the eccentric by jyeon0903

vol. 1

the eccentric is a viewpoint of the world that explores quirks and idiosyncrasies of contemporary artists. It curates works that reflect the complexity of this era from their interpretations.

NOW WHO’S

vol. 1

Contents

Lee Bul autobiography

Sungsil Ryu interview

TheGermOne interview

the

s u o r t s mon s of e i d bo

Lee Bul by Cal Revely-Calder

Lee Bul In an essay called ‘Beauty and Trauma’ (2000), Lee Bul tells a story from her childhood in South Korea. She was standing at a pedestrian crossing, waiting for the lights to change; as she stood there, she gazed across the road at a beautiful bakery, and its ‘sumptuously decorated cakes’ – almost a work of art. A scooter drifted into the scene, across Lee’s path, carrying a gorgeous young couple who seemed to have come from some ‘radiant, ethereal dimension’. They glided through the red light, into oncoming traffic, and then, in a heartbeat, Lee was staring at the aftermath. Their blood and flesh was spattered all over the road; the woman was thrown into the bakery window, ‘toppling over the cakes, landing face down in the vast heap of sweet, creamy confection now spattered with her blood’.

Sorry for suffering – You think I’m a puppy on a picnic? (1990), Lee Bul. Twelve-day performance at Kimpo Airport, Narita Airport, downtown Tokyo and Dokiwaza Theater. Courtesy Studio Lee Bul

Lee would never lose her fascination with the fragile boundary between beauty and horror – as is shown by ‘Crashing’, a comprehensive new survey of her work at the Hayward Gallery. When she first emerged towards the end of the 1980s, Lee created a series of fantastical monstrous bodies, as well as exploring what society found monstrous in the human form. Abortion was one such thing, being a criminal offence in South Korea, so for the performance piece Abortion (1989) she hung from the rafters of Seoul’s Dongsoong Arts Centre for almost two hours, talking about her own experience of the procedure and handing out lollipops to the audience below. Soon after, for Sorry for suffering – You think I’m a puppy on a picnic? (1990), she stepped out in public wearing a giant costume, all flapping limbs and protrusions. These spectacles were drawn from nightmares, and yet they were oddly vulnerable too. Archive photos show Lee in costume on the streets of Seoul, looking both comic and sad; here in the Hayward, several old suits are dangling from the ceiling like forgotten props.

Lee Bul

Lee has described the monstrous as that which ‘exceeds prescribed boundaries’: it spills, overturns, transcends. As her career progressed, she left performances behind and began to fashion intricate works, ranging from sculptures to paintings and drawings, which drew on traditional Korean crafts, and exposed the vulnerability of women’s bodies. Plexus (1997–98) is a female torso of leather and velvet, prised apart to reveal a tangled blossom of sequins and beads. ‘I prefer complicated materials,’ Lee has stated, ‘over simple ones. I clash or contrast them’.

Majestic Splendor (1997), Lee Bul. Photo by Robert Puglisi; courtesy Studio Lee Bul

Plexus Blue (2000), Lee Bul. T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2000

Near Plexus should be Majestic Splendor (1991–2018), a gruesome companion of sorts. Lee embellishes freshly caught fish with sequins and golden flowers, then she seals them into vinyl bags, mounts them, and leaves them to decay. One of the work’s iterations – there have, for obvious reasons, been several – produced her Western breakthrough: when it was exhibited at MoMA in 1997, the smell of rotting fish forced the installation to close. Twenty years later, the Hayward almost went one better: they had placed Lee’s fish in potassium permanganate, which promised to stifle any smell, but made the bags flammable too. The gallery took advice to remove the work a few hours before the exhibition preview, and they were hastily taking it down when a fire broke out. The opening was delayed; Majestic Splendor is no longer on show.

