Painting? Art work?

(작은 캔버스 사진)

After off-site show, I just move back to my earlier work to continue my experiment on boundary of art. I just installed these works on the first day of 2nd year course. The canvas size was just 10cm x 10cm, and I just attached glasses case on the canvas. A notion of these works are very similar to work that I installed on off-site show. The notion is 'I just paint by attaching glasses case on canvas, we all can possibly paint with all materials.'. Purpose of experiment has been changed little bit, but I believed that this earlier work would be great point to continue my new experiment.

(만든거 사진)

These are bigger pieces (80cm x 80cm) of earlier works. I have not developed new work much, but I just started it from making them bigger. The first and second works are just same as earlier small pieces. Third one is new piece that I made. Process of making new piece was pretty simple, just painting white colour on canvas and paint black lines. I think that doing paint usual way is kind of new attempt for me, because I usually painted bit weird way before making this new piece(Third picture). In off-site show, there was Karen's work next to my work. Karen has done performance that she actually paint during the exhibition, and my installation was just fake oil painting images. It was interesting to see her actual painting performance with my fake oil painting images. I am not sure about how people recognize these works relationship. However, it would be fun to see two weird canvas shaped sculptures with actual paint.

8 Painting series

In this second year, I have tried to understand about boundary of art with few experiments on painting. I just called that works 'Painting', but that works were obviously not painting. '8 Painting series' was based on illustration and 'Photopainting' was just photos pretend oil painting. Most of my works in this year are talking about painting and boundary of art, but it has been for ages since I painted. It was fun thing when I just recognized that. I just have done one actual paint for this experiment. However, it will be great to have actual paint with my some fake paint for further experiment.

Off-site show (4) : The exhibition 'Happening'

The exhibition date was 18th of March in Hundred years gallery. We just set up our work from afternoon on 17th of March. And this is a map(picture above) shows where we took in the exhibition. I was on the right corner. There were film, sculpture, cloth and performance in the exhibition. These diverse type of works make place seems bit tight to have everyone's work, but it was very dynamic exhibition.

This is my installation in the exhibition. I have just printed images of Photopainting on cancas, paper, transparent paper and textiles. And just spread out them all on floor. Printing same images on different materials was kind of experiment on boundary of art. Each of materials have very different looking with the fake oil painting images 'Photopainting'. I wanted to people just step on papers that I spread on floor, but they hesitated to step on that papers. That behaving of viewers was very interesting to comprehend how people care about art work.

This is Karen's work. She just actually paint during the exhibition as performance. And her performance was just conducted right next to my work. It was interesting to see the actual painting action next to fake oil painting image.

My installation in the exhibition was experiment on boundary of art, but I am not pretty sure about what I was trying to say with this work. Some people just asked me 'did you paint this painting?', and some other people just believe that is real oil painting. I think that viewer's perspective on this experiment was what I wanted to see. Their hesitation and recognition were the most interesting things to think about boundary of art.

Off-site show (3) : My work for the exhibition

For the exhibition, I needed to decide which work I am going to exhibit. I was planning to exhibit development new work of '8 Painting' series in the first thought, but I changed my mind to make new work about same interest. '8 Painting' series is one of my experiment on boundary of art especially painting. The works were based on one simple illustration(Picture above), and I attached that canvas illustration on real canvas to think about what painting and images are.

As similar experiment of 8 Painting series, I just made these works. I call these works 'Photopainting'. The title of this work series 'Photopainting' sounds medium of these works are painting, but these works are technically photo, because I actually take photos and use Photoshop to make them look like oil painting. Actual painting is usually painted by brush and colour paints such as water colour and oil colour. So everyone easily can be sure about Photopainting works are exactly not painting. However, it would be different when I am saying 'I paint these images by taking a picture.'. This could be just trick on people into thinking it is oil painting, but I just want to think together about how images work on us. Anyway for complete this trick and experiment, I am going to print these photos on real canvas and another materials for the exhibition.

