What happened in the Garden of Eden that day? : Choong-hwan Koh > Review

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 I remember it as 1990 or 1991. At the time, I was living in a gallery. Back then, I was able to see the works of Young-churl Shim for the first time. To tell the truth, it was before or after that. I remember seeing the work in a nearby gallery, and it was a modeling work equipped with neon that glowed subtly in the dark. The light emitted by the round neon in harmony with the thorns probably symbolized the crown of thorns that Jesus wore on her head. In the exhibition held before and after this neon modeling work, the artist stacked Bible books in the form of a pyramid, and the space was surrounded by barbed wire mesh, and it seemed as though the horns of the stuffed deer were sparking fire. During the exhibition, the artist handed out Bibles to those who visited the exhibition hall. The pile of Bible as a pyramid probably symbolized the Exodus in Egypt, and the antlers of a deer that breathe fire through a barbed wire mesh symbolized the manifestation of a god who turned into flames without burning the thorns. Since then, in the artist's other works, God was incarnated as a pillar of cloud and fire. In order to protect his chosen people from the sweltering heat and scorching cold throughout the Exodus in Egypt, God manifested as a pillar of cloud and fire, respectively, and he led his own chosen people to a land flowing with milk and honey. Then, as you know, the milk and honey flowing in that paradise turned out to be none other than petroleum, and the irony of history is that the place ended up being the world’s most acute zone of conflict, as opposed to a paradise. 

 As before and for a long time after that, the artist was a messenger who delivered the message of God. Otherwise, it could be said that he was a shaman. As you know, the modern version of a shaman, who crosses the realm of the living and the dead, and mediates meaning and meaninglessness, is closely related to art. This exhibition, held in the form of a de facto semi-retrospective exhibition, was held to commemorate the 7^th anniversary of the Jeju Museum of Modern Art, and to reflect on the achievements of the artist's work, which have reached the 30 years-mark since he started working, and this exhibition was no exception. The artist usually performs installation and performance at the same time, and in this exhibition, he also held a performance. It dealt with the consciousness of original sin among the creational myths of Christianity. Here, the artist takes us to the Garden of Eden, where the consciousness of original sin first sprouted. As you know, this theater features God and Satan, and Adam and Eve respectively. Through the tree of knowledge, also known as the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the serpent (Satan) tempts Eve, and Eve tempts Adam. The voice of a god who rebukes desire is played in the background (hummed by the artist herself).

 This is the overall narrative, but a question arises here. Without the Fruit of Good and Evil in the first place, there would be no desire, temptation, punishment, or sense of original sin. Isn't it the same logic that prohibition begets desire, desire invites violation, and violation provides justification for punishment? So perhaps bans were predicated on punishment from the outset. Therefore, perhaps, the narrative of original sin may have brought humans into the battle between God and Satan. In other words, it may be that God's will to keep Satan under him (Satan tempts and God punishes) and the man's interest to subordinate women to him (women seduce men, and men rebuke women) may coincide. In a word, this represents the feminist position that both the creation myth and the consciousness of original sin were created by patriarchal ideology. Myths almost invariably contain narratives of these prohibitions and violations). Therefore, the creation myth that God's word (Logos, logic, and reason) was fulfilled, may be replaced by a subversive reading that in fact, there was a script to begin with. 

 While these events are taking place in Paradise on Earth, they are recorded and reflected in heaven. The artist introduces the prototype of stainless-steel in the Matrix Garden series, which is the main concept of his recent work. Then, she hangs a circle of the same material, and size in a parallel direction, up and down, left and right. In fact, infinite parallelism can be regarded as an arbitrarily limited case. Here, the stainless-steel sphere acts as a mirror that reflects the image due to its smooth surface. This is a dramatic moment in which we witness the creation of original sin (possibly manipulated and created) in Paradise, where the event is reflected and spread, engraved into each other's unconscious. I am your reflection and you are my mirror. I am an alter ego that reflects your original sin consciousness, and you are the other who reflects my original sin consciousness. 

 In Buddhism, an Indra net is a net woven of glass beads, through which existence reflects existence. I am your karma and you are my kite. I am your cause and you are my effect. So I am both me and you. It is an infinite reflection of existence and existence, which is an infinite chain, and a concept that is also connected with the theory of acting where you may meet again in whatever form. The artist's Matrix Garden is reminiscent of such web of existence. As we all know, the matrix symbolizes the womb of the universe. Some call it chaos, some call it a black hole or a white hole, and some liken it to a kaleidoscope that reflects images infinitely. What is reality and what is a symbol (image)? What is reality and what is shadow? Where is the reality of existence? These differing meanings and questions can be viewed as a concept that encompasses questions (in Foucault's way, it becomes a superior compared to similarity, and in Deleuze's way, it corresponds to the root of the root that derives rhizomes). 

 Thus, through the Matrix Garden, the artist must have wanted to talk about the mirror of existence, like a scene in a kaleidoscope, where I reflect you, you reflect me, and existences are reflected indefinitely. Here, if God reflects Satan and Satan reflects God, if men reflect women and women reflect men (a woman is the future of a man), would it be too big of a leap of logic? Would it be too much of a leap of imagination if we challenged the ambivalence of existence that good has potential for evil and that evil embraces good? 

 In this way, the artist's Matrix Garden opens into a womb of the universe and the kaleidoscope of existence. Perhaps Baudelillar's diagnosis, that we are already living in virtual reality as a reality, may be true. It may be true that the problem is only reflection and reflection (that reflects and that is reflected). Thus, the artist's Matrix Garden was a reflection of the Garden of Eden, of paradise on earth, of the promised land flowing with milk and honey, and a reflection of utopia. The Matrix Garden was a reflection of the Electronic Garden, the Electronic Garden was a reflection of the Monumental Garden, the Monumental Garden was a reflection of the Secret Garden, and the Secret Garden was a reflection of the Garden of Eden. Why was it a secret? Was there something unspeakable or hidden in Eden? Remember that there was an east side with the Garden in Eden. If so, where is the prototype of the reflection? Was there an entity worthy of being called a prototype in the first place? Or was it just a stereotype or a repeating variation of a repeat sign? 

 In retrospect, the artist's work was all about reflection. As were holograms, plasma, images, mirrors, and infinitely repeating beads made of stainless steel. Nowhere in the artist's work was there a tangible substance. However, there is only infinite reflection that reflects, and is reflected. In the promised land, in the land of reflection without the original form, in the kaleidoscope of endless reflection, Adam suddenly wakes up (somehow, like a nightmare). If the surface of the artist's work is a religious narrative, it is worth paying attention to this infinitely reflected play, or play that penetrates the surface and flows smoothly into the bottom of the work, or the layers of the unconscious. Somehow, the beauty of the artist's work may be gathered at the antinomy point where the strong and the insubstantial and the rare meet as one, like religious beliefs.