8 Maya 413 | stainless steel wire mesh | 270 x 140 x 30cm | 2012
A PRESENT MOMENT
It’s good that I don’t have idle thoughts. That kind of selfless state is what I wanted.
Slowly, collectedly and intuitively, Par k Seungmo moves with a creator’s omniscience as he immer ses himself in the meticulous ar t of wrapping and snipping. His wor ks are created almost in rever se: a perfect fibreglass model is cast from a real per son or object and submerged under layer s of coiling wire , or a photograph he has taken is projected onto layer s of mesh to define the areas to be removed in constr ucting a three-dimensional remodelling of the image . This re-constr uctivism challenges the idea of the real and of function. Titles of wor ks suggest what was and pose the question, ‘what is?’ while the perfect rows of glistening silver wire and black mesh transform familiar objects into ethereal beings. Par k’s wor ks evoke a host of associations, the familiarity of which immediately capture the viewer’s gaze: Egyptian mummies, finger prints, cocoons and contemporar y ar tists including Jean-Claude and Christo. However Par k’s creations exist beyond life and death, individuality and identity, aesthetics and perception. Instead they derive from a fundamentally Korean institution of Son (Zen) Buddhism, which seeks a conscious-less determination not to attain anything per se but to reveal something; the tr ue nature of identity. This translation of Buddhist philosophy is exquisitely revealed in Par k’s meticulously wrapped wor ks. A common Buddhist quote , ‘We can see the univer se as it is and our tr ue nature when delusion and defilements disappear’ finds a physical form in the hands of Par k. The goal of Son Buddhism, to see things clear ly and as they are, is outwor ked in his sculptures. They are a product of a search for self, contentment and existence, which spar ked an abr upt sojourn to India following his fine ar ts degree majoring in plastic ar t and his inability to immer se himself in his wor k as an average chiseller. For five year s he visited Buddhist monasteries, toying with the possibility of becoming a monk as he battled with the loss of ego and greed, unable to reconcile his practice with the existence of selflessness and being. Just before he was due to fly back to Korea, as he sat at a coffee shop in a state of loss for hour s in a café in India, he lifted himself from his thoughts to notice his paper blackened from the numerous circles he had unconsciously drawn. In that instant his search was fulfilled. The thoughtless and repetitive exercise awakened Par k to the fact that the ego he had str uggled to shake off was forgotten and that priesthood and
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1 Grand piano | aluminum wire fiberglass lifecasting | 180 x 151 x 180cm | 2004
ar t did not have to be separate if he connected this process to his wor k. For year s he experimented with casts, developing and perfecting the method of wrapping to pose the question to himself the ar tist, the audience and the wrapped object, ‘What are you?’, a phrase uttered in the initial stages of meditation by Son practitioner s. The neutrality and imper sonal nature of aluminium wires distance the familiar figure and object from the viewer while the delineated solidity of the material suggests that it is the object’s natural substance rather than being in a state of being tied up. By depriving the subjects of their functionality and individuality Par k endows them with a new existence and significance . His sculptures of life-size nude human figures such as Ego appear to have frozen in time to evoke a mystique of the permanence of the moment. Yet the labour-intensive process of casting and wrapping contradicts the moment, echoing the intensity of the figure and the silence it embodies; a state of tranquillity where there is no life or death. In recent wor ks Par k has metamorphosed the figures from ethereal forms occupying space and time into ones that appear to have been disfigured by the occupation of life. Malleable when still warm from being freshly cast, his fibreglass figures are hand-moulded to appear broken and weakened. While pitiable in pose , the glistening wires retain the sense of being removed from reality of his ear lier figures. They are immediately commanding and haunting in being both recognisable yet otherwor ldy. Sculptures of familiar inanimate objects fur ther highlight the paradoxical nature and tensions between object and display. Created as though a taut sheet is covering the object, his titles confirm the viewer’s identification of the object; a grand piano is captured in Grand Piano, and a contrabass is indicated in Contrabass. However the ambiguity in what is perceived and what is hidden, what is real and what is implied again gently asks the question ‘What are you?’. These wor ks do not demand a correct answer or an immediate response but invite an engagement into the depth and simplicity of the question in this moment.
