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Jaehyun Kang(Curator at Savina Museum of Contemporary Art)

작성일 19-05-06 16:41

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An Artist’s desire for Acts of Painting


Myung-Su Ham got on the flight to New York in December 2012. whilst thinking his trip, the image of Walter Benjamin who left to Moscow in December 1926 came across my mind. His Moscow diary was written during his two-month stay in Moscow. He intensely depicted the scenes of the city where the spectacles of the desire in the nightless city though his tenacious brushstrokes.
the most remarkable work among the recent works in this exhibition is the night scene of Time Square in New York. As New York City is filled with different races, It is the place of collision between various kinds of lifestyles and dynamics as well as dreams and frustration of contemporary individuals who live ruthlessly. New York is the symbolic city of capitalism and consumerism, and Time Square, crowded by 300,000 people on a daily basis, is the one of the most famous sightseeing spot with its flashy electric signs like firecrackers, and the crowd on the street looks like ghosts who sold their soul. Also the picture with running paints embodies the streets as virtual, phantasmal, and imaginary world.
Ham became known to public with Noodle Scape(2000) and it is crucial to talk about the ways of using brush strokes in Ham’s painting. what is the painting for Ham? “I tend not to struggle to realize a specific thinking on the canvas. I rather let the process of the painting lead me to think,” the artist states. I could see the traces of his long journey in the firm ways of painting when I visited his studio in Poongnap-dong, Seoul. The examples include Apple(2009) and Tunnel(2001) series reflecting the object with no separation between inside and outside; Candle(2004) series as the studies of flickering shapes of the candlelight: Cliff(2006) and Book(2009) series depicting layers of cliffs and books: Raindrop(2005) series illustrating falling raindrop: and the works representing ordinary object such as shoes, hats and newspapers as natural landscape. These series of practices ultimately aim to understand the object and converse existing contexts in it. Observation enables the invisible visible. Good ways of seeing encourage one to realize fundamentals and logics in the world beyond the simple perception of its appearance. Skull(2008) series seen in this exhibition comprise senses of generation and extinction of life through his unique painting techniques symbolizing human and civilization.
The artist’s three major brush techniques are as follow: creating crumbling feel reminding one of knitting yarns or a crump of grass; hazy objects with quivering and falling expressions; and glossy brush strokes resembling the texture of metal by using big brushes. All of these construct the artist’s subjective landscapes by creating alternative images beyond substantiality of the objects. the objects ultimately become strange unseen subjects stimulating one’s tactual sense with their wiggling or guttering touch, enabled by the artist’s own tone and rhythm. Ham’s painting is also the artist’s battle against time. In order to create the flowing-like fell, he put thick layers of paints first and applies more layers with fine brushes before the first layer completely dries out. The paints overlapped in several layers naturally run and therefore the objects change their original forms and this progression creates the unique sense of rhythm and speed as it develop.
Ham’s obsession, compulsion and desire allow his hand to work without rest. For Ham, the painting perhaps presents his desire for play, lust, and pleasure cams from the absence of unconsciousness. the human desire for consumption and the artist’s desire to paint altogether ooze through his paintings. Thus this solo exhibition by Myung-su Ham is landscapes of desire and remnants of pleasure-seeking in painting with the results of the artist’s intense preoccupation with painting from the past twenty years to today.

Jaehyun Kang(Curator at Savina Museum of Contemporary Art)

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