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Art
and plants growing together
Jeon,
Won-gil, Artist/ Director of Alternative Art Space Sonahmoo
These
days, nature has become more than just a object to be expressed, but the artwork
itself. Natural objects such as stone or water, live creatures such insects and
animals and natural phenomena functions approach the viewer in its form of art.
Everyday things and natural objects were shown to us as an artwork itself but not
as an object for expression since a long time ago. Therefore, indoor and outdoor
works just using natural objects cannot be called as a new name for new style art.
But we can find the contents and the specific area of the art named as Nature art,
if we pay attention to it's unique differences of connecting with nature and
understanding the meaning of the artwork by relating with nature.
Korean
Nature art, which is recently beginning to gain recognition, has a different attitude
from western method developed in Art in Nature. We can see regularized Korean Nature
art works from Yatoo members works working continually since the 1980s in Gongju
Geumgang. Especially, 1980s works which developed specific methods of this kind
of work, mostly exist only by documents but we can see that they tried to find the
possibility of a new art which suggests nature to exist as an art state in a moment.
They made art works with every phenomena and order of nature and untouched natural
objects and it is such artworks that makes one think about nature and artists themselves
looking at their works. This kind of artworks are done through minimal intervention.
And nature is not just nature, it is included as an art state, also people enjoy
the meaning through nature itself and at the same time people feel the impulse of
imitation.
We
could say Nature art expands the grammar of Conceptual art in unexpected ways in
the nature, and opened the possibility that nature directly operates in an
art work and in audiences' minds. So to speak, people can understand Nature
art which is conceptual because the general principle(natural phenomena; shadow,
water flow, wind etc) of nature is working in the center of the work, instead of
art history and the process of aesthetic discussion. But I don't think it's a good
idea for Nature art to stay in one place and just point at nature with artless and
naive mind. In order for Nature art to be aesthetically distinguished and to expand
into new areas endlessly, the distinctiveness should be enhanced and also the creativity
of making various other types of it should be premised. Also, I think that Nature
art can renew the value of itself by mixing various methods of contemporary art
and specific ideas and methods achieved by Nature art.
II
Art
Farm Project is planned to adopt Nature art as in using ecological phenomenons in
art works through long periods of time. It is a special project which is difficult
to be planned by other galleries or museums in the city, but can be tested by the
'Alternative Art Space Sonahmoo' located in the country side. Through this exhibition,
nature and art exist together for a period of time. The meeting of art and plant
is accomplished by earth, sun and plant. The meeting is not made at a brush.
The
process of sprouting, growing, blooming and fruit-bearing are usual nature phenomenons
which we are used to. Works in the Art Farm are adopting this growing phenomena
to art works, so nature and art meet every day in new ways and the contact itself
is also art.
Some
of the artists had seeding performances, explaining their works to artists whom
are attending this project together and audiences.
Artists
could not take care of their works everyday. Artworks left from artist and turned
to the nature.
The
whole process of growing, blooming and fruit-bearing is recorded by photos and are
exhibited through the web-site. Now plants which were harmonized with art work will
be gone to the earth when the cold wind blows but the seeds will be born again as
new artworks.
Artists
also did indoor works exhibiting their works such as photos which recorded the process
of outdoor works and other ideas related to original works. It is for creative ideas,
destroying the border of inside and outside. Nature art went out from the closed
indoor mind, however now we declare that it is the time to re-expand Art Farm Project
is not only possible in gardens and yards.
It
is also possible in cities where boxes or pots are usable. If little individual
Art Farms link together, and if the 'Art and plants growing together' project become
realized, Art and nature can grow into people lives and will bloom as a beautiful
flower in their minds. 2006. 9 Art Farm in Oyanggol
Park,
Bong-Ki
The
food table underneath the zelkova is a Park, Bong-Ki's work called "Food and
Me".
As
seen in the title, he is showing food, himself and the survival of all human kind
quite humorously.
It
seems he chose the famous Ansung-mat-chum(a korean expression for 'just the right
thing' which originally described the An sung's brassware) brass ware to involve
the local symbol into his work.
He
put the old looking dishes on the black stone plate(the dish and the plate have
holes to let the soil go through to the land.
On
the table, he planted rice, cabbage, reddish, cucumbers and crown daisys. The growing
vegetables will make his table abundant, then finally dry up and die. However the
meaning of the full, rich table of food will always be in our hearts. 2006.5
The
'Food and I' worked and the dishes were beautifully full of sprouting and growing
plants. However because of it's narrowness, no more vegetables were able to grow.
