If we call the labor of representing intangible existence that transcends sensation and reason through typified forms as artistic expression, the mystical experience of seeing, feeling, and hearing infinite existence through finite forms is the pleasure the audience enjoys. The artistic world of Hong Young-Sook showcases the potential of artistic spirituality by resonating the 'trembling' of infinite existence with the audience's 'vibration.' This exhibition, titled <Shimong, Nolmong (Playing and Resting)> featuring <The Returning Mandala> as its representative work, is a great opportunity to glimpse the possibility that Korean spiritual art can blossom in the global village through the artist's artistic world.
I discovered her artwork through Facebook. The moment I saw <The
Inverted Taegeuk (÷¼?)> I felt a very familiar yet intense sensation.
While appreciating her daily uploaded works, I could sense that the
colors of Korea's religious spirituality were imbued in the artist's
artistic world. The 'spiritual' mechanism that connects infinite existence
and finite phenomena becomes a catalytic agent and an inseparable link
between the artist and religious scholars, meeting as 'religion-art,'
'art-religion.'
Since childhood, the artist has wanted to draw her pictures freely without
being bound by others. This innate disposition, influenced by Choi Wook-Kyung's
spirit of resistance and Hwang Jae-Hyung's popular consciousness, also
known as the 'miner painter,' and the artistic world of many foreign
artists such as John Walker, her mentor during her study in New York.
At the time, Walker called her the "Georgia O'Keeffe of Korea."
Glenn Goldberg also publicly acknowledged her genius after seeing her
draw a piece on the spot, attracting envy and attention during her study
abroad. During her studies, the artist learned the tempera technique,
which was not even introduced in Korea then. She loved the delicate
technique that seemed to fit in her hands. In particular, Hwang Jae-Hyung,
who had been closely watching her artistic activities, became a decisive
factor in recommending her to use tempera. This material is well suited
to Korea's nature. As we all know, tempera dries quickly, is durable,
and is characteristic of becoming brighter when it dries, unlike oil
painting. Tempera has a manifestation phenomenon of "revealing"
the original color without hiding it. This manifestation of religious
spirituality is a perfect artistic material that expresses the traditional
Korean spirituality of "shinnanda (exciting)," as the Korean
philosophical system has the characteristics of acceptance, convergence,
and emergence.
Artworks that have not passed through the filter of pain, tears, and
anguish are hypocritical and false. A stuffed bird does not sing. Artworks
that have not traversed the thorny path of suffering and hardship, even
if exhibited in expensive galleries and received grandiose art criticism,
will not shine. They may enjoy a momentary popularity but end up in
the garbage dump when the trend changes. The artist who moves the audience's
hearts and creates works that history remembers is an artist who, as
a "poor-hearted" composer, shows the infinite essence to the
audience. Artworks that do not absorb the tears shed and the palpitations
of the heart cannot touch the audience. The artist, in this sense, is
a lonely composer. As a devoted daughter who endured her mother's long
illness, the artist has pursued an independent artistic world since
2015 in her homeland, Korea.
The artist's compositional spirit is embodied in <Tear Drops of the
Circle> (early 1990s). As an artistic composer, the tears shed from
her struggles and suffering manifest her compositional spirit, which
seeks to heal the disjunction between East and West, gender inequality,
and the confusion between modernism and postmodernism. That is the pearl
of tears in a circular shape. Those who want to participate in the artist's
suffering should be silent in front of <After Over There> (1999).
Furthermore, the artist unfolds the art stage as abstraction, not figuration,
to explore the roots of existence and represent the inner consciousness.
Through various works such as <Where Are You...?> (1993), <Where
It Should Go?> (2014), <Where It Comes From?> (2015), <Again,
Again> (2015, 2020), <Deconstruction of Point, Line, and Plane>
(2015), <Departure of Point, Line, and Plane> (2015), <Deconstructed
Surface Structure> (2017), <From the Center> (2018), <Long
Long Ago> (2018-2019), <Before Colors Appear> (2006-2019),
<Rising Questions> (2016), and <Beyond the Time of Dreaming>
(2019), she deconstructs the identity of self and others, explores the
origins of existence, and deconstructs time and space. To reveal the
infinite existence, she even breaks down and separates the finite dots,
lines, and planes that make up the composition, and transforms the finite
universe (canvas) to condense the existence of the body into her artistic
consciousness, and experiments to give the audience a sense of spiritual
excitement in the moment. See <The Returning Mandala.>
At the same time, the artist accumulates and accumulates the infinite
existence in her inner consciousness through works such as <Collecting
the Energy of the Universe> (2016), <The Sound that Calls the
Soul> (2016), <Praying Hands> (2017), <Following the Cross>
(2017), <Prayer Written in Color> (2020), and <The Sound of
the Cave> (2012-2022). This compression of consciousness involves
both condensation and radiation, accompanied by pain and ecstasy. Pain
is ecstasy and ecstasy is pain. This is the pinnacle of spiritual art.
The themes of her works are not simple but diverse and varied. On the
canvas of Korea, she expresses various religious traditions, contemporary
landscapes, and global events in a layered and ambiguous way. For example,
in terms of religious traditions, there are works such as <Hojokmong
(û×ïÊÙÓ)> (2016), <Yamujin Hallelujah> (2016), <A Song for
Confucius> (2018-2019), <Chohun (ôýûë)> (2020), <The Revisited
Dreaming of the Royal Palace> (2017), <'Om Mani Padme Hum' Together>
(2019), and <Ban-ga-sa-yu-sang> (2017-8). In terms of contemporary
landscapes, there are works such as <Open Landscape> (2017), <Boring
Landscape> (2017), <Anxious Landscape> (2019), <Clustered
Landscape> (2019), and <Memory of Trumpet Flowers> (2019-2022).
