Park Chanoo - Stone
By Park Young-taik, Kyonggi University Professor & Art Critic

An oval stone is submerged under water. The stone, seated horizontally and resembling a gentle ridge in Korean nature, or the back of a sea-turtle, appears vague in color, maintaining its surface texture in silence. The stone looks like it has a lower-body bathing. The water level in the middle of the stone seems to divide it into two. With this the half of the stone above the water is slightly different from the half of the stone below the water, in terms of color and texture. This is a weird scene, created by a stone submerged under water. Only a stone (or a few stones) set in the middle is visible in the scene, made up of a low white square frame, a stone, and water. 

A stone placed in a completely white scene, the surface of water dividing the stone in two, and the shadow of the stone are only visible. The water is indistinguishable from the ground. This scene represented on the surface of photographic paper is skin; the realm of water and air; a sphere like a blank space in Oriental ink wash painting. It remains empty - blank space for imagination - and becomes a physical sphere where stone is a mark and onto which the stone is projected. However, photography blinds them all of a sudden, and evaporates all surrounding scenes: this scene, showing only stone we notice the stone is submerged under water only when looking with care) in a state where all associations with daily living spaces and specific things delete or lapse, is real but appears unfamiliar and weird. This weirdness derives from the whole background (except the stone) being tinged with white.

White is the color of the water as well as the photographic paper. That is, this weirdness is caused by a minimalistic, highly restrained composition stemming from a situation in which photographic paper as a foundation for a photographic image, blending with water. Some color - vague though - is applied to the stone's surface. This work looks like a black-and-white photograph, but is actually a color one. A sensuous scene is created here with simplicity although in a color photograph. Only the water's surface and the surface of the stone submerged under water bear color, implying a subtle texture. The part that is barely visible in the concealed scene exudes the last color seemingly dying out. This work displays a tactile sense, voluptuously. 

Park Chanoo has long been involved in advertising and commercial photography. He has expressed florid, sensuous designs and artful techniques to the full. One day however, a stone came into his view all of a sudden. He saw some stones by the riverside and seaside. They were submerged under water. The stones were not polished or processed artificially but made by nature or themselves. Their forms and colors resulted from inestimable lengths of time, waves, wind, and seasonal change. The surface of a stone is usually imbued with immeasurable invisible energy and a mood of mystic change. Park realized this energy in the stone. The stone has a spell transcending the level of all human sense, design, and art. It has an extremely simple, peaceful, and natural aesthetic sense. He photographs the stone from the front. Like taking identification pictures, he gazes and fixes the stone. As a photographer who has long worked in actual fields, he produces the photograph very sensuously and sophisticatedly. However, he tries to engrave an extremely natural stone within the photograph. As such, the photograph is marked by contradictory elements.

"On a spring day in 2008 1 discovered a stone at a riverside of Bonghwa, North Gyeogsang Province. Of course, I had seen many stones. At the moment I picked up the stone and closely scrutinized it, the stone aroused a much deeper resonance deriving from nature over hundreds of years than many objects, furniture, or designs I have seen, taking photographs for magazines or with a commercial purpose. The title is Stone. Those seeing my work consider the primary factor of my work as 'stone' but water could also be the main element. A stone may exude its own color when it meets water. Its shape is also designed by water over a long time. I thus intend to contain the stone as it is, minimally involving all photographic techniques, compositions, and design elements. My works are identification photographs of stone and water." (Artist's statement) 

It is said that lava gushed from a volcano formed a rock mountain, then earth molded for billions of years and turned to metamorphic rock, and a rock was abraded by water for billions of years and became an aqueous rock. The stone we are seeing now bears such time. The stone is thus old, aged, and eternal. Ancient people regarded stone as a symbol of longevity, immutability, silence, and fidelity. They wished to have sturdiness and determination as stone in lieu of their thin, light lips and frivolous mind. Stone has become a key factor in Oriental thought, symbolizing the virtue of the gentleman, immortality and immutability, silence and tranquility, profundity and coolheaded introspection. In addition, stone is a determined connotation of nature as the face finally left by time. The stone with solid material property is a metaphor for eternity, appearing superlatively elegant, simple, and dignified in a motionless, static state. 

Responding readily to the laws of nature, Park discovers a stone naturally worn by the force of currents, and encapsulates its unintentional image in photographs. He photographs the stone dipped under water. Its image is formed by water, and it appears beautiful with water. The stone and water become a pair. The stone under water and the stone outside water look like a decalcomania. The line the stone engenders coincides exquisitely with the line the shadow of the stone cast by water. The stone seems incised with the extremely thin water's surface. The stone's weight and volume, slightly pressing the water, whimsically touches the sense of viewers. The buoyancy of water and gravity inflicted on the stone, transparent space and outside exerted with air's resistance coexist. The stone lying between them is implicitly overlapped with human life. This is a metaphor for a human body undergoing ups and downs between reality and the ideal with an inevitable face carved by time. Park's stone photographs appear more brilliant in a restrained modeling sense, dazzling hue, and composition composed of minimum image and color