Lee Bul

Cyborg W1–W4 (1998), Lee Bul. Photo: Yoon Hyung-moon; courtesy Studio Lee Bul

Lee Bul

It’s a pity. The best of Lee’s works are the ones fraught with menace. The force of her early performances, from Abortion to Sorry for suffering, has only deepened with time: women in rich and tolerant countries who need or want abortions – or, like Lee, have illegally had them – are still struggling for their rights. By comparison, the sterile body parts of the Cyborg series (1997–2011) seem to me like styles from an era that’s come and gone. They may be among her best-known works, with their easy air of futurity and unblemished white surfaces; still, I prefer her recent turn to what she calls ‘failed’ or ‘unrealised’ utopias, structures wreathed with clacking lights and tendrils of glittering beads. One of the most haunting works in the Hayward is Thaw (Takaki Masao) (2007), in which a translucent block of fibreglass entombs an effigy of the South Korean autocrat Park Chung-hee. A wash of black beads ripples away across the floor. Inside the block and behind dark glasses, Park is inscrutable. For all that his menace has been trapped behind the fibreglass, it’s been preserved and heightened as well. Near him is Heaven and Earth (2007), a seedy bathtub ringed with discoloured and broken tiles, fringed with a range of plaster peaks, and filled with jet-black ink. This works at two simultaneous scales. It’s a model of Heaven Lake, from the caldera of the holy Mount Paekdu, located today on the border of China and North Korea; for South Koreans, it’s an inaccessible, radiant symbol from national myth. The tub, meanwhile, is a reference to the container in which the student dissident Park Jong-chul was tortured to death in 1987. Heaven and Earth gives us Korea as a utopian dream, but beset by real violence and dirt. The cyborg fantasies are giving way to clear eyes.

Untitled (Cravings White) (1988), Lee Bul. An outdoor performance in Jang Heung, Korea. Courtesy Studio Lee Bul

Lee Bul

“I choose what I work with very carefully. Everything has connotations, stories and I utilise them. I borrow the general meanings materials have and embrace them in my work. Many times, things have clashing, conflicting connotations or layers of meanings.”

Lee Bul

Untitled (1989), Lee Bul. Performance, Now Gallery, Seoul. Courtesy Studio Lee Bul

who is

CHERRY JANG ? Meet South Korean visual artist, Sungsil Ryu. by Girls Club Asia

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. Q

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Sungsil Ryu

Q. Q.

Give us 3 words that describe what it’s like to be a creative in your city. Trend (following), selfishness, emptiness

How did you start your career in art?

There are lots of kids who “have an aptitude for art,” but I was lucky enough to also have parents who supported me financially, which allowed me to major in art (especially considering how much money it costs to do fine art). I remember that in high school I really had no intention of doing art, but some fellow students who kind of studied art would brag that they were going to be “artists.” I wanted part of the action, so I remember saying something like, “Hey punks, I’m going to be an artist, too!” I got lucky and in university, I made friends who had similar sensibilities to mine, and things have gone well from there. If it weren’t for my friends, around now I probably would have stopped doing art and started working a different job. Maybe If I did, I would love art a little more… The ability to get feedback on projects I’m working on is a big source of momentum for me, and they give me a lot of support and encouragement.

Were the people around you supportive of your decision on working as a creative?

Most of my friends are artists like myself, so we often get together and offer each other feedback. The ability to get feedback on projects I’m working on is a big source of momentum for me, and they give me a lot of support and encouragement. In particular, I have gotten a lot of help from two friends and fellow visual artists, Minki Hong and Kim Chae-young. My parents, however, seem to want me to quit art as soon as possible and take over the family business. Hearing that makes me sort of upset and uneasy, but on the other hand, it also feels like a pretty reasonable choice (considering how hard it is to make money as an artist). Anyways, for the moment I am seeking a sensible middle ground.

