Critic by BAIK, Yong Sung (Philosophy, Aesthetics)
1.
The era of Aura definitely has come to a close. Therefore, art ought to endure all thickness of life now. However, emptiness is still exists. It caved in as a furrow likes a heavily dented crater or absolute subjective and mythic laboratory called ¡®Yuri¡¯[1]. However, what is this emptiness? It is the name of god, the name of commandments, the name of father and Phallus and taboo, so to speak it is a spot where bring mythic violence into question. It dramatized as personas of endless desire in deep inner world. Under ordinary and ragged life, blunt flow of desire flood us intermittently, depression become lower dark cloud on every scratched traces of wet dream and they cover the ground. The spot of depression is initiated from a distance, interval between here and there. We can consider it as separation between narcissism(Id, instinct) and sublime(God, superego). However the spot of separation is birth of it and a gap itself which is the birth take place.
The works of AHN Kyungjin are living in this gap. Review her previous works. Persona was suppressed, desire sublimates into a stain of sin. Superego is still dignified and changes of religious symbols are circling around rim. However, these work burrows into the gap and it seems to be a gap again which produces a gap in itself. Therefore, the image become a dual gap of form and shadow, creates a gap of light and eventually it reached to proliferate the subtle gap between both parties. Accordingly, these works establish a theater which dramatizes the feelings of scratching, tearing and removing of desires. Of course, brutality and imperturbability definitely exist here. And madness also. Something obscene, perverse and abnormal opens up its gap grandly. As Bataille stated, if eroticism taking religious smell on, it is in the very scene of it.
Have you ever wanted to see the scenery of fight? The bald characters which were caricatured humorously are tussling with each other. However it suddenly changes into a subtle scene and it change again into a passionate eros. Somebody who is trying to strike is metamorphosed into a woman. His head transformed into the breast reached to the climax and somebody being buried and attacked become a man. The excessive bulky breast is exaggerating and playing herself. The overthrow of the structure of men-activeness-actant-ruler, women-passiveness-accepter-victim is not simple. So to speak, man changes to woman, woman change to man, that is not the way of it. Such a simple overthrow means the only change of place, and its position, and the relation of position would be ever fixed. Therefore, there is no gathering point of the transformation of the sceneries. All the more, the point of striking of <Eros and Pathos> is definitely the fixity of this position. Irrational wandering and crossing without knowing gathering. Something makes this relationship unstable continuously. And something creates diffusion of modification. It evokes subtle smile. We simply face that bark of fixed relation is peeling off. It shakes the genealogy of eros based on violence-domination-sacrifice. This is the sequent effect of brutality. The metamorphosis which was created by obscene and perversion is the creation of this unfixable modification.
Have you ever wanted to see anensnaring snake? The cubic effect of two wiggling snakes which are biting their heads mutually is muscular as an erect penis and it tucks lubriciously the union between male and female that reached the climax in. Furthermore, <Eve> still reflect the shadow of seduce. What is original, simulacre of original and shadow? Only simulacre and play of illusion are rampant. Overthrowing of form and shadow, reversing into a part, and projecting is forming a phrase of essential erotic art. And there is Gestalt crossing between the nature of nobility, sincerity and pureness and the nature of obscene, perversion and brutality. Such crossing usually stand out remarkably through 「Pray」, and 「Original Sin」, 「Tree of Buddha」. The shape of apple is heart from above as a banal symbol of love, on the other hand, it symbols also apple bitten off by someone, that is, seduce of Eve and violation of Adam in profile. However Gestalt shape intervenes in there. Displacing the shape of bitten off into background, the shapes of two obscure characters (two men, or a man and a woman) are exposed by Gestalt. How about 「Pray」? On the surface, there are hearty kiss of sweethearts and the shape of pray-Gestalt is exposed. However, what is the uvula (Adam¡¯s apple) and belly that seem pregnant talking about? The sanctity of pray is crossing as if being ridiculed by obscene figuration there. Tree-Buddha weaves the Gestalt relationship between nature and God escaping from innocence and obscene. A leafless tree reflects only itself however it already embraces Buddha. So to speak, it embraces only emptiness however Gestalt of Buddha already permeates into there.
2.
Audiences frustrated by seeking of meaning of artworks everywhere. ¡°What is the symbol for? What is the meaning for? or what is expressing for?¡± – Who speak these questions? Who tell that what art work would be like? Perhaps, these discourses and critics on art always supports the shape of ¡®Father¡¯ likes Big Brother or only take up the part of footnotes.However, from the shape itself, reflected shadow and the relationship between both parties in the works of Ahn Kyungjin, the meaning seems sinks into an unreasonable circuit. Perhaps, this is the fate of art to be. So to speak, it is pursuing to the extreme point of dehiscence of meaning and accelerating workout of __EXPRESSION__ until the following meaning become meaningless. Accordingly, it is removing immediately the highbrow question that what is the meaning or meaningless and dragging something out from workout of meaningless. As Deleuze stated, although the workout of sensible and affective blocks, if art is a mode of thought, the field which is able to meet philosophical thought is that of non-sense. The field of non-sense means denying every existences or obstinate disapprove or suspense. Not by return to ¡®Father¡¯ or God Father and obligation through inner projection, creation of new enforced workout and delightful obey are important.
Therefore, we ought to capture the whole durability from basic nature of the outrageous and devilish ocean floor even to sublimated human. The shape which was projected on the screen becomes the shape of superman. Does the distances between fishes are foreseeing superman and that mouths desire two hands of superman, after all, the bodies dream the wing of superman? Although having dancing vertigo, it is unavoidable. The evolutive distance between the fish and superman is dizzy. However, it is not an old-fashioned story of empirical evolution theory. There¡¯s no such epibenthos or superman in the world of experience. This is the matter of desire and dream of nature which make evolution theory available. When we feel that all the two dimensional nature is disgusting, we tremble with itching of existence. When the law, taboo, given harmony and beauty which being embraced by the two dimensional nature don¡¯t say a word, meaning dream meaningless then.
Therefore, the problem is to crystallize the basic nature and power into an image. If art tries to be a gesture of denying against everything, it ought to know how to give orders of sudden stop, frozenness and suspense. If brutality and madness are really existing, they are nowhere but these actions. A thing that is able to be called violence of God, or a thing that is able to be called birth of authentic thoughts or to be a true death if it is wanted.
* * *
Now, artwork (poiesis) is not defined as just only produce individual work (ergon), but it shows the foreboding of return to praxis. This means it is not only by the method of generates work-product but also enters into the field of work-accept in order to be judged and evaluated (how much boring closed circuit it is!), but also it is something more, so to speak, the action that open the forum in itself taking precedence over art, the action of return to the power of basis nature, and the action that flashes around desire and dream which are existing dimmly in our inner side and is becoming a symptom of them.
[1] The name of the village which is the main background of PARK, Sang-ryung¡¯s novel <A study of Death>