Lee Jungeun, Independent Writer
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1 Grand piano | aluminum wire fiberglass lifecasting | 180 x 151 x 180cm | 2004
6
Heo 4703 | aluminum wire, fiberglass | 40 x 60 x 20 cm | 2012
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3 Contrabass | aluminum wire fiberglass lifecasting | 190 x 69 x 42 cm | 2005
9 Heo 815 | aluminum wire , fiberglass | 81.5 x 26 x 25 cm | 2011 04 | 05 10 11
3 Ego | aluminium wire and fiberglass | 87 x 74 x 33cm | 2012
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5 Heo 710 | aluminum wire , fiberglass | 71 x 30 x 35cm | 2012
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8 Maya 413 | stainless steel wire mesh | 270 x 140 x 30cm | 2012
4 Heo 230 | aluminum wire fiberglass lifecasting | 190 x 54 x 34 cm | 2011
10 Maya 1618 | stainless steel wire mesh | 160 x 89 x 9cm | 2012 16 | 17
7 Cho Minhyung | aluminum wire fiberglass lifecasting | 171 x 56 x 38 cm | 2012
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PARK SEUNGMO ( b1969 ) EDUCATION 1998 BFA in Dong A University, Korea SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2008 Gallery Ar tside, Seoul, Korea 2005 Gallery Ar tside, Seoul, Korea 2010 Ever Harvest Ar t Galler y, Taipei, Taiwan SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2010 Ar t TAIPEI (Taipei, Taiwan) Power of Sculpture Group Exhibition (Samtoh Galler y, Seoul) KOAS (Insa Ar t Center, Seoul) Power of Geonggido (Geonggi Museum of Ar t) Life in Ar t (Pohang City Museum) Form & Formless (Galler y Form, Busan) Group exhibition with teachers (Insa Ar t Center) 2009 Play at Open Space (Ansan Ar ts Centre, Korea) Mad for Furniture (Netspace, Seoul, Korea) Korean Eye Moon Generation (Phillips de Pur y, Company Space at The Saatchi Galler y, London, UK) Kroean Aesthetics (Albemarle Galler y, London, UK) The Body Speaks (Touchar t Galler y, Korea) London Ar t Fair (London, UK) Ticktac-Korean Sculpture (Galler y Dodo, Seoul, Korea) 2008 Albemarle Summer Show (Albemarle Galler y, London, UK) Korea Now (Ar t Rink, Sotheby’s, Israel) Beijing Ar t Fair (Beijing, China) KIAF 2008 (COEX, Seoul, Korea) The Par ty (Galler y Gayang, Pusan, Korea) 2007 CIGE (Beijing, China) Lines in Space (Kyunggido Museum, Kyunggi, Korea) ACAF (New York, U.S.A.) Three Men Show : Park SeungMo, Lee JaeHyo, Choi TaeHoon (Nanas Ar t Centre, Kyunggi, Korea) 2006 CIGE (Beijing, China) Kyunggido Young Ar tist Exhibition (Ansan Ar ts Centre, Kyunggi, Korea) Kyunggido Established Ar tists Exhibition (Yoju, Korea) Shanghai Ar t Fair (Shanghai, China) Three Men Sculpture Show (Jang Eun Sun Galler y, Seoul, Kroea) 2005 CIGE (Beijing, China) 2004 Outdoor Project (Sejong Cultural Centre, Seoul, Korea) 2003 MANIF (Seoul, Korea) Hangul Exhibition (Mok-A Museum, Kyunggi, Korea) 2002 “1234567890” Sculpture Exhibition (INSA Galler y, Seoul, Korea) 2001 Sculpture Park Exhibition (Zoo Land, Daejeon, Korea) Hangul Exhibition (Mok-A Museum, Kyunggi, Korea) Kroea Ar ts Exhibition (National Modern Galler y, Kyunggi, Korea) 2000 Nandan Ar ts Festival (Kolkata, India) 1999 Dong A Sculpture Exhibition (Cultural Centre, Pusan, Korea) Nan Bu Modern Ar ts Festival (Jinju Cultural Centre, Jinju, Korea) 1998 Pusan Ar ts Festival (Cultural Centre, Pusan, Korea) Dong A Sculpture Exhibition (Cultural Centre, Pusan, Korea) Nan Bu Modern Ar ts Festival (Cultural Centre, Pusan, Korea) Korea Ar ts Exhibition (National Modern Galler y, Kyunggi, Korea) 1997 Dong A University Exhibition (Cultural Centre, Pusan, Korea) Newcore Ar ts Exhibition (Kyunggi, Korea) 1996 Drawing Exhibition (Galler y 2020, Seoul, Korea)
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This catalogue is published by HADA Contemporary to accompany the exhibition:
PARK SEUNGMO SOLO EXHIBITION 2012 [ A PRESENT MOMENT ] VYNER STREET 7 - 28 JUNE 2012 No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any mean, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without prior written permission from HADA Contemporary Ltd.