Melancholy, to water and beyond
“The face of the mountain-dweller clearly bears the aspect of the mountain; the face of the sea-dweller, the aspect of the sea. The landscape carries its own ruin (or 'relics') in the human face." — Max Picard
The concept of 'melancholy' proposed in this project is not the generally known illness of 'depression,' but a concept that holds the complex meaning of philosophy, culture, and art, tracing back to ancient Greece. Melancholy, which signifies the bodily humor of 'black bile,' is expressed through the fundamental mechanism of love and loss. Therefore, the process of mourning that purifies the various sorrows of life is naturally included within this concept. I observed that residents who were born in or have migrated to live on Jeju—a space with the inherent characteristic of being an island—project or resonate their individual stories within the space of Jeju. In doing so, they overlay their inner landscapes onto the unique scenery that Jeju possesses. The dialogue between these two landscapes was then structured into a portrait project. Following the words of Max Picard, I aimed to record the melancholic landscapes of people whose surrounding scenery is etched into them as a vestige. I felt that the natural element in Jeju that most naturally reveals melancholy, with its meaning of black bile, is 'water.' For Jeju, an island surrounded by the sea, water is both a stringent environment encircling the self and an existence of 'flow' that connects the internal and external. I felt that the psychological phenomena and emotional symptoms inherent to living on the island of Jeju are reflected in, and flow along with, 'water.' This project captures the inner landscapes of Jeju residents embedded within the scenery of 'water'—a finite yet infinite element of nature that is flowing, not stagnant; encompassing, yet ultimately disappearing.
Mantra Forest
‘Gotjawal’ is Jeju island’s inherent forest which has 10,000 years of history. Gotjawal means ‘forest in rocks’ in Jeju dialect. After one decade of migrating photographer’s life, I settled in Jeju island, one and only island of South Korea, my hometown. The reason of my settlement is for documenting ‘Gotjawal’, very authentic forest of Jeju island. Gotjawal has really unique and epic figure due to Jeju island’s natural environment. Jeju island was created 2 million years ago by volcanic eruption activity. Forest’s ground is basalt rock instead of soil and that’s why all trees’ roots are stretching to upward in the air. Tree’s stem, root and pole are all tangled by themselves or with others in stunning way. Also as we can see from the name, trees spread roots and grow through rocks. Not only the reason that ground is basalt, but also they are strong enough to penetrate rock. To me, their uniqueness overlapped with the vitality of Jeju island. Gotjawal is iconic figure of Jeju island’s life. With these ecological characteristics, there are many layers of trees in forest and it makes whole forest look like chaotic creature at first sight. Trees in Gotjawal look so complicated with layered bushes, stems and poles. But the secret of Gotjawal lies underneath that complicated figure. Actually they are fighting to each other to dominate enough room and nutrition to grow. That complexity reflects their struggle to survive. And the unique shape of tangled trees looks like some specific text. It’s like ‘mantra’ has been resonated for more than 10,000 years. Maybe we can call them as : ‘Mantra’ for time, ‘mantra’ for life, ‘mantra’ for endurance. With these unique reasons for creating and surviving, Gotjawal remains as one and only forest in the world. People call Gotjawal as Jeju’s lung for breathing. Actually, Gotjawal’s trees are always in green for four seasons. To survive in unusual environment, they changed, transformed and evolved in it’s own way. And this slow but radical transformation continued for more than 10,000 years. My project ‘mantra forest’ is about documentation of Gotjawal forest’s time and space.
Conservatory Map
‘Conservatory Map’ was born from a sudden imagination I had about the whole life of a small tree which was transplanted from its own soil to a very unfamiliar place: the conservatory. Conservatory plants are surrounded by decent, constructed environment but emit an unnatural resonance. That sense of passive migration provoked me to contemplate and photograph them. Conservatory plants are one type of Migrator – they show that quiet tension and passive energy for assimilation to a new environment as time goes by. This tension and energy create different and new textures of being from just the innate thing, overlapping with my life as an immigrant artist in the U.S. I also shot portraits of immigrant artists standing in a conservatory searching for that spontaneous interaction between these two energies.
In Between Two Islands
‘In Between Two Islands’ is a minimal map in diptych images of two places: Jeju and foreign cities I've visited including New York. Jeju is like an earth-mother island to the Korean people. I began traveling to Jeju everytime I went home to visit Korea. I was drawn to Jeju for its healing natural beauty. New York is also an island in immigrants' mind. Photographing these two subjects, I was able to obtain a sense of space which enabled me to see each in a more objective way: nature's island and civilization's island. They look extremely different at first sight, but they have subtle common aspects because they can coexist mutually. They are inevitably connected and constant. Juxtaposing and mapping civilization's solitariness and nature's neutrality together, I endeavor to show the resonance of different textures of natural places and similar originalities of human spaces. There is a "conversation" between them.
Tone
‘Tone’ is an ongoing series developed from my night photography series of the past five years. Also ‘Tone’ series stemmed out from my attempt to transform two-dimensional relationships into three-dimensional relationships by distancing myself from the objects with the ‘distance’ as the third element. By distancing rather than nearing the objects, I hope to get obscure yet everlasting lingering imageries. Distancing is not about being far away. Rather it is about creating tension, which enables me to detect humble yet minimal ‘truth’ at last. I came to realize that the ‘truth’ shares the characteristics of ‘tone’ rather than having clear color or pattern. ‘Tone’ series began accidentally by my using expired black and white Ilford 3200 films given to me by my friend. Old and high-speed negatives resulted in rough and grainy prints. From the coarse and grainy surface of the photographs that resembled scattered sands, I sensed an archetype of ‘tone’ itself. To me, ‘tone’ is like a fragile cover to the non-existential world. I am seeing that opaque side of the world through the cover, but vaguely.