Gazing

“It dawned on me on several occasions that I was standing in the forest that it was not I that was gazing at the woods. On some days, I felt the trees looking back at me and reaching out to speak to me. I was standing there and listening...

It is my belief that an artist has been permeated by the universe and must not wish to penetrated it back. I hope to submerge and be concealed within. Perhaps I painted in an attempt to find escape. - Andre Marchan)

Discourse on contemporary sculpture requires a presupposition that the flow of time is not excluded in space art including sculptures. Substance exists not only in a certain space, but also within a passage of time. All spacial structures carries an intrinsic trait of experience in time.

Su-Yeon Oh has fundamentally dealt with themes such as 'Time and Being' and 'The Traits of Time' that are found in our daily lives. The artist is attempting to reaffirm one's being by tracking the experience of time.

Along these lines, the pieces in the 'Gazing' series of this exhibition may seem derivative due to the contemplative view the artists takes on each of the objects; but for the artist, the gaze that endlessly distinguishes myself from the other becomes a rolling landscape of the forest beyond the horizon that moves afar as much as one moves closer within the relative relationship between each object.

The gestures reaching out to the people observing the pieces are part of an effort to confirm one's being and the gaze of the artist expresses the variation of power intrinsic in the pieces.

This is also reflective of the shifts we undergo in life as we are not a static being clinging on to the same way of thinking and values, but change our views at different points in our lives according to what we experience.

Each of the small pieces in this exhibition held under the themes 'Gazing - people' and 'Gazing - story' seem like simple figures or objects that stand in a uniform line. The fact that they are approached as a single mass rather than as individual beings is representative of those - or rather, us - living within a social framework that requires uniformity and regulations.

「Gazing - Just keep on walking」 ● I gaze at the people walking along the street. The place and the time of day do not matter. The people are walking up or down the street. There are those who stop for a moment, and there are those who hurry on as if anxious not to be left behind. Someone asks a person of his or her destination. The person gives the questioner a suspicious look and then simply walks away. This is what I have observed of us, the people who just keep on walking. - From the artist's notes

The artist is employing the method of 'repetition and integration' to effectively convey the stories of her life. This approach serves to reveal the significance of daily life and its values as the individual entries may express the unique dailