Yoon Suk One: Run Silent, Run Deep
CHAPTER II is delighted to announce Yoon Suk One(b.1983)’s solo exhibition, ‘Run Silent, Run Deep’ from 12th January to 24th February in Yeonnam-dong, Seoul. Yoon generally describes conflicting yet connected two aspects of the world such as individuals and society, memory and record, and the present and the past. In this exhibition, Yoon Suk One attempts to convey his private experience and contemplation on his working circumstance for the recent one year in an unfamiliar theme, 'submarine.'
He attaches subjective emotions and memories onto objective factors based on materials ordinarily recorded and collected. In terms of techniques, he establishes virtual sections and delicately illustrates targets, however, what ultimately governs his canvas is exquisite harshness triggered by drastic and explicit strokes. It not only arouses an effect of abstraction in parts, but also obtains a sense of balance which does not break moderation in the entire form. He completes surfaces with particular low tone colours tinted with purple by sensitively applying afterimages of light and shade. In result, multiple layers of several sentiments are stacked up on these picture planes.
Especially, circular imageries are overlapped in this piece whose leitmotif is a submarine, since submarines possess a cylindrical space whose front part is spherical in order to withstand water pressure. This is completely different from varied quadrangular shapes of general living spaces. As the work demonstrates, in a submarine, there are diverse devices in circular figures such as clocks, compasses, depth indicators, inertial navigation equipment, thermo-hygrometers, periscopes, various kinds of hatches, valves and screws. It is the reason why Yoon draws a variety of circles when he depicts the interior of a submarine.
Yoon coincidently watched a film, <Das Boot> which portrays thrilling situations in the German submarine during the World War II. At that moment, he encountered a reflection of himself who was coming and going between his studio and residency while he witnessed the lifestyle of submarine crew exploring along with valleys and water course of the deep ocean depending on limited information source acquired from a periscope and sound wave in an extremely narrow and closed chamber. Thus, Yoon who had had an experience of moving around several studios after finishing graduate school, found a similarity between the phycological state of the crew and his feeling aroused in an isolated studio. As the tragic marine incident happened in Argentina suggested, poor surroundings where crew are placed in jeopardy and accidents have not improved even in the present era. They can not avoid not only endless waitings and tension from emergent situations, but also loneliness caused by their isolated and enclosed circumstance. This also mentally analogous to artists who indulge in only creating works in a studio. Besides, the significantly low survival rate of the crew treated in the film is connected to artists' agony in which they cannot predict how many their contemporary fellows would remain in the future. The life of artists caught in the functional relation among competition, survival and sustenance makes spectators to even get the chills when they wonder what kind of other things are lurking in the artistic process except traits of purity and dignity of creation.
Yoon Suk One mentioned, “the everyday of artists is similar to floating in the midst of the ocean”. As a submarine travels in the vast sea, putting up with water pressure in isolation, artists's life is situated in the resembling position. There might be a great number of artworks being submerged somewhere like a submarine sunken under the water. Moving from one studio to the other, and proceeding for new practice are interlinked with the departure of a submarine for a battle. As the submarine crew affirms their determination before sailing, Yoon will persistently try to achieve his purpose and meaningful consequences during the new voyage waiting for him. We expect that viewers who would visit this exhibition attain a certain recourse and motive to take a journey heading anywhere in their life.
Yoon Suk One has presented his practice at numerous exhibitions by major galleries including Gallery Baton, Seoul Citizen's Hall, Culture Station Seoul 284, Seoul Arts Centre and ChapterII. He clearly stands out in the emerging artists group; he was a selected artist by the 37th Joongang Fine Arts Prize and the 18th Danwon Art Festival; he attended as a resident in various art residencies―Cheongju Creative Art Studio, Gyeonggi Creation Centre and ChapterII. In addition, his artworks are included in several collections of establishments and corporations such as Art Bank by the National Museum of Contemporary Art and Danwon Art Museum.