As for cucumbers, just one of them were left and the rest were thinned out. We did
provide some manure to it, however it seemed like it was too late to plant them,
so it didn't bare many cucumbers. Cucumber leaves changed color from the bottom,
and only the top few were left green, however now, everything has dried up and lost
it's color naturally. The golden cucumber is welcoming the Autumn season with the
new cucumber seed that will grow beautifully in the future. 2006.9
Kim,
Do-myung
He
made Koreas traditionally jars with corrugated cardboard and planted variety of
weeds and vines reminiscing about his childhood. His work making many layers of
cardboard and making the delicate, smooth shape of jars could be seen as the continuation
of his indoor work. Considering the very hard work he put into to make these jars,
it feels inconvenient to let it disintegrate in the nature, however the artist has
so intension to stop it. He is wanting it. 2006.5
Kim,
Do-myung's jars showed natural degeneration. The amount of plants that sprouted
were less than we thought. The later planted seeds grew well and covered the paper
jars, and cosmos and peach blossoms bloomed in many colors. After getting wet by
the rain and drying many times, the faded paper jars are in peace leaning to the
ground. 2006.9
Ko,
Seung-hyun
Ko,
Seung-hyun used iron rods and blocks of wood and made a structure accentuating the
shape of morning glory, and he planted the morning glory seeds collected from a
crack of his neighbor's fence. He built a new space for lovely morning glory which
was blooming deliciously and plentifully in neighbor's house even put down roots
between narrow breaks. 2006.5
We
were in doubt if Ko, Seung-hyun's morning glories were going to grow to the top
of the iron structure. The artist were also worried about the hot summer sun, and
how hot the iron will get from it. However it grew well and bloomed many purple-pink
flowers. At first it was slow to grow because of lack of nutrients, but after giving
it some manure it grew and covered the whole structure. 2006. 9
Yang
Tae geun
Yang,
Tae-geun made a cow with stainless steel. The cow had eyes decorated by flowers
and it was big as a real size cow, also impressive is how it gleams in the sun.
The
cow has many holes and eats its pasture with its whole body. The plants grow and
end up in the cow's belly. The liveliness of the plants makes the stainless steel
alive. What are those strange animals that are following the cow? They have one
body but has heads both sides or no head at all. Those animals shows the artists
hope to heal everything polluted in the world with nature's life force. 2006. 5
Yang,
Tae-geun's cow and his strange animals are healthy with the fresh grass, guarding
the Sonahmoo's yard. The vine covers the cow and the grass that grew straight into
the cow's belly looks splendid. The strange animals were hidden in the tall weeds
all summer and now shown after cutting the grass.
The
cow that shows its body gleams in the sunset is still unfaded and bold. 2006. 9
Kim,
Hae-shim,
Kim,
Hae-shim's "Appreciation of Clover" could be explained as the only work
that used the site directly. Although the farms owner had been trying to get rid
of the clovers since few months ago, she made it an artwork nonetheless. She talks
about how clover is a symbol of trinity and how it provides nitrogen, and that it's
a national flower of Ireland.
She
chose the clover because it is meaningful, beautiful, fun to play with and poetic.
She invites people to a mound that's shaped as a long 'S'. She hopes that people
sit there and appreciate the clover, looking for the lucky four leaves and making
rings out of them and giving it to their loved ones.
2006.5
Kim Hae-shim
Hae-shim's
clover area is still green. It would be so all through winter. Despite the expectations
that the clovers would cover the small hill and make it comfortable, it has made
itself stable on the grounds they were planted in. How many four leaf clovers are
there? Everybody looked for good luck however it didn't show itself easily.
2006.9
Jeon Won-gil
Won-gil's
work begins by making a wooden frame and making a furrow with his finger, then planting
green onion seeds in it. The neatly made wooden frame becomes a place to concentrate
on the artists intention. The soft surface of the soil is like a canvas. He shows
a drawing performance, presenting it as a artistic attempt to plant the seeds. 2006.5
As
time goes by, the seeds that had sprouted showed a very fresh ecological drawing.
While the green onion grew, the weeds were also getting crowded, and after thoughts,
the artist made the places for the weeds on the four corners. I pulled out the weeds
that were planted on the corners. Part of the soil were destroyed by the heavy rain
in July, however no major problems. The clear marks of hands and the lines that
were visible have grew to become unrecognizable. 2006.9
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