Exhibition Information

Installation View

Electric pad mania
2019 Acrylic and oil on canvas 150.0x150.0cm

Installation View

Installation View

			Paintings by Ji Hye Park <Painting of References and Allegory of Creation>

Chung-Hwan, Kho (Art Critic)

Transavantgarde of Italy, Figuration Libre ("Free Figuration") of France, Neo-Expressionism of Germany, Leipzig School(“Leipziger Schule”) after unification of Germany, New Painting of Britain and the United States, and Japanese Pop Art(alias “Micropop”) opened a new dimension for figurative art, and it is still ongoing today. Every ideology and its form is unique and diverse on its own, but they all come together as one in a sense that an anti-thesis for a definition of art and structure and methodology can be specified through modernism paradigm, in the notion of modernism art and practical logic. It is difficult to generalize, but a fact based on a painting or sharing thoughts on reality share a common thread as well. A fact revealed by painting shares a sense of reality through painting. An intrigue with reality but still based on reality; however the painting does not reconstruct reality or is restricted by it. It still refers to reality (therefore contemporary paintings may be defined by these references) but the reality does not become a foundation for reality in painting. The relationship becomes reversed when the pictorial reality depicts underestimated, suppressed, and potential reality, which becomes an exposing mirror to strip the bare face of reality. The language is allegorical rather than being closer to realism. Referencing and editing, it is indirect and oblique but penetrates into its core value. The contemporary art, especially painting becomes an arena of competition for private languages.

There are some artists in Korea with a similar disposition, and Ji Hye Park also belongs to the group. However, she adds her distinctive painting style to her work. She absorbs nourishment from mass media such as illustration, animation, online comic and cartoon (the artist is a cartoon generation, and still enjoys it today), she spreads her nourishments (perhaps references) in a painterly way. Tedious daily episodes, recognition of reality, momentary ideas and inspirations, faint memories mixed with a stream of thoughts passing by facing another reality, a reality which is multi-dimensional and much more complex, revealing an opening for an urgent realization of reality masked by leisure reality. An accident occurs. The spray paint drawn by the police is still fresh and by the look of it, it looks like a man was hit by a car. A person laid flat facing bottom. The people absentmindedly pass by, and some are caught up in their own thoughts. A couple runs toward somewhere, and meanwhile, another couple is kissing. A cat is glancing from behind a tree. A yellow-headed man with blood smeared on his face looks startled as if he witnessed something. Traffic sign and warning light. Meaningless pattern and decoration. Here, the artist added flash, thud, whisking indications typical of event and action used for a cartoon. Strange people and situations. These are scenes the artist witnessed through her <Way to Work>. It is a mundane and likely event to occur. Some of the events will actually be broadcasted on the evening news on TV. Some might encounter the news through social media, or it could be an image that came up while flipping through a magazine. Some have logical probability, or it is just a random scene. There is no use discussing the reality of it or requesting any consistency, and it is meaningless. What is important is that reality is much closer to a movie, to a novel, and all things imaginable on movie screen becomes a reality itself, which is a reality close to virtual reality unwrapped and played before us. The artist shows the reality and virtual reality, present and memory without any boundaries within a screen and shows edited and restructured scenes, which is a miniature of reality, and a new genre painting of everyday life.

The edited and restructured reality resembles a stream of consciousness of Marcel Proust. The consciousness never runs in chronological order nor does it follow an order of cause and effect. The consciousness is coincidence and inevitability, reality and virtual reality (or imagination), consciousness and unconsciousness constantly interact and interfere with inevitable and indiscretion bundles of thought, and meaningless (looking meaningless in reality) small portions. A stream of thought brings another thought, and a consciousness brings another consciousness. It is automatisme and free association technique. Unless it is from a macro perspective, there is no logical connection and cause and effect between thought and thought and consciousness between consciousness. However, the reality overlooks, suppress and conceal reality, and dull people’s consciousness till the point of group hypnotism, reflecting and inferring reality.

The artist endured fierce reality to come to her studio. The reality is a war for the artist, and her work (work ground) is a battle (battleground). It is a crucial moment just like when you have to decide whether to smoke the last cigarette or give up on it (last cigarette). There is a sense of heroism of Hamlet contemplating whether to live or die. A couple of times during the day, the artist thinks of <Giving up Creation>. She wants to chop off her hands and feels her feet falling off. Sometimes she falls into self-pity (look at my sadness). Meanwhile, the artist has a friend to share sympathy. He works as a part-time model for art academy (part-time sculpture). A pigeon comes by to sit on him when he models; mistakenly thinking it is some sort of a nest. He feels sweaty and anxious in fear that the bird might make a mistake on his head.

A pigeon is an object of love and hatred. They are like the grim reaper of misfortune overlooking the artist (squad). When the artist is drunk and sprawled across the floor, they all come around cooing, but it’s unsure whether it wants to protect the artist or attempts to go for the vomit (forest of vomit). The artist wavers between giving up and making a breakthrough more than twelve times a day, and the pigeon particularly stands by when he gives up rather than making a breakthrough to check. For example, when it’s raining cats and dogs, the artist pulls the handcart full of painting and continues the path unknown, and the pigeon stands on the top watching the artist (collecting paintings). To be honest, it is difficult to tell where the bird is looking at, or what it is looking at. However, the protruding body seems to stare directly at the artist. The pigeon’s sympathy towards the artist is evident, and the artist has sympathy towards the pigeon vice versa. Personally, I believe sentiment is a personal virtue of an artist, and sentiment present in the artist’s painting brings out mutual interaction and empathy of the audience.

The pigeon is actually an alter ego of the artist. The pigeon watching over the misfortune of the artist and empathizing is all an embodiment of self from inner side of the artist. It is applicable for the Muscle Carp (as if to tell yourself you must build muscle! You must be strong!), and cat Leo. These alter ego and embodiment, along with all the paintings by the artist is allegory or allegorical. In reality, the pigeon would never land on top of human head and leave droppings. Your hands or feet will not fall off even if you gave up creation. Moreover, you do not have to carry painting by handcart through a vicious storm. These are all allegory of creation. It is an allegory of the artist who repeats and reverses giving up and retries twelve times a day, and an allegory of torment. It is not the anxiety of the unknown, but about what art is, and an era where the death of art often mentioned as true reality (and art taken over by capital) an allegory asking self-obsessed questions about the meaning of creation.

If sympathy could be a virtue of the subject of creation, compulsion is the power to move art. The artist possesses both virtue and motivation. The artist formally introjects painterly success of illustration, animation, online comic and cartoon, and use vibrant original colors and contemporary color with a stark contrast to create a unique stylistic form. The content shows small episodes from daily life based on virtual reality; momentary idea and inspirations, memories and thoughts weaved into warp and weft into one, creating an epic of its own. These weaved stories reveal truth masked by reality, reality not so humorous (therefore witty reality), perhaps reality more extreme than reality.