through my abstract place, I propose viewers enter into my three-dimensional painted place, experience according to their bodies’ perception with relationships between my painted objects, the exhibition space and themselves, and define the place as their own place. Furthermore, I suggest this exhibition is based on Painting in the expanded field. My paintings are extended by exhibition spaces, and my whole work is completed by the experience of viewers. In the relationships of these aspects, there would be an unexpected encounter among art materials, painted objects or viewers and my abstract place. In this way, I believe there are infinite possibilities of painting to expand its own field.
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Celestine KIM

Statement

For my final major project, in order to understand abstract painting and making exhibitions, I have mainly studied Newman, Rothko and Gerhard Richter. These artists’ works are mostly related to space, and there are many examples of their exhibitions in this respect. Through this research, I could enhance my methods and skills to make various layers, textures and colouring while considering relationship with space. Contemporary abstract artists Katharina Grosse, Gothard Graubner, James Turrell, Jessica Stockholder, Lothar Gotz, Robert Ryman and Steven Parrino have influenced my works, and made it more involved with ‘space’ in a variety of ways.

 For the MFA degree show, I chose to divide into two areas in RUS 205. One area is a white cubic space, and another has a gray wall and the changeability of natural light. Additionally, in order to attract viewers to my abstract places, I will also use a small area around the door of RUS 205. On the other hand, my works are classified into two types, canvas paintings and wood panel paintings. If the exhibition space is a big canvas, then each art object is a different layer. While regarding correlation of combinations between the positions, shapes and colours of art objects, the shape of space and the condition of the environment, I have experimented the methods to exhibit, and recorded in photographs. 

My final selection is one canvas and a wood panel in the small area, a big canvas work and two wood panels in the white cubic area and ten pieces of wood panels in the gray wall area. Two monochrome canvases close to white traditionally and naturally match the white wall. From the small area to the gray wall area, wood panel paintings make the connection between the three abstract areas, and they are in harmony or disturbance with the areas in different positions and angles.

“The indigenous fantasy is that of a closed world founded once and for all long ago; one which, strictly speaking, does not have to be understood. Everything there is to know about it is already known: land, forest, springs, notable features, religious places, medicinal plants, not forgetting the temporal dimensions of an inventory of these places whose legitimacy is postulated, and whose stability is supposed to be assured, by narratives about origins and by the ritual calendar” (Marc Auge, Non-places, 1995, p.44). To create unknown places, I considered and experimented various combinations of abstract paintings, addition and subtraction of abstract objects, different density of colours and textures, different types of flexibility of canvas or panel, and different scales of art objects. This diversity of the combinations makes abstract places, and these places can be postulated and interpreted by viewers through their knowledge and experiences in order to identify with it.

In the novel ‘Concrete Island’ (1974), J.G. Ballard created an unknown place, and this place is an abstract and surreal world. Passing through this world is a disturbing labyrinthine experience. In such a way, in my works, I suggest an unknown place and unfamiliar experience to viewers. “If a place can be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity, then a space which can not be defined as relational, or historical, or concerned with identity will be a non-place” (Marc Auge, Non-places, 1995, p.77). My abstract place can be a place which is defined and a non-place which is not defined by viewers at the same time. Viewers can focus on one abstract work or make a big picture with abstract objects and space as abstraction. Through the final major project, I could explore various directions of abstract art in connection with space.
 
Celestine KIM

Jorge Luis Borges' The Library of Babel (1956) is the beginning of my interest in labyrinths. In the library of Babel, hexagonal rooms form an infinite honeycomb, and this is a metaphor for the infinite labyrinth and the boundless universe.

We know, too, of another superstition of that time: the Man of the book. In some shelf of some hexagon, men reasoned, there must exist a book which is the cipher and perfect compendium of the rest: some librarian has perused it, and it is analogous to a god. Vestiges of the worship of that remote functionary still persist in the language of this zone. Many pilgrimages have sought Him out. For a century they trod the most diverse routes in vain. (Borges, 1998 [1956], p. 78)

"The metaphors within the labyrinth are endless because they are shaped by our creative imaginations" (Artress, 2006, p.96). Human imagination is boundless. The physical structure of the brain resembles a labyrinth (Attali, 1999); and in my head, both brain and mind are like labyrinths. For me, this represents countless rooms and roads consisting of knowledge, feelings, experiences, sense and sensibility. These are cerebral and emotional simultaneously, and regardless of limited life time, these rooms and roads are infinite. These have "comings and goings, spirals and blind alleys, and distant proximities as well as illusory distances" (Attali, 1999, p.ⅩⅩⅧ). This resembles an infinite labyrinth, and I visualize this by painting. I paint and make the labyrinths. I am a labyrinth-maker as Daedalus was.

In my labyrinths, it is possible to meet that which I imagine, and that which viewers want to see.

In a labyrinth, one does not lose oneself
In a labyrinth, one finds oneself
In a labyrinth, one does not encounter the Minotaur
In a labyrinth, one encounters oneself (Kern, 2000, p.23).

Also, my other work, ‘The labyrinth on a labyrinth’ (2013) was painted on top of a painting of human fingerprint which is also a labyrinth. The layers of colours and brushes covered the previous painting, but the previous image is shown with the texture of it. The combination may, or may not, create another labyrinth, and this is up to the spectator.

n the same labyrinth, different people can meet different things. In other words, different people can see different things in the same picture. In this vein, Friedensreich Hundertwasser's thought is expressed as follow:

There is always a system of superior order, of creative intelligence, and you have to fit into this system. Only the one who is a creative intelligence will survive. That means we are a congregation of Gods. This is our normal status. People are very different from one another. They are already different at birth. Everyone can and must be creative. That is a law of nature. The beggar becomes a king and the king a beggar. What matters is what you are and what you make of yourself. It is your creative power. It is very easy, no problem (RAND, 2007, p.64).

 Hundertwasser thought that everybody had different views of the same artwork, so artwork is open, and this opinion is related to the infinite interpretations of art works. In this connection, Jacques Derrida thought that many facts (truths) can exist in an artwork. In other words, Derrida believed in various possibilities for the truth of an art work. In the concept of deconstruction by Derrida, he thought texts have a correlated weaving structure and meanings. And texts are floating, their meaning is not fixed, and texts extend endlessly based on the fact that they are always different when contrasted to other things (Derrida, 2011 and Derrida, 2001). Derrida's extensive and correlated weaving structure of texts is reminiscent of Borges' The Library of Babel. In the library of Babel, the structure of endlessly interlocking hexagonal rooms is an infinite labyrinth and the universe itself. Borges considered that the whole of the world can be defined as a library with free interpretation and play of thoughts. Following these notions, I believe in the existence of various possibilities for the truth of an art work. My paintings are suggestions for some things which viewers want to see and find. ‘The labyrinth of layers Ⅰ, Ⅱ, Ⅲ, Ⅳ ’ (2013) are examples for this suggestion.

There are different possibilities of interpretation for the viewer. Different people can experience something different in the same labyrinth of mine, and experience has no limit. This is what I pursue, a way or a path towards infinity as a human and an artist. "Infinity fascinates because it gives us the opportunity to think beyond our everyday concern, beyond everything to something more" (Clegg, 2003, p.2). The contemporary world seems an infinite labyrinth. "In our daily lives, each of us encounter labyrinths with increasing frequency" (Attali, 1999, p.41).

Taking the subway [underground], changing buses, walking from one neighborhood to another, searching for a service on the Internet, looking among the shelves in large department store, walking through the main train station, airport, amusement park, or museum, registering for a university curriculum, looking for a job...and even, as we shall see, dancing, or play chess, video games, or soccer (Attali, 1999, p.41).

Friedrich Dürrenmatt thought that human beings wander in contemporary society which is a labyrinth, full of numerous mazes. He believed that human nature has made the world as a labyrinth, because humans are rational and irrational at the same time. For Dürrenmatt, due to the nature of the human irrational aspect, humans easily become slaves of sin, and the world with these sinful humans inevitably becomes a malicious labyrinth. In the malicious labyrinth, human beings and the world go astray continuously. This is an example of uncountable eternal cycles in the universe. Dürrenmatt said "This inhuman world has to become more humane. But how?" (Brainy Quote, 2001-2013). If Dürrenmatt's opinion is right, in order to exit from the labyrinth of evil, a positive view point and belief in the world are important. In this regard, the ideas of pragmatism are worth being taken in consideration. In The Will to Believe (1912 [1896]), William James thought that our belief in an idea makes it true, so the will to believe is important for finding or realizing the truth. 

More recently, in Neo-pragmatism, Richard Rorty has stated that "There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves" (Rorty, 1982, p.xlii). Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object. Most pragmatists agree that "Belief has a function in the life of human beings - namely, to prepare us for successful action in the face of recurrent circumstances - and beliefs that best fulfill that function are the ones most deserve to be called true" (Kemerling, 2011). With the belief and will, if we take action, we will get a result, and the result will be the truth.

In labyrinths, which are a metaphor of human life and the universe, we may wander, get lost, recollect, meet things or meet nothing, and meditate in the infinitely open possibilities. This is the eternal circle. If you believe that you are on the positive way, you can find the exit. Or if you think that you are on the negative way, you can lose the way forever. My paintings are open to viewers and let them construct their own fantasies.

Celestine KIM