Imagination beyond a Representation of Form

Sculpture major Yoo Eunsuk has a particular interest in form. He was initially interested in enigmatic imagination in form rather than any complete representation of form. His work lends his subjective imagination to familiar form, thereby encouraging viewers to come close to the thought beyond form. In this exhibition Interchange he humorously showcases absurd circumstances in real famous buildings around the world suggested by using their shapes. In six pieces on exhibit at the show he represents landmark buildings throughout the world. What did the artist contemplate through magnificent architectural structures that have been mostly designated as World Heritage sites or have symbolic significance, such as the Indian Taj Mahal, Egyptian pyramids, Chinese Tiananmen square, and the Italian Colosseum?

Individuals in history
At the moment of first seeing his works at a gallery, anyone may giggle with the jokes they attempt. His relief work Py-ramid (2013) is enough to conjure up a pun adopting a symbolic meaning of pyramids the artist discovered in its Korean pronunciation. His imagination and joke harks back to a gloomy hidden side of history: the colossal pyramid signifying potent royal authority and wishes for the afterlife represents the pain and agony of reality ancient Egyptians suffered. As such, Yoo pays attention to the torments anonymous individuals underwent that are hidden behind gargantuan architectural spectacles to which posterity pays tribute as historic monuments. So does another work Taj Mahal (2013).

The Taj Mahal is best known as the mausoleum a Mughal emperor constructed in memory of his wife over the course of twenty-two years. Designed in a style typical of Islamic architecture, it has impressed people all over the world for centuries. As expected of a building whose name means "a splendid tomb" we can assume that an enormous amount of funds and harsh labor are hidden somewhere underneath the Taj Mahal’s inexplicable splendidness and artistic wonder. Yoo symbolizes the pain individuals suffered in grand narratives of history by pouring curry, a staple of the Indian diet, over a Taj Mahal scale model made of PVC foam sheet (Foamex) while referring to photographs. His messages stir up our imagination as lighthearted jokes, arousing significant images only with realistically reproduced sculptural shapes and titles indicating objects without any modifiers. Yoo hopes to visualize the possible individual lives hidden behind such grand discourses through a series of pieces he is displaying at this exhibition.

Hero in Reality
For Luxurious Prison (2013), Yoo uses Foamex to produce the images of a building that has often appeared in the TV news to cover the reality of North Korea. This work displays another characteristic of his work. The identity of his humor is found in a propagandistic slogan and portrait photographs visible in the building’s façade. Cynicism and sympathy for one who has gained absolute power by descent is condensed in his bitter smile. This work makes a travesty of Kim Jong-un who became the head of state at a young age by a hereditary succession of three generations. By inserting an emotional sentence, "My father, I miss you," the man of power’s symbolic status becomes weakened and a humanistic appearance tortured by absurd realities becomes more apparent. In a previous work that is not on show at this exhibition, Yoo exposed an almighty hero’s weak existence by depicting a heroic Spiderman with an erection. As such, Yoo starts from trifling ideas that come to mind and then gradually discloses invisible issues in reality. In a sense, his (un)realistic imagination that is neither serious nor lighthearted seems like a hidden side of reality.

By Ahn So-yeon, Art Critic