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The Gestures of
Resistance and the metaphor of Non-resistance
written by Kim,
Ok-real (Curator of Post Gallery)
The works of Park Chel-ho
are powerful. His works have the power of silent resistance. He says "I don't
take art as an unfolding of historical phenomena but as a process of evolution.
And the changes of nature is the most important source out of which the life of
art evolves." From his remarks, we can fine a clue to understand his works. He
efforts to find the fundamental essence of life in ever changing and ever
becoming nature at many removes from the reasoning for market of capitalism and
the reproduction of images. He frequents the Upo swamp to seize the reality of
life through the experience of earth, to escape the abstract ideas. In this
exhibition, his new series of works bring up the problems about the identity of
life.
In <work-1>, he seizes the serious crisis of
Life. The composition of picture with charcoal suggests the serious crisis of
life. The shape of bird has dual meanings; the one, the warning against the
crisis of human life and the other, the resistance to the disruption of nature.
<work-2> and <work-3> show that the crisis of bird's life
is directly linked to the crisis of our lives. In <work-2>, the scratching technique with
knife, which expresses the suffering of bird, achieves the expression of subtle
inner voice.
<work-4>, expressed by the technique of dry
point, gives the impression of coldness and dryness. The coldness and dryness
figure the silent resistance, as more powerful resistance than any other
resistance. In this work the silent warning against the crisis of environmental
pollution is expressed in the metaphor of non- resistance. Moreover, the fixing
shape of a falling bird figures the silent and still resistance, the resistance
through non-resistance. Compared with the restrain of silent resistance in
< work -
4>, the flexible line and movement of <work-5> and <work-6> strengthen the variety and vitality
of works.
<work-7> and <work-8> suggests the crisis of the
ecosystem using the lithographic technique. The birds that try flying for food
on the dirty river and black earth visually outcry their pains. The artist, Park
Cheul-ho, by the means of the metaphor of non-resistance, communicates the
message that we, human being, can not survive on the earth where the birds can
not survive.
Finally, <work-9> and <work-10> in which the artist attempts the
plastic variations, lay great emphasis on the dynamic plasticity and ideological
figures. Especially, <work-9> in which the crossing of black
plane and white plane figures the complex duality of despair and hope, extends
the significance of self-discovery to the insight of the life crisis and the
perception of life.
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