Off-site show (2) : Theme of the exhibition

These are our group member's works. it is easy to see that we all have different interests and mediums. We thought this kind of diversity could be the most strong thing we have. So diversity was chosen to be our main theme to use all of our various interests and mediums. Therefore, 'Happening' is a title we have decided for our show. The title 'Happening' describes our diversity very well in my belief.

And, this is poster we made for the exhibition. For describing our theme 'diversity', we just use some image of Buddhism statue which has thousand hands and symbolize our work. I do not really know what exactly meaning of that thousand hands statues, but it describes our theme very well in my belief.

Off-site show (1) : Setting up group and looking for spaces

In the beginning of preparation for off-site show, I made a group with familiar friends who use same studio place near by me. The group was very multicultural, has Korean, Malaysian, Chinese and British. We were just talking about each others work to find what we want to do. The conversation was interesting, because we all have quite different type of art. On the other hand, unexpected similarities in our difference were interesting things to understand us. So we had few brief meeting every monday with some ideas, and we just found that our specific difference between all of us would be very string element of our exhibition. However, we could not really sure about our exhibition yet.

So we just started to look for spaces first. We just have visited 3 places, and 'hundred years gallery' we visited in the first time was chosen to be our place for exhibition. This space was quite exciting place. Lots of hooks were from the ceiling, and there were plenty of movable lightings. Therefore, there were brick wall, wooden wall and cement wall. This kind of various conditions would be helpful to exhibit our different type of art works. So we just decided this place after just visiting the last candidate space.

8 Painting Series

(Unfinished moving painting)

(Finished moving painting)

This is films 'Unfinished moving painting' and 'Finished moving painting' I made last year. I have tried to talk about medium on this practice. I just made new concept of medium 'Moving painting' which is naturally film based on animation. And, just tried to break down boundaries of mediums.

For talking about mediums and boundaries continually, I have made this illustration(Picture above) for making series work to continue my practice. '8 Painting Series' is the name I call, and I call this illustration '8 Painting'. Actually, there are few tricks on the illustration and name of the illustration. Name of illustration '8 Painting' and a shape of canvas in illustration are core things to make tricks. I used symbol of the infinite as the shape of canvas in this illustration. Symbol of the infinite has very similar shape of number 8. So when people see this work series, they usually get confused. That confusion is what I want to use in this practice.

This is the earliest work I made in the series. I just printed few size of my illustrations on sticker paper. Then, sticked on small canvas. I think these two paintings is simply showing the trick of this series. I would like to call these two painting 'Two 8 Paintings'. The small canvas has just one illustration and another small canvas has eight paintings, both of them is possible to call 8 painting. This is because the small canvas has just one illustration has also the shape of 8. These different ways to call '8 painting' will make people get confused.

This is the second work '8 Moving Painting' of '8 Painting Series'. Illustrations '8 Painting' are just moving around on film. Title of this film '8 Moving Painting' easily make people think there are 8 illustrations of '8 Painting', but actually there are only 7 illustrations on film. I believe that this small trick could be a hint to understand what exactly '8 Painting' is.

This is the 3th work 'Bigger 8 Moving Painting'. Regardless of the trick, I have just challenged to possibility of film work. I think it could relate to possibility of infinite repetition on film. It is possible to be bigger and bigger unlimitedly. Therefore, people could get confused about the shape of on canvas. 

It is kind of obvious, my new medium 'Moving painting' is just imaginary concept in film. And it is formally not 'Painting' even I think it is possibly one of them. I think i will keep playing with this series to think about medium and boundaries more.

TOP (7) : presentation in Tate ; Strategic Process

We have done presentation in Tate. It was a such a long day, but so much fun was going on. My group 'Strategic Process' was just simply showing our film work to people. I could feel people did not really notice that gallery was a fake gallery, then they just realized in the end where expos the truth about real scale of gallery. It was really fun to see people's reaction during our film is show on. And, it was very interesting to see other group's presentations. Presentations consisted of Film works, performances, etc. Especially presentations of other groups who have similar territories of me were the most interesting things. Different ways to answer questions what I have had similar thing remind me that questions I have had. So the morning session was very dynamic time to see all presentation and learn about lots of territories.

