포스트 - 프로토타입: Alex Chaves, 김미래, 전가빈, 정해진
According to an anecdote, when Picasso encountered drawings of the Altamira Cave, he exclaimed, “After Altamira, all is decadence”. His phrase suggests that an inexplicit standard of deciding superiority and inferiority clearly exists in the realm of Physioplastisch art which represents figures and creatures in nature. At the same time, it could be a candid acknowledgement of formative art’s limits in a circumstance where a scope of expression an artist can achieve is restricted and confined under many criteria for evaluation.
After Altamira, numerous representations of a bison have been produced. The original as an ‘Idea’ is unique, however, its copies are already innumerable and being replicated even now. Although attention to originality of images has remained in the field of art history, it has evidently reduced since the advent of Post-modernism and a large number of ready-made artworks ultimately has led an indifferent attitude towards the significance of originality.
When artists borrow existing artworks, psychological considerations they naturally take into account are paradoxically viewers’ remembrance and acknowledgement, because general spectators inevitably compare a represented image with its prototype which they are already familiar with through education or experiences. Thus, if the original work possesses a positive reputation, a representation of it has more possibilities of facing a critical viewpoint on its technical and aesthetic aspects. Nevertheless, taking these risks becomes a starting point to bring images of existing works back to the present stage. The original works usually are trapped in a stationary state by maintaining its given fame and praise without critical threats. In this context, the emergence of imitations opens up new ways of criticism, builds diverse discourses and triggers a new level of interaction.
The exhibition, ‘Post-Prototype’, will provide an opportunity to discover how four artists, Alex Chaves, Mi Rae Kim, Ka Bin Jeon, and Hae Jin Jeong, have developed their distinctive techniques and aesthetic philosophies based on other works of art and trends which operate as prototypes for their own practice.
At this group exhibition, Alex Chaves unveils a painting, ‘Guernica’ (2018), whose title is the same as one of the Picasso’s masterpieces. ‘Guernica’ is known as the first painting that Picasso reflected political and social issues. It is a monumental piece containing a solemn ambiance caused by the mural-sized monochrome painting and a sense of horror and tension conveyed in exquisitely placed imageries. Chaves borrowed the composition and each image’s shape of Picasso’s ‘Guernica’, whereas he applies rich colors onto it to give an emphasis on his analogue strokes contrary to the original’s geometric formation and straight lines. In result, his new Guernica underlines absurdity and silliness rather than fear and chaos. Also, repetitive red, blue and yellow colors allow the painting to gain a three dimensional effect; this color scheme creates formality on its appearance which consequently prevents from being seen as graffiti.
Hae Jin Jeong presents a princess series, ‘The Initiative of a Three-Year-Old Girl’, ‘The Wisdom of a Nineteen-Year-Old Girl’, and ‘The Intellect in Blue Dress’ (2017), whose prototypes are ‘Las Meninas’ (1656 - 57) and the ‘Margaret Theresa of Spain’ series by Velázquez. Jeong employs Korean traditional technique using deep-color pigment to complete her portraits on silk. As a specialist in restoring ancient art, she takes full advantage of her mature techniques to proficiently depict expressional features of the original paintings. A leopard pattern appeared in each piece of her series plays a crucial role constructing an unique identity, since it can be exotic to the Western culture. Especially, unlike Velázquez, Jeong is aware of the fact that the princess died at an early age. This omniscient position enables Jeong to foresee the princess’s destiny in her series by deploying symbolic objects such as a feather frequently found in the Vanitas paintings. Hence, her approach effectively encourages an audience to witness the occurrence of new narratives whose prequel is Velázquez’s original paintings.
Mi Rae Kim introduces her practice which has technical similarities to Hard Edge Paintings, a form of geometric abstraction emerged in USA in 1950’s. Art trends at that time stemmed from a combination of opposition to spontaneity in Abstract Expressionism and industrialization represented by mass production and consumption. It is not difficult to discover traits of the trends including linear structures, neat compositions and primary colors in her works. On the other hand, Kim’s works show slightly different characteristics from Hard Edge Paintings. She rarely demonstrates a repetitive rigorousness, and moreover, she highlights details instead of having a single image or a narrative controlling the entire work. Kim’s images in various colors and shapes float in the expanse of a canvas, as though they were swimming cell-sized micro-organisms. Their disparate movements and shapes not only evoke mutual tension but also create a feeling that a certain type of rhythm flew on the surface.
In the window gallery space of Chapter II, Ka Bin Jeon displays ‘Honesty Regarded as Authenticity’ (2017) which attentively captures physical properties of Pinocchio. It is a representative piece of her Idol series which adopts characters of mass culture such as Anpanman, Popeye, Astro Boy, and Pikachu. These characters are consistently exposed and deftly connected to commercialization in the end. Having several meters long steel nose, Jeon’s Pinocchio seems to barely manage to maintain its smile. The artist deliberately reveals fractures and exposed reinforcing steels throughout the sculpture to imply that this condition reaches almost its threshold. In spite of a lexical meaning of ‘Idol’, the word often refers to celebrities of pop culture in the current time. Instead of discussing divinity, Ka Bin Jeon’s Idol series illustrates an ontologically precarious condition and finite spans of contemporary idols who rely on unconditional worship of the public.