Sungsil Ryu

What are some goals and ambitions you have for your future work? I hope that for me and the friends I love, we can resist being swept up by all the noise, and just keep making art. But honestly, for that to all work out, you need to have money. With money, you don’t need to appeal to people’s sincerity or exhaust one’s emotional reservoir to get what you want. So, I would like to become wealthy and create an environment with better conditions under which my friends and I can work. I hope that for me and the friends I love, we can resist being swept up by all the noise, and just keep making art.

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. Q

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. Q

Q. Q.

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Sungsil Ryu

TheGermOne

A collection of blatant displeasure. The artist who created this bizarre creatures that almost look alive like to be shrouded in veil. Through this, he seemed to be referring to the sexuality of the time, without a specific gender in mind, and opened the world of “TheGermOne” using his work as a persona. interview with eyesmag

TheGermOne

Please introduce yourself.

I am ‘TheGermOne’, who produce three-dimensional sculptures based on morphology.

TheGermOne Morphology is a bit unfamiliar. Perhaps that’s why the work gives a deformed impression. It’s like an unpleasant valley. Is it intended?

Perhaps it’s because most of the work is in a similar shape to humans. I’m making it with more detailed elements than in the beginning, because I want my work to feel alive. There’s a graph that explains “An unpleasant valley.” In other words, as things that are not robots or humans become more similar to human figures, their likability increases, and when they reach a certain extent, they suddenly turn into strong rejection. I hope those who see my work feel that way. I wonder why you don’t reveal your face and the reason behind your pen name.

I don’t think it’s necessary for an artist to reveal their face. The pen name came to mind while reading ”Point and Line to Plane” by Wassily Kandinsky, and I liked the composition of lines, dots, and circles.

TheGermOne

What made you start “TheGermOne”?

In fact, there is no significant reason. I just wanted create art. I know how to make clothes so I thought I would start by making them. Now I am doing a variety of things that can be done with textiles.

Looking at your work, we can feel the traces of a lot of thought and research in many ways. What is the biggest interest?

I am very interested in life and science. I have a habit of carefully observing living things. I am especially interested in quantum mechanics, but these seem to emerge as ideas when I work.

Isn’t quantum mechanics hard to understand in reality? The concept is so vast. Can you explain which part was expressed as an idea?

Quantum mechanics theory states that any situation can happen, and anything can exist as a reality. I also do not have a good understanding of quantum mechanics, but such theoretical facts can ease the burden of conceiving ideas. It’s much easier to work on because I think what I haven’t experienced or seen in person can be real. Rather than suggesting a particular idea, it helps you come up with ideas.

That’s right.

TheGermOne

TheGermOne Do you have any particular work you love?

Germone01 and germone02. Both works were intended to resemble me. That’s why I named it that way. It looked like me the most, and now both are out of my hands and became even more affectionate.

I wonder why you made it a motif of yourself.

Maybe I was trying to show me as a work piece because I work without exposing myself. You made a new mask for this shoot. Thank you. Is there a meaning behind the mask?

I wanted to show my new work through this interview. The mask doesn’t really have a meaning. I made a mask that looks like me because it’s an interview that introduces me. I don’t know if it actually looks like me. What kind of people are looking for or enjoying ‘TheGermOne’?

People similar to me. People who are interested in and accept new things, unusual things, rather than ordinary things. 43

I know that you also made a brand called ‘Germ One’. Please explain what brand it is.

‘Germ One’ is a brand that develops my work in commercial colors, and it was started to make it easier for people to access my work and to cover the cost of creation. I’m selling real clothes and shoes. It’s like a compromise with reality to continue artistic activities. Do you have any difficulties?

It could be said that. Reduced workload is my difficulty. Ironically, the brand started to run the work, and after the realistic problem was solved to some extent, it became impossible to fully concentrate on the work.

If there is an ultimate goal through ‘TheGermOne’ and brand ‘Germ One’.

I hope that ‘TheGermOne’ will not just be my pen name, but will be seen as a world.

TheGermOne

for the eccentrics by the eccentrics multiple editions Juyeon Kang