Exhibition Information

			its opening, Soul Art Space will hold an exhibition titled "The Tree of My Life - THE TREE OF MY LIFE" by installation artist Son Bongchae from December 2, 2020 to February 17, 2021. Artist Son Bongchae has been steadily associated with Soul Art Space since his individual exhibition in 2013, and this opening ceremony is a rare stage where you can meet his three-dimensional flow of paintings in one place, including the flagship series "Migrants" and the newly introduced "War of Flowers." It is also a place to share the author's warm gaze on the growing presence of a tree and an old tree by sprouting from their respective positions. About 30 three-dimensional paintings specialized with their own hands will be displayed at galleries 1, 2, and 3. 



Space Odyssey, the world's largest sculpture, is installed at the outdoor entrance of the National Gwangju Science Museum, which opened this year. The large installation, which is 25 meters high, weighs 110 tons and is tilted 23.5 degrees, which means the axis of the Earth's rotation, is the work of Son Bongchae, who took four years to produce. Kinetic art, which combines cutting-edge engineering technology and art, embodies mankind's endless challenge to the universe, is impressive with the pedals of unicycles that run nonstop. 

Space Odyssey's birth dates back more than 20 years. In 1997, he participated in the Gwangju Biennale as the youngest invited artist, presenting a Kinetic Art with 270 unicycles, which were crushed by unfair power and unable to move forward.



Since then, he has drawn attention from painters as an artist who masters various genres such as installation and performance by lyrically solving problems about Korean modern history and the underprivileged, including the Korean War and May 18th. In particular, his signature work is the "Migrant-Migrants" series, which pioneered the genre of unique three-dimensional painting.

One day, the author said he felt a strong sense of compassion for life as he was pushed around by development as a victim of industrialization while witnessing uprooted pine trees on trucks. He also had a wandering time while studying abroad in other countries, so he created a work that combines Oriental aesthetics and modern technology, comparing modern people who have not settled down dreaming of a better life to pine trees.



Draw each of the five transparent polycarbonates with a serif on them, and install the panel at intervals of 2 centimeters to prevent the pictures from overlapping. The emulsification of polycarbonate other than canvas is impossible to paint, so if you make a mistake, you cannot erase it or use it at all, so you need to be more careful. The five panels, stacked in layers, provide a clear, ashy landscape behind them, and reveal an unfamiliar three-dimensional and spatial sense. Another device of the work is LED lighting installed on the back of the panel. The dreamy scenery emitted by realistic trees and lights is an oil painting, but it gives a sense of Oriental painting as if food were spreading on the canvas, completing a mysterious and deep screen. The overlapping polycarbonate is also a metaphor for the historical reality, in which the thickness of history is produced in a completely different atmosphere when the lights are turned on and off.  



In addition to "immigrant," he also thinks of the life of a dangshan tree that stands silently at the mouth of the countryside in a series of "Water Sound Wind Sound." Attention is drawn to the hundreds of years of time spent with the neighbors, which has been a shade, preventing rain and wind, and the hot story of the Dangsan tree. Recently, he has attempted a series of "War of Flowers" based on the chrysanthemums of each country and has been questioned about the seemingly peaceful situation of the global community. It is seeking a new direction for three-dimensional painting by creating a landscape of colorful and beautiful chrysanthemums from each country. 



Son Bongchae's work, which presents various reasons in terms of form and aesthetics with empathy, solidarity, and extraordinary imagination, asks what kind of tree each person has in his or her mind. Recalling the meaning of being an individual being only when each name is called, the writer suggests to the audience that he/she should seek out the full comfort and empathy in the imagination provided by his/her eyes. Above all, it will be a valuable exhibition to think deeply about what "tree of my life" is at this time when fundamental questions about "me" are raised with Corona 19, and new relationships with the surroundings are required.