Son Hyun Seon : Standstill – Spin – Sphere
A ceiling fan is one of the objects given a certain symbolic signification regardless of their original functional purpose. It is generally found in the western dwelling style. It has been recognized as a typical configuration representing an advanced housing form of USA, as it often appeared in images of living rooms of the middle class, beach resorts or hotels in old downtown areas through films or other media. Especially, various adaptations of this object and transformation of its relevant meanings are evident in the film sector; it usually employed in order to show the shifts of situations, to suggest complicated emotions of leading characters, or to imply the stagnation or delay of the story; it is common and frequent to such an extent to be considered as a schematic symbol.
The reason why Son selected the ceiling fan as her main subject matter to achieve her artistic ideal is that she paid attention to not only the trajectories produced by the fan’s inexhaustible rotation on a consistent pace within a fixed section for performing its functional purpose, but also the versatility of the traces. The limit of human’s visual receptors only allows people to aware of 16 frames per second at most. Thus, our cognitive function could deliver imperfect information about objects moving at a speed over the limit. In this respect, the question whether Son’s series, ‘While Revolving Around(2015–2016)’ is comprehended as a mere representation of a ceiling fan or not, occurs. Some of the series reveal intact appearance of the object, whereas other paintings of it depict only grey shapes of semicircles which indicate the climax of the movement. Henri Matisse(1869–1954) mentioned, “Everything that is not useful in the picture is, it follows, harmful” in his essay, ‘Notes of a Painter(Note d'un Peintre 1908)’. He also pointed out that descriptions and arrangements of unnecessary images could lead a possibility of misreading the artist’s intention.
In the context of this viewpoint, depicting solely the spinning object located in the centre of the picture plane without any details of the background raises a suspicion that this painting manner may convey the artist’s aim to prevent the misinterpretation. This attempt is more noticeable in her series, ‘Like The Moon(2016-2017)’. Although shadows and sparsely exposed bumps in the painting suggest the direction of light projection, they do not give any clue for figuring out exactly what object is painted. It is intriguing that Son reduces the realistic aspects of paintings and she rather adopts them as a framework to extend her unique pictorial imagination by deliberately avoiding ‘Illustrative representations’. Since a ceiling fan and its ready-mixed concrete body operate according to their assigned purpose and speed, they do not obtain the reproduction which reflects spectators’ experiences. On the other hand, it opens up an opportunity for anything rotating to gain a status of ‘Idea’. In the group show, ‘We Are Going To Space: Cosmo Party(2016)’ at Insa Art Space, Son’s intention was certainly clarified. As the work’s title, ‘Like The Moon’ indicates, the imagery of ready-mixed concrete’s slot exemplifies the artist’s obscure imagination about cosmic revolutions embodied in craters of the moon. Consequently, it illustrates that the artist’s intention is able to concede an infinitely expanded notion to each image.
The exhibition, ‘Standstill – Spin – Sphere’ will offer an audience a great chance to appreciate a series of paintings by Hyun Seon Son who has constantly explored the expandability of paintings and issues about distinguishing and selecting targets of representation. It opens on 26th October at Chapter II.
Hyun Seon Son completed BA and MA degrees in Fine Arts at Korea National University of Arts. Son had a solo exhibition at Gallery 175 and she attended group exhibitions at multiple major art galleries including DOOSAN Gallery(2017), Hite Collection(2016), Shinhan Gallery Yeoksam(2016), Seongbuk Young Art Space(2015), and Gallery Nakai, Tokyo(2013).
