On Chanoo Park

A Perfect Transparent Frame

Noam Kim(Art Curator)

“During the Renaissance, Pope Benedict VIII sent an envoy to commission the painting of St. Peter's Basilica, receiving portfolios from several painters. However, Giotto only submitted a drawing of a circle. The envoy asked for other works, but Giotto said this would be enough, sending the envoy back, and the Pope entrusted Giotto with the painting of the cathedral after only seeing the drawing of a circle. This is where the story of Giotto's perfect circle came from, and many artists to come later such as Rembrandt made the attempt to draw the perfect circle.” - from artist's statement

 1

Are there any artists who do not sense their own existence? Everything began from there. According to existentialism, humans are beings thrown into the world for no reason. They are just individuals who are on their way to death. Existence itself is like the dizziness one experiences once aboard on a boat. It is to cultivate life in a fluid state rather than on a solid ground. In a world full of worries, it is difficult to think and express clearly because it is cluttered with so many ideas and images. Is it possible to disassemble the hours of the daily life composed of heterogeneous things and be rewarded with a moment of transparency where one can focus just on oneself? The more important the problem, the more we forget about it. When faced with such a question, one just laughs at it or thinks it is a pathetic one. The more important the question, the more artists are bound to be interested. Therefore, in the overflow of excessive sensual stimulation and images, we become more sensitive in seeking the image as a fundamental and prototypical element. Here, the frame appears as a mysterious technology. It is the technology of meditation for meeting and understanding the world. Images and frames are keywords.

1) A frame refers to a structure or system of reasoning that interprets and understands the objects and phenomena on the outside as human consciousness evolves. Once set, the engraved frame is almost impossible to change, so what at first functioned as a tool enabling clear understanding later generates preconceived notions which prevents one from adapting to the changing times and environment. In a broad sense, frame, as a tool that allows man to meet the world, expands into a highly sophisticated belief system along with the development of abstract thinking. In a narrow sense, it refers to the camera viewfinder or the external boundary of the image. When a subject enters the screen, it is said to be 'frame in', and when it comes out, it is said to be 'frame out'. In Chanoo Park's photography work, both 'frame in' and 'frame out' coexist.

Chanoo Park's intuition extracts the sentiment from objects and images encountered in everyday life and transfers them into the photographs. Like an alchemist, the artist mixes objects and images, liberating consciousness and unconsciousness. It appears that books (encyclopedias), letter images of printed texts, signs and symbols that surrounded the artist in his childhood made searing impressions in his unconscious mind like a tattoo. This had a profound influence on the artist's photography. It was remindful of a certain order and moral law like the letters recorded on the Ten Comments. The encyclopedic world in which all the objects and names that make up the world were engraved appeared repeatedly in a gigantic image. An oval boulder submerged in water in an empty white space and books and text images in blur motion are completely different subjects, but considering that the first book was written on stone, the boulder and the book can be understood as identical objects for mankind. The photographs of a round stone on which the records of nature which cannot be easily comprehended have been engraved along with its reflection in the water, and images of letters printed on books shimmering as if the world is dancing hint to us where the eyes of the artist are pointing.

What kind of encounter and what kind of trigger was the white object accidentally discovered in the forest? It corresponds to the mysterious object appearing in the movie <2001: A Space Odyssey>. A black object that suddenly appeared on the ancient Earth before mankind was born. The black structure, which can be thought of as a medium that promotes the birth of mankind and its evolution into a rational being, overlaps with the white structure in the ordinary forest in the photograph. In between, one can imagine a great tremor and tension. A white object thrown in front of us after crossing eons of time from a distant universe beyond our imagination is a metaphor protruding from our unconscious mind. It is a mysterious philosopher's stone. It is not us who create images, but rather it is the images that shape us.

There is a deficiency in images which cannot fully capture the whole of existence. Since we live in the time given to us, we cannot imagine outside that time frame.

2) Images have long been understood as shadows of reality, or fake reality. However, as Nietzsche deconstructed god and idea, all of our awareness and consciousness started to become understood as interpretations, and a combination of metaphors, and imaginations. The image is restored and, as a place where truth is created, it is ontologically elevated to the same status as reality.

 However, exceptionally, artists capture the will to go out of that time in their images. Since the image is in flux, it cannot be fully explained by logic and rules. In the eyes of rational reason, no matter how beautiful an image is, no matter how great the colors and shapes compose the image, there is a haze somewhere.

 2

“Frames are mental structures that shape the way we see the world... Frame is the window through which the photographer perceives the world. From the moment of shooting, photography work is about deciding where the subject begins and ends....”

- from artist's statement

Chanoo Park tried to capture the clear moments, clear to the degree that one can even see the moisture in the air, of text images pushed into the background of memories and traces of consciousness, and the unknown complete space where gravity has disappeared. The keyword ‘frame’ in this exhibition shows both the continuity and disconnection from previous works. Cutting, pasting, and creating new images are the same, but images that include both the inside and the outside of the frame aim for an ideal “complete” frame. In the process of placing an unknown object within the range of perception unchanged regardless of any circumstances, the frame is used like an alchemist's secret tool. Frames that connect the world and people are strength and a certain will.

