[권동철의 화가탐방]Jo Hyang-suk’s Analysis of multidimensional space[Thoughts on the woodcut of Jo Hyang Sook,임영길 평론④,화가 조향숙,조향숙 작가,Yim Young Kil-Art Critic]

 

도판08.2 김준근의 천로역정. 자료제공=임영길.

Spatial analysis in Korean traditional prints was mainly represented as inverse perspective. This was formed from the relationship of social status between the painter and the object. The painters were middle class, and the person he/she painted was usually higher than him/herself. It was natural to use inverse perspective method, because in order to represent the authority of a person with high status, one should portray the person in detail even in a distance, which took up a lot of space. There is an irony that at the same period when scenography was being completed at the end of the 19th century with perspective method being introduced in Korea, the West was breaking out of it. The painting <Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907>, in which Picasso attempted to break out of perspective, and the woodcut of Kim Joon-Geun in <The Pilgrim's Progress> published in 1895, when he was almost completing the perspective method in Korea, had similar degree of perspective system.(fig. 08.1, 08.2)

 

Therefore, the process of modernism in the West to deviate from the perspective method and introducing the spatial interpretation of montage is very similar to the reverse direction of the development process of perspective being introduced in Korea, just like in the Korean folk paintings ‘celebration of finishing a book’.

 

(왼쪽)도판09. 이륜행실도. (중앙)도판10. 조향숙-21 잃어버린 시간을 찾아서. 실크로드2, (오른쪽)도판11. 조향숙-16, 실크로드2. 자료제공=임영길.

Jo Hyang Sook's spatial interpretation begins with Korean traditional method. In order to express different layers of memory, she attempts spatial interpretations in various ways. In this exhibition, a multi-dimensional space analysis, which can be called as 'descriptive, psychological, and schematic perspective' is introduced. This simultaneously shows the transition of time by including three things: cause, event, and result, and unfolds an event in a single picture. This method is often shown in the woodcut of books like Samgang Haengsildo and Ee-ryun Haengsildo of the Joseon Dynasty.(fig. 09, 10, 11)

 

(왼쪽)도판12.1. 2019-To Find lost Time-사계2, 40×30㎝ BK0A4492. (오른쪽)도판12.2. 2019-To Find lost Time-사계3, 40×30㎝ BK0A4490. 자료제공=임영길.

These divisions made by patterns of cloud lines or overlapping wave lines represent different scenes of time and space. The relationship between the divided images is a space that cannot be understood in terms of 'perspective', and requires a lot of participation of the viewers, which must be completed psychologically in their imaginations. However, most of the images in Korea's traditional prints are only made up of positive, but Jo Hyang Sook's woodcut shows both positive and negative at the same time, expressing a more diverse and deeper time and space. In addition to that, more complex space is developed by adding up images that printed separately, including a collage technique using gold foil paper, and experimenting with unique texture effects by printing woodcut on gold foil paper altogether.(fig. 12.1, 12.2)

 

(왼쪽)도판13.1. To Find lost Time-중앙대작, 화이부동-180×630㎝(60×90㎝ 20점), 2020. (오른쪽)도판13.2. To Find Lost Time-Happy memories, 조우-90×120㎝, 2020. 자료제공=임영길.

Recently, she does an experiment of a concept of installation that emphasizes the printmaking process itself by juxtaposing the color plates taken first in multicolor woodcut prints with the black ones taken later. This creates a dynamic harmony as the thickness of concrete memories piled up like a stratum cannot overcome the pressure of time and causes qualitative changes, and more simplified images are separated from the overlapping layers of memories and juxtaposed side by side. Thereby this seems to suggest a process of approaching the essence of her identity by embracing all the memories that contain emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure to form harmony all together.(fig. 13.1, 13.2)

 

▲글·도판제공=임영길 홍익대학교 미술대학 판화과 교수, 2020.12.

Writing and fig=Yim Young Kil, professor of printmaking College of Fine Arts Hongik University, 2020.12.

 

▲[한글평론 원제목]우리 전통의 정신과 형식에서 지속된 “잃어버린 시간을 찾아서-행복한 기억들”연작–조향숙의 목판화에 대한 단상(斷想)들-

[English criticism title]The Series “To Find Lost Time-Happy memories”, Continued in the Spirit and the Form of Korean Tradition–Thoughts on the woodcut of Jo Hyang Sook-

 

▲자료출처= Jo Hyang Sook, To Find Lost Time-Happy memories(잃어버린 시간을 찾아서-행복한 기억), 2020. 12.2~7. 선 아트센터(SUN ART CENTER)개인전 도록에 수록.