After that dynamic morning session, afternoon session was kind of calm time to think about lots of things, but it was also dynamic in different way. I could hear about opinions of others directly and clearly. It was more clearer way to know other's perspective than the morning session. Painting, material, body, language, political, etc, lots of subjects make me have a thoughtful time to think about my territory and other one's territory. I think that hearing about other's territory and their thinking is unexpectedly helping me to define my territory. It is feeling like making sure a boundary line between mine and others. And, I could find some connection with other territories I have never thought that is connected to my territory. Even It was such a long day to remember all, this plenty of informations will helps me to do something on my art.

TOP (6) : Preparation for Take presentation ; film work

The first seminar after holiday, small territory group had a meeting for presentation in Tate. In the morning session, we have just talked about new works we made during holiday. Then, we just started to talk about how we present. An idea we decided to use is from Sasha member of our territory group. She made a new work called 'Shoes Box Gallery'. She just set up fake gallery in shoes box, and taking a picture to make it looks like real size of gallery. In the first time I saw her pictures, I have not noticed that is shoes box gallery. This kind of idea, playing with scale was the main idea we decided for presentation.

So this is bigger box gallery we made for shooting. We just printed our work and stick on wall. And I just pierce a square hole to use my Iphone as screen for my animation work. For shooting inside of box, we were using Gopro camera which is pretty tiny camera. We tried lots of shoots to have better video which people can not really notice that is miniature gallery. We also put huge lights for more natural video.

So this is our final work for presentation. For pretending that this video is just presenting usual gallery, we just include very natural background music which is very smooth and calm. After that, we had kind of hard time to choose how to finish this video. It was really hard to expect reaction of someone who watch this video first time, because we make this fake gallery and watched video so many times. That videos just look like a fake gallery for us. However, when we show this video to tutor group, we just realized that most of people can not really notice that is not a real gallery. So our final decision was exposure the truth of gallery we made in the end of video. It took longer time than we expected, but it was fun. And understanding perspective of others who does not know about truth was unexpected interesting things.

TOP (5) : Presentation

We have done presentation to tutor group. Presentation was kind of based on painting 'The Treachery of Images.' and book 'This is not a pipe.'. Rene Magritte was a useful subject to explain and define common territory of my group. Doing some tricks with art work is totally looks like illusion where we started in the beginning. The book 'This is not a pipe.' is just talk about this painting. Using Magritte's painting and using book which talk about his painting is helping us how Magritte have inspired us much.

After talking about Magritte to show our common territory, we just try to divide each of us in common territory. Starting from big common element between all of us, and just finding more detailed common element between each of us. I think that having common element detailedly is so much helpful to understand and explain our territory.

In the end of presentation, we were talking about exhibition for more detailed explaining each of our specific territories. Each of us just pick one artist from the exhibition 'Mirrorcity.', and talking about them and our own interests. I picked 'Anne Hardy' to explaining about concept of system and coding thing of my territory. And showing my work series '8 Painting' with explaining what I have hided under this work as a system. It was really good experience to talk about my work and territory. It is more helpful for me to understand myself than I make people understand my works.

TOP (4) : Set up codes behind art work

For understanding my territory more clearly, I have just thought about few artists who could have smilier territory of mine and my group. The first art work I have thought about is 'An oak tree' by Michael Craig-Martin. Actually this is one of my favourite art work. I liked this works for long time, but I just realized that this work could have very similar territory.

The work is pretty simple. There is one cup of water on shelter, and artist kind of insist that that cup of water is an oak tree. I love the interview contain his insistence in art work. His insistence in interview sounds bit insane, but I believe that is one of processes how artist make art. And I think that there are lots of things behind of this work to understand. After understanding something behind of a work, the work will be more enjoyable than without understanding.

