L'Attente
Son, Seock
October 10-23, 2007 / Insa Art Center

Play of Tactile Vision and Paradox of Images

Kim, Young-Ho
(Art Critic and Professor at Chung-Ang University)

The works of artist Son, Seock give visual pleasure to viewers. If we shift our point of view to the left or to the right of one of his paintings, we can experience its colors changing like the skin of a chameleon. According to the point of view, the images in the work disappear, or cause the illusion that they are escaping from the picture-plane and floating in mid-air. The visual pleasure we experience from the paintings of Son, Seock is created in response to the conditions of our own movements. The intervention or participation of the spectators is not only the premise for understanding the relations between the image and the background, but is also required for enjoyment of the magical effects. The changes of colors and disappearing of images according to the movement of the eyes is comparable to the technique of Rayogram in photography.

The works of Son, Seock belong to the realm of the visual senses; the effects, however, are tactile. The picture-plane, covered with numerous dots to resemble a rough cement surface or villus, stimulates the viewer's eyes. From the side, the multiple layers made with small amounts of paint lumps resemble a sediment accumulated for many years. This unique work of stacking paint shows the accumulation of a great amount of time and effort in his work. Meanwhile, the lines that divide the picture vertically, as if they were drawn with a ruler, suggest that the layers of paint are not based on random, repetitious behaviour, but on reasonable rules and mathematical calculations. By arranging subject matter such as elephants or ceramics on such a tactile surface, the artist induces an organic connection between plastic form and the image. To make the organic connection is to establish a relationship among the tactile background, the wrinkled elephant's skin and the crack-covered porcelain surface. It is then that the structure of the tactile picture-plane is linked to the surface of the painted image and evokes a third sense out of the harmony of the painting and the subject.

While the work of Son, Seock begins from visual play, its significance is transferred to the question of perception of being. This suggests that even though he is painting forms of pots and animals, he is really attempting to portray the signs of the world. In other words, his work contains a system to overturn logic, which follows the organic exchange and intervention among heterogeneous elements in his paintings, or creates diverse meanings as the elements clash. The painting of a vase that is not a vase, and a painting of an elephant that is not an elephant is the art of Son, Seock. The artist's painting, which changes in color like a chameleon according to the movement of the viewpoint, possibly reflects the perspective of the artist on the world. Or perhaps it is a reflection of the perspective of our times: that everlasting, absolute being no longer exists.