Exhibition Information

(출처= 닻미술관)

(출처= 닻미술관)

(출처= 닻미술관)

(출처= 닻미술관)

			Home again,

 

Home is where our lives begin. It is a personal refuge to which one returns after a long day’s work, a place with a unified beginning and end, where one can stay in peace. Home is a body containing thetraces of one’s life, thus constituting a person’s unique way of being. Houses huddled together in a village, surrounding mountains and fields, paths frequented by neighbors, and the interiors and exteriors of the houses—all relate to one another in various ways, gradually and harmoniously expanding over the years from a single point to the vast universe that surrounds it.

 

Many of us live according to the efficient and convenient values of Western modernization, even before knowing the traditional ways of life that have taken place in our land. Living amidst the overflow of new things and pressing daily routines, we ask-where have we come from, and where are we headed? Where is our home? Not a home that can be translated into materialistic value but one where our roots trace back to. Are we living better now than the time described in the old hymn: “One household, working till all work is done; Morning and evening in love and good cheer; One table, with food and drink shared as one; This is our Garden of Eden right here!...”

 

At the artist’s studio in Andong, where I visited in preparation for this exhibition, I read an article by the artist printed in an old publication. The article, titled For What and for Whom, was written in his 50s, containing the thoughts on his social responsibility as a photographer through questions like “Who are my photographs for, and how can I contribute to society as a photographer?” Though much has changed, the unchanged and fundamental question—the old question of how to live and what for—is raised again through the silence of his photographs.

 

After the long winter, around the time of Usu and Gyeoungchip, or when the ice on Daedong Riveris said to melt, photographer Joo, Myung Duck offered to print a few more photographs at his Andong studio. For him, the darkroom is the most comfortable home. The exhibition includes both early photographs personally printed by the artist in the 80s, and new prints made in his darkroom just a few weeks ago. As we selected the photographs for the exhibition, Joo shared stories of where and when he had taken each photograph. Though we simply look at them, the photographs taken by Joo are footprints and memories of his life.

 

As the first exhibition of 2021, Datz Museum of Art presents Home, featuring photographs by Joo, Myung Duck, the father of Korean modern photography and the documenter of the light that has touched our land. A good photograph evokes memories and conveys the tone of the photographer’s gaze. The light, wind and invisible air surrounding the houses in the photos contain the warm love that Joohas long held for our land and its people. We invite you to the Home of his photographs, which capture scenes of life in the old days when people embraced abundance in their hearts with little at hand.

 

Sangyon Joo_Director, Datz Museum of Art