Every art works could have something behind of works, but I think that it is not every artists make something behind of their work on purpose. Artists always have ideas for their works, and that ideas are usually something behind of their work. And that something is not very important things for some artists. However, that something could be the most important thing for me and some artists who have similar territory with me. I would call that something 'a system' or 'a code'. I sort of enjoy hiding a code under my work, and watching reaction from viewers. I do not think that people have to understand my code, but I believe that it is more enjoyable after understand the code behind my work. And the work become totally different thing after knowing the code. This ways to see my works with knowing and not knowing is what I want people do in my art.

TOP (3) : Visiting exhibition and reading books

So this is what my group have done in the first and the second meetings. Lots of key words were considered for identifying each of us more clearly first, and trying to find some commons to find our territory. After having some key words, two books were chosen to read. My choice was The book 'This is not a pipe' to read. The book is just about painting 'The Treachery of images' by surrealism painter 'Rene Magritte'. I think that The painting 'The Treachery of images' and The book 'This is not a pipe' are very relevant to find commons of our group. Each of our work has sort of illusions or tricks. I believe illusion and trick is that making few perspectives something can see in the first seeing and not, and when the second perspective you find after the first seeing, feeling that is trick and illusion. This was my thinking during I read The book 'This is not a pipe.'.

As a result, there were few words we found after talking about the book 'This is not a pipe.'. Heterotopias, similitude, ambiguities, cues/indicators and uncertainty are the word we found, and we were trying to define them how does that words work for our group. However we did not think few words do not really help to define our territory, because ambiguities, uncertainty and others could be just what art are. 

Mirrorcity was the exhibition we all visited. It was totally confusing exhibition, and I could feel curator want viewers feel like panic. It was very enjoyable, but I was totally exhausted after this exhibition. Introduction of exhibition said this exhibition is based on concept of London which is multicultural city. Various works were presented in exhibition. Even this diversity was the reason I spent so much energy, the diversity was also the key element to make me feel this exhibition interesting and enjoyable. 

There were 23 artists, and my favourite artist is 'Anne Hardy' (Picture above). He have done very simple work in this exhibition. Just put some wooden pieces of sculptures in the room which was limited to two people at the same time. That wooden pieces are miniatures of buildings in London. Actually I have noticed that wooden pieces are miniatures, I just realized that when my friend told me that in school after visiting exhibition. To be honest, I was not really interested in this work before knowing the truth of that wooden pieces. However, it became totally interesting thing when I just heard that wooden sculptures are kind of symbolizing buildings in London. After understanding kind of system which artist set up behind an art work, the art work become so much more interesting. And I think this is what I want to do in my art works through material process. I am trying to use various materials to make system, coding or whatever called something behind art work, and I believe that something I set up behind my art work will influence people.

TOP (2) : Material process

'Material process' is the name of group I joined. In the first impression of my group, I thought that our group is about illusion. And I did not really understand what 'Material process' mean is. 'Material process' and 'Illusion' were look like different words, but I think that I can find reason why 'Material process' is suitable for expressing my group. Actually 'illusion' could be an aspect of every art works. I think that most of art works is sort of illusion which is seen by viewers before knowing the truth how artists make or the reason why artists make. So illusion could be not enough to define my group. And I believe that this is reason why we call us 'Material process' now. Various materials were used for making tricks and illusions in our art works. And people should understand process how we use material.

So this is my process how I used few materials for my illusion. The first and the second picture, I just put glassescase on canvas, and just called them 'Painting 1' and 'Painting 2'. However people who watch this works can easily know this is not a proper painting. Even I just call that art work as painting, they will never think that works are paintings in the first seeing. However when people understand how I made a process for art works, they will kind of understanding why I called them 'Painting.' even they do not think that works are proper painting. Which is just like understanding system to use or code to use. I do not think people have to understand process to know why I called them painting. Having question 'These are not proper paintings, why does he call them painting?' should be enough to enjoy my art works.

Discovering words 'Material process' is the most interesting thing for me in this TOP unit till now. Different way to understand my art works myself is making me possible to define myself more clearly.