2003 Monumental Garden for the Future Environment
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[The Flowing]
Han Mee-Ae (Curator, Seoul Museum of Arts)
Everything incessantly changes its form, because this universe can exist eternally. The energy retains its existence by flowing continuously. If everything stands still without any action, then there would be no universe, no Earth, no human beings, and nothing. Therefore, to exist implies that energy flows in it, and the flow of energy means that something changes.
Nature dominates everything through the process of generation and extinction. If flowers bloom on a tree, they should drop soon. Without flowers, the tree cannot bear fruits, nor can it conceive life in the form of seeds. If you are attached to flowers, the withering flowers may be agonizing to you. Consider a big picture, then you will understand that the tree retains its fresh life force owing to withering flowers.
After all, we feel pain because we want to stay at one point, not knowing the flow of energy, or the flow of life. If we limit the flow of our life force to our short life, we are certain to undergo worry and agony all the time. Nature never stops its flow, even though we wish to stay.
Therefore, the meaning of every existence should be perceived in the process of generation and extinction of the universe, instead of its transient appearance. Considering this continual change as an element of formative art, Young-Churl Shim has daringly introduced elements of engineering into art and experimented them. Starting as a sculptor of constructivism, she stepped into media art with "The Gradual Emblem of Light" in 1983. She has provided us with alternative concept of beauty and a variety of visual pleasure in the "Electronic Garden" series since 1990. Recently, she undertook change to the "Monumental Garden," which employs wider artistic space, overcoming the environmental limit of the "Electronic Garden," which consisted of interior space only.
Shim's new attempt explores fundamental elements of this change. Her past works often combined abstract geometric figures such as circle, triangle, and quadrangle with holograms. This time, she investigates the source of change through the attributes of nature such as Water (Living Water) and Fire (Holy Spirit). For this reason, this work was selected, which gives a pleasant opportunity to contemplate the source of change from one form to another object.
Young-Churl Shim's works will give us an occasion to inquire into how she pursues her identity in the present situation, in which most boundaries of art are giving way. Her aspiration for transparent spirituality beyond material through video should be highly praised, and her incessant change of mediums reminds us of the Continual Change.
[ Artist Statement ]
I am the artist who maximizes communication through multi-channels. Using multi-channels means I use diverse media. With the hypothesis that a different medium communicates a different message, I have tried to develop a unique message of my own. The media I tried ranged diversely: From natural elements such as water, fire, earth, trees, stone, sand, salt, and grass, to mineral or commercial elements such as steel, stainless steel, glass and E.R.P., to ultra-modern like videos, holograms, and fiber optics, to objets like jars, candles and coins. These elements were incorporated to create a multi-artistic total environment, which covers sculpture, 3D, installation, painting, and performance. These media communicated through multi-senses of sight, hearing, touch, and smell.
After I held my first exhibition, <The Gradual Presentation of the Comb>, at the Art Center Gallery of the Korean Culture & Arts Foundation, I went to the U.S.A. While studying there, I was interested in how to apply media to message, and realized the fact that "Art is a spiritual work force which intends to communicate." The exhibition, <Jesus Loves You> (Dongsung Art Center), was my first attempt to apply the characteristics of media to communication.
My belief in God and experience of grace was visualized in this exhibition. <Human Beings, Where Did We Come from, Where Do We Stay, and Where Do We Go?> consists of works in water screen and multi-vision and made the audience experience the dialectical space through images. "He Supervises Death and Life" in <The Electronic Garden> for the Daejon Expo '93 was an interactive work, in which audience got satisfaction of the five senses through active participation. My works are centered on the ultramodern media such as video, holograms, fiber optics, and neon. However, these are mixed with the natural elements of water, fire, air, earth, salt, trees, and plants. <The Electronic Garden>, held at Total Museum in 1993, displayed works based on virtual reality, and audience could experience virtual reality in front of computers.
Since then, I broadened my view of the world from the Providence series <Providence-Aspiration, Ordeal, Resignation, the Meaning of Life, and Harmony (Sun Gallery) to <The Electronic Garden>.
Above all things, I intended that audience could appreciate the computer graphic images of the "Electronic Garden" as they wanted. In <The Electronic Garden> (Hyundai Department Gallery) and <Providence-The Beautiful He> (MANIF: Manifestation D'art Nouveau International et Forum, Seoul Arts Center), I visualized the human face by covering the whole floor with coins, and presented the sculptures in the shape of marble mushrooms coming out of the coins.
My works aspired for the Absolute Being more and more: In <Providence-Love Is Stronger than Death> (Gallery Artbeam), I expressed diverse images of the "Electronic Garden"-a work on a jar, painted ships and wooden sculptures, which symbolize the harmony of human beings or Noah's Ark. The performance of <Free Them and Let Them Roam Free> mirrored my faith.
In 2000, I made a relief-like electronic garden in the title of <Providence--Myth> for the exhibition in France (MAC 2000). <Providence--Misfortune Is Meant to Attain to Patience, Patience to Attain to Refinement, and Refinement, to Attain to Hope>, <Life + Peace + Light--Holograms of Korea: The Future of Light> (Seoul Museum of Arts), <The Electronic Garden--Eden>, <The Electronic Garden--Fantasy Space>, and <Pilgrim 2000> (International Performance Festival) were a series of my efforts, in which I destroyed the regulations which distinguished genres and media, and combined nature with technology.
They also reveal the total environment in that objets are harmonized, and time and space are synthesized.
Starting with the "Electronic Garden" in 1994, the beauty of Eden was presented in organically harmonized media--in the harmony between tradition and modernity, and between natural and artificial. These complicated media revealed the organic harmony of different colors, figures, functions and characteristics.
<The Monumental Garden for Environment> (Gana Art Center, 2002) is the total collection of combined media. I shifted from the previous project of total environment to that of monumental environment. I attempted to synthesize various media.
1) Hi-tech media: Projection of the image of Jesus / 3D image--the sea / Fiber optics - cacti / Holograms - Adam and Eve / Neon- A crown of thorns
2) General media: Steel--flowers, eagles / stone--sculpture, mustard seeds, eggs
3) Media of natural elements: water, fish, water grasses, lichen
I amplified the message through the resonance and regeneration between medium and medium, and between image and image of these materials. Twenty-one columns are installed in a semicircle in the area of 20mx10m, and the three columns in the center represent the columns of burning fire with the sea in the background.
My temple floating on the water--the carved columns--is an environmental monument, which can be staged anywhere--a mountain, the sea, a river or the desert. This environmental monument is where my faith meets art. The audience can always hear the sound of the sea, of the beating heart, and of the breathing. In front of the projected 3dimensional image of animated image of bleeding Jesus, they will see the message: Jesus is in my mind, and I am in his. This strong message is delivered by means of eyes, mouth, and sounds. The image of an artist who confesses her love toward God in love songs is rooted in my world of art.
Yes! My art is a love letter. And in this love,
I meet my fellow human beings and my God.
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