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Alchemy of Spirit |
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JinSup Yoon |
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I. He lasted for thirty years on this point. The word 'lasted' is appropriate as his work was formed as ceaseless stem of work which continued to the present day, despite a lack of understanding among the public. Seungtaik Jang's works, which we can only call 'empty paintings', are a procession of unremitting questions about the essence of paintings. Although we can read his art as the extension of outdated modernist paintings, he undauntedly continues experimenting in his paintings in spite of those misunderstandings. Such key factors of the painterly experiment are expressed well below: "Light and colour are basic elements of art, but these become absolute elements in my art with a semi-transparent medium. My work's true meaning is revealing the mind through the actualization of materiality by accretionary transparent colours and circulation of light." In the above note, the most important keyword is precisely 'mind'. To Seungtaik Jang, the meaning of mind is something that you cannot quite pinpoint, like a non-material substance. The mind, which is constantly working but cannot identify its substance, imprints him as thinking being; in other words, as a subject which feels and expresses joy, sorrow, love and happiness. His work clearly shows that the artist is only human, and a subject of emotions and nothing else, and further emotional discharge is found in paintings. For that reason, the human mind as a subject of thinking cast him as a dreamer. This is rather close to the realm of poetry, and the world that he wants to reveal is, so to speak, a world of flame. "If a dreamer of flame talks to a flame, he is talking about himself and he is a poet." ² As we know, Seungtaik Jang is not a poet. However, his working attitude is close to that of a poet in terms of his dreaming. His pithy language, moderate attitude towards his work, his metaphors associated with his colours, his neutrality of materials, etc. are the factors which bring his art close to poetry. In this sense, if we can call his art an 'alchemy of mind', his direct thoughts about objects are melting materials into physical objects and transforming them into transparent substances. That is because artists, after all, are people who talk about themselves. Furthermore, unless an artist is not a machine, an artist cannot break out of this boundary even if the artist tries to express ascetic language. This fact is a permanent restraint and the fate which is given to the artist.
II. When we look at it from that point of view, Seungtaik Jang's working attitude seems close to those of Dansaekhwa Artists, Park Seo-Bo, Lee Dong-Yup, Jung Sang-Hwa, and Choi Byung-So, who were trying to reveal a unique spirituality through their repetition of action. As we know, the artists mentioned above all try to melt mind into their materials through a physical penance. At least, Seungtaik Jang's working attitude has something in common with the first generation Dansaekhwa artists' attitudes in terms of 'mind'. However, while Park Seo-Bo, Jung Sang-Hwa and Choi Byung-So's works emphasize materiality formed by repetitive action, Seungtaik Jang's works have a completely different texture in terms of using a smooth surface as a key factor. In what point of view are they different? First of all, it is about the aspect of the materials they use. In recent years, Seungtaik Jang's material has been flexi-glass. This material, which is a sort of synthetic resin, is specially made for the artist and used for the replacement of canvas. This reminds one of rather a wide and large box than a canvas.³ Seungtaik Jang lays this wide box shaped object on his work table and applies acrylic paints which are diluted with a special medium with a spray gun. At this moment, thin paint liquid flows down to the sides and forms a series of marks. These various-coloured paint liquid marks, formed through a twenty times repeating process, bring a subtle colour difference and a laminated effect. Seungtaik Jang is fascinated by these corner parts and he believes they are an important factor of his work. When diluted paint liquid get sprayed onto a flat object by a spray gun, it is a pleasure to imagine the process of the fine particles of the paints settling onto the surface lightly. (In reality, they come down very slowly by the flow of wind and sometimes they come down like they are dancing). He has to wait as one colour gets sprayed onto the surface till it dries, and he has to go through applying different colours twenty times like that. Then, a lamination layer of paints gets formed at last. If we compare this to language in everyday life, we can say these corners' expression is talkative. That is somewhat 'chatty' when compared to the depth of silence of the surface of completed work. At a glance, these various visual effects of the corner parts look nothing but sediments of single colour from the front of the object. However, these are mementoes that prove paint layers onto this thick object, which corners have a curved finishing touch, and have gone through repetitive action dozens of times. Paints are harmful for the human body sometimes, so the spraying work which is happening in a closed space covered with a vinyl tent, is bound to bring about physical pain. As the most extreme work using body is like that, the artist is bound to have various complex thoughts, though there is a time when he concentrates when working. In that sense, the fact that art work is an epitome of life might be a permanent truth. When the artist is working, the artist's life is being brought to work.⁴ Seungtaik Jang commented "Life is scary." The American abstract artist, Mark Rothko, killed himself after painting a red abstract painting. Moreover, when a visitor expressed the feeling of sadness after seeing his paintings, he remarked that what the visitor felt was right, exclaiming how the visitor felt a sad feeling from a simple abstract painting painted with two to three colours. Then, one could possibly feel a fear of life from Seungtaik Jang's simple colour object. The body quality that can be felt from Seungtaik Jang's object art work, in other words Mom-sung, comes from the depth of his paintings. His object is not only a product of spirit but also extremely physical in terms of a weak body performing painful and difficult work directly. However, the lamination layer of paints formed through repetitive physical labour has an effect of alchemy of the spirit embedded. Further, such a spiritual effect involves dreaming a dream consequently. According to Bachelard again: "A dreamer extends language by enlarging the world, the destiny of the world and by meditating the destiny of flame. It is because he expresses the beauty of the world. By such aesthetic expression, the soul itself becomes expanded and elevated." As Bachelard commented, Seungtaik Jang's work is a product of fantasy. When he applies the spray work repeatedly, he cannot help falling into fantasy. According to Bachelard ⁵ about this secret action, he is expanding his language by meditating on the destiny of colours. It is because he is the man "who expresses the world's beauty." Seungtaik Jang is melting the mind in the substances through the repetitive work of spraying the layers of his various preferable colours. This chemical reaction happens in the process of evaporation through spraying paint liquid and the settlement and hardening of the evaporated paint particles on the surface of object. It is the artist's alter ego, and part of the mysterious nature that art works have. This is the aspect of the 'alchemy of mind' which I am describing.
III. "The most important thing for Seungtaik Jang is that he did not undermine looking at the soul in a still condition. In this, each emerging exterior and sensitivity of light are expressed through moderation. Light does not merely exist as a sensitive element, but includes inspiration and intelligence. In other words, it is based on life, death, and existence. Such light is an ordinary light from everyday life and also a special light through art work. This natural light from the form on the base of a flash fascinates reality. These are materials and spirits found on Seungtaik Jang's surfaces." Bachelard's well known term, 'material imagination' obtains its basis of existence through light. Painting's one crucial element, light, is a medium which makes humans perceive objects as objects. If there is no light in the world, we won't be able to perceive objects as objects. Light exists but it also does not exist. However, we get to perceive the existence of objects through light. Therefore, Bachelard's 'material imagination' is exactly an 'imagination that gives life to material factors'⁶. The reason why Seungtaik Jang chose clear objects such as flexi glass instead of impermeable objects such as canvas may be this 'material imagination' It was surely personal taste why he chose this; on the other hand, the reason might be that he probably judged flexi glass as an appropriate object to give life to. Thus, his borrowed 'material imagination' brings out an inner chemical reaction which light through clear substances such as flexi glass interacts between the accumulated tiny acrylic particles on flexi glass. As a result, it is clearly Dansaekhwa when you view it from the front; the side of the object with curved corners are left with various traces of enchanting transparent colours. This is the reason why Seungtaik Jang emphasizes the sides of thick objects as a crucial factor of his work. In his case, the side of the object is more than just an unnecessary part of the art work according to pictorial convention, but is accepted as an active element of the painting. We need to pay attention to this point. Another thing we must observe in Seungtaik Jang's work regarding light is the nature of semi-transparent mediums such as flexi glass. As we all know, we consider as a phenomenon how the semi-transparency of flexi glass responds to light while colours are fixed onto the surface in case of canvas. Isn't this the real intention, in which Jean Louis Ferrier understood his work as a relationship between 'material and spirit'? When he commented, "Light has not only sensitive elements but also includes inspiration and intelligence. In other words, it is based on life, death, and existence", we can see this on stained glass in western medieval churches as light acts as the bridge connecting substance and spirit. Seungtaik Jang often uses violet colour, which brings out a holy feeling. That is also to do with expressing spirituality as we can see from that of Mark Rothko.
IV. In this, if we go back to the position of the material imagination, we can refer to the following insightful opinion: "We can surely feel the human's fantasy is an essentially material one. For example, if someone is born by the river, his subconscious is influenced by water and we can see that his childhood dreams as materialized by such a primitive thing as water. One's hometown is not an area, it is rather a substance. A person who is connected to this substance, such as their hometown, is dominated by his favourite image, one primitive feeling, and by a dreaming temperament by the roots." ⁷ When we look at it from that point of view, the umbilical cord of Seungtaik Jang's work seems to be connected to a certain substance which can be called sensitivity as its root. For example, let's savour the following: "The smoother raw fish is, the better. The tip of my tongue is tamed by that smooth texture. Also, the clearer raw fish is, the better. Filleting raw fish of smooth and transparent desire… However, my consciousness, which ingested the nutritive elements of these smooth and transparent desires, is self-righteous that much and has aggression without any reason at times. My consciousness comes in and out of the cold tub and hot tub of rage and cynicism." "Fear and curiosity, filleting raw fish in a contradictory dual structure is the true meaning of my art work."
"I dream to suffocate in your womb and to get silenced completely."
This sense of 'transparent desire' from Seungtaik Jang's art, in fact is an aesthetic characteristic flowing through his whole art works. His self-consciousness, which belongs to the realm of transparent and soft sense with a so-called neutrality of objects, gets exposed outside through material as the place of desire. When it happens, his various colours are represented as a symbol of various desire risen from self-consciousness's deep abyss. These colours are ultimately a duet of psychological defence mechanisms aroused from fear and curiosity, and these become agents for mean feelings such as rage, cynicism, self-righteousness and aggression. These crank down completely and go towards the shelter of silence, where he can sincerely hope. If we recall the fact that life is fear to him, the place he can go is "inside your womb" and what he has to do there is only "to suffocate in it and to get silenced completely". That agent of silence is the monochromatic surfaces when we look at his art from the front. This two-dimensional space can be a space of fear or can be a space of delight, depending on how you look at it. The important thing is that we identify his will that goes towards a universal point of certain beauty, burying every personal sense, memory, experience, material imagination under a monochromatic outer skin. He has a belief that "the most personal inner desire and expression of sensitivity can be most universal." The fact that we cannot feel too large or transcend things is the example of our limitation of experience. For example, we cannot guess the size of the universe or the Atlantic by experience. has a belief that "the most personal inner desire and expression of sensitivity can be most universal." The fact that we cannot feel too large or transcend things is the example of our limitation of experience. For example, we cannot guess the size of the universe or the Atlantic by experience. Bachelard commented: "If you want to figure out the shape of one person's belief, passion, ideal, thoughts, you have to handle as a property of certain substance among basic four elements (which dominates people), namely water, fire, air, earth." ⁸ In Seungtaik Jang's case, that is fire: "My art work is mostly made of fire and heat. There is no other element like fire among the four elements (water, fire, air, earth) which arouse fear, imagination and curiosity at the same time… Man’s discovery of fire… gave us our cooked food culture. That is a culture of softness. In spite of the power of fire which can burn, transform and extinguish everything, it has a purity so that no one can own it!"
"How many times we developed our so many dreams in front of a camp fire in a summer night festival, in front of brazier's flame on a long winter night, and in front of a candle of contemplation? I can feel the universality of 'inner resonance' that seems to run all through the centuries and jump over time and space. Thus, my work is to find this universal inner resonance and build it. Burning, blacken, boiling, melting, pouring, hardening, and melting again…"
As we can notice from above statement, we can say that his sensitive action is the language of the body for a mutual communication of 'inner resonance'. That postulates towards a universal point, ultimately. Archetypes embedded in his body language (Mon-sung) desires to meet a certain point beyond time and space. Allegedly, his various acts – burning, blackening, boiling, melting, pouring, hardening, and melting again - to find the name of universality implies an archetypal indicator of culture, which the human race pursues to find its lost dream. This is based on a material imagination revealed through a process of burning with fire and transformation. If Seungtaik Jang's work is an 'alchemy of spirit', it may be because of this aspect of culture.
1: For example, Clemente Greenberg's critical theory, which emphasized flatness as the canvas' existential character. Seungtaik Jang, from his field notes.
April 2016. Preface to the catalogue for the solo exhibition 'Colors' at Date Gallery |
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