In addition, through works such as <Cyborg Sunflowers> (2016),
<Wings of Postmodernism> (2017), <Shadow Human> (2017),
<Galaxy..?> (2019), <Pandemic Talisman> (2020), <Corona
Autumn Leaves> (2020), <Corona Christmas> (2020), and <Pandemic
Talisman Imitation> (2022), we catch a glimpse of the artist's aspect
of communicating with society. <Exclamation Point with Nervousness>
(2016) and <Question Mark That Feels Like It's Going to Burst>
(2016) and others are so humorous and absurd that they cause laughter.
These works represent the essence of Korea.
The artist particularly likes the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow.
She is a heavenly artist who represents Korea. These three primary colors
are the fundamental basis of the three-tone Yin-Yang (ëä-åÕ) symbol passed
down from ancient Koreans. Based on the three-tone Yin-Yang symbol,
the artist constantly expresses and spreads the sun's brightness, symbolizing
the Korean people's dignity. It is an explosion of spirituality. The
artist's works are like a storm of elegance and passion, but they evoke
a sense of solemnity and inner resonance. This is because the artist
shapes the circular form, an infinitely complex and diverse shape of
multiple one and one multiple, to express the colors of peace and coexistence.
The current exhibition displays many shades of green, which are the
colors of life, adding to this feeling.
<Beginning of Time...> (2020) is the Mandala of the Heavenly Kingdom.
It represents a community of life, community of life, and community
of peace that surrounds the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow,
which form the basis of the Korean Yin-Yang symbol that has been passed
down from ancient times. In <Origin of the Yin-Yang> (2019), the
red and blue colors of the three-tone Yin-Yang symbol expand in a circular
form, subconsciously concealing the yellow color. The Korean Yin-Yang
symbol expresses only the red and blue colors, without revealing the
yellow color. However, behind the Taeguk, the yellow color is constantly
trembling. In <Scattered Taeguk> (2019), even the hidden yellow
disappears without subtitles, losing its light and being dismantled.
In the world of Yeok (æ¶), the equality of red and the freedom of blue
represent the bad fortune of the universe. However, in <Reversing
Taeguk> (2021), the artist rotates the position of the ideal Gwae,
blue and red, among the 64 Gwaes to draw a peaceful world of Jicheontae
(ò¢ô¸÷Á). Also, in <Freedom, Equality, and Peace> (2020), which reminds
us of the slogan of the French Revolution, "Liberte, egalite, fraternite,"
the artist expresses the topic of humanity, which suggests that the
free world of blue and the equal world of red can coexist only in the
peaceful world of yellow, using only the three primary colors. It is
an art revolution. In addition, the author used the artist's work to
explain the resurrection universe of Sunmack (à¹Øæ) and the changing universe
of Sunmack (àºØæ) that cannot be expressed as text in the author's book.
<Circular Dance> (2016), which is called the resurrection universe,
forms holarchic holism, where hidden yellow is clearly manifested, revealing
the eternal purple color mixed with red and blue. This circular dance
dismantles conflicts, divisions, and contradictions at the root and
sings the <Song of Wind> (2020) with a yellow whirlwind. It is
a changing universe. The artist expresses the origin of Taeguk and Samtaeguk
(ß²÷¼Ð¿) in Korea, the direction of the universe, and human history, through
the three primary colors without hesitation. How was this possible?
In an interview, the artist said, "I wanted to suppress the controversy
over colors by using the three primary colors, which are the basics
of all colors, instead of emphasizing the spiritual world like our traditional
ink paintings. This method seems to have deepened the Samtaeguk as my
national identity." The three primary colors represent the colors
of peace, life, and freedom that symbolize Korea and encompass the world.
The artist can only detect that the three most Korean primary colors
have universality. If you can enjoy this feeling in <Prayer Written
with Colors> (2020), presented at this exhibition, how wonderful
would it be?
The representative work of this exhibition, <Returning Mandala>
(2022-2023), shows the artist's art world, which has merged with the
universe's existence after fierce struggles. Generally, 'Mandala' is
expressed as the pinnacle of precision symmetry and harmony, which is
equipped with the meaning of infinite existence and enlightenment unified
with the law realm (ÛöÍ£) and the myriad virtues (Ø¿Óì). However, unlike
the political and static 'Mandala', the 'Returning' Mandala shows the
dynamism of breaking down the narrowness of the universe's mind (éÔñµãý)
and leaping out. Why is that? On the one hand, the artist holds onto
the scattering three primary colors and requests <Shimong, Nolmong>
(2020), but on the other hand, the blue horse from the East, who was
sleeping while wrapped in the yellow color of peace in the chaotic world
covered in uncertain red, jumps out of the universe's curtain, shouting
<Run, Run> (2022) and urging the audience to "run with me,
run!" <The Cave Sound> is the artist's roar. The audience
who hears the artist's cry of pain as a song of life and victory has
tasted the essence of the work.
The artist Hong Young-Sook, who harmonizes the spiritual and rationality
in the expanding universe's 'trembling,' resonates and blends them into
'vibrations,' becoming a great starting point for a spiritual artist
who will explode Korean spirituality in this exhibition.