On the other hand, frames are relative and smooth. The deeper the thought, the more delicate the senses, and the richer the emotions, the more flexible the perspective and frame of looking at the world. They can be round, square, or triangular. Frames of unknowable shapes are also possible. When one looks at the world and oneself, there are cases where one sets a certain standard or frame in advance, but some frames just spontaneously come to exist as one gets on with one's life. Frames can trap you but it can also serve as a stepping stone advancing you into the broader world in depth. The artist can meet the world through an aesthetic or aesthetic frame.

Expanding on the artist's idea, it is through a perfect frame that a complete reality (existence) can be reproduced as an image. However, a complete frame is like Borges' 'Aleph', where aesthetic metaphysics that cannot be experienced in everyday reality are possible in the world. The vision of this perfect frame, possible in the realm of aesthetic ideology, is like an instant flash of lightning. It is a complete frame that is allowed only to a perfect being who has suddenly become empowered. For imperfect everyday humans, it is a world that is always reachable, but the boundary can never be reached. Therefore, Chanoo Park's photography image is an instantaneous 'expression' in which the ideal frame visible in between moments in the reality of everyday life perfectly coincides with the world. His photographs can never become 'records'. A photographic image already contains a certain aspect of reality in which ideas and materials are fused. It is a record, an interpretation, and an expression at the same time. Therefore, it is outside the record limited to information or knowledge. Moreover, a photographic image containing an artist's personal experience and vision cannot escape the individual's point of view. A person cannot be both individual and universal at the same time. However, the image makes us feel a certain power to transcend these human conditions, like the way it metaphorizes the ontological paradox that the object in the photograph is absent in the present time of being looked at.

We are thrown into the world, but conversely, we can also throw the world away. The world of nature, free from anthropocentric thinking, is a world without frames. Frames are paired with the frameless. Throughout human history, the most fundamental cultural frame is probably language. Humanity has judged and constructed the world with the structure and frame of symbols and language. Through the first frame, civilization and culture were initiated by mankind discovering or inventing the world. However, artists try to escape the most fundamental and authoritative frame. They try to imagine, invent, and contact a world beyond one run by language. In the eyes of the artist, the existing world is not a complete reality, but a one that has been interpreted and edited and ultimately invented. Hence, it is merely an illusion.

3

“Artist Kangso Lee's work is about removing the framework he learned at art college.” - from artist's statement

Stones and water, trees and forests, reflected images. It is difficult to find a clear order and balance in a world where the movements of objects and concepts are intertwined. The artist imagines a geometric frame in a world where chaos and cosmos coexist. Clear air, clear space and a simple but sharp frame make up a bizarre reality. It is a bright shadow of another reality that is different from reality. The experience of infinite reality spans over the frame. Photography is a record, but at the same time interpretation and expression. Distinction between artistic and commercial photography depends on who the subject looking at the world is or where the subject is looking. However, it seems that at some point this distinction has come to matter less. Today, it goes without saying that photography is art. We are also aware that photography faces a crisis in the digital age, like the way artists panicked at the advent of photography believing it would be the end of painting.

Photography captures people and the world in it. It deals with the world observed through human eyes. Photography deals with images and desire. Desire is the desire of others and the taste of others. The shutter of the photograph is not pressed by the artist. It is pressed by a certain force caused by the desire of others. The artist is just a passage through which desires pass. However, this passage is not composed of mere material, but is itself a desire. The artist waits patiently for the right moment to capture the image. Although the form and atmosphere may differ depending on the times, regions, and the artist's tendency, it is not easy to find an objective in photography as contemporary art. A whole life has to be dedicated to getting that objective. This is because the movement is different or irregular from the desire of capital. If you ask whether we grow spiritually and cultivate our mind through artistic activities, most will answer yes. But what is considered clear evidence of it relies on conventional and preconceived notions.

Sometimes a special time, place, and light are deeply imprinted. Some see things that others cannot. He sees the deep layer of meaning, despite being under the shadow, behind the secret curtains of the world. To that person, the world is not singular, and all the worlds come together. A thousand worlds are metaphorized as one world. It crosses myriads of layers. At the same time, one can try to reconstruct the grammar of symbols and metaphors that operate in the mind of the artist. However, moments in daily life fade away. There is a world where the past, present and future all fuse into one. Such a time zone cannot be captured by language and grammar. It can only be felt indirectly through the movement of images, the constantly vibrating images.

Chanoo Park's photography analyzes, interprets, and newly reconstructs and reveals the surrounding external world, but the frame initially presented disappears and is replaced with another frame. And this replacement of frames is repeated forever. Discussing frames refers to the movement of creating and erasing the frames. Therefore, from a logical point of view, a frame is inherently virtual, and a series of virtual operations can be seen to connect the world and the individual and construct meanings. It calls for a complete return to oneself, free from the relationship of social reality. A restrained composition with abstract expression leads to meditation. It is as if one has finished one's secular life and exists in a different dimension of time. In his photography, there is a coldness and rigor trying to escape from all the lust and desires. In a world in which all things are in motion, the artist's photography finely demonstrates the deep sense of meditation-based photography.

3) The idea and image of passage of time from past to present, present to future is as old as human history. This strong system of beliefs began to disintegrate in the 20th century, and many artists were more fascinated by the idea that time is a fantasy. Time is not something that flows but moves in a very complex way, and above all, man cannot experience time as it is. Time is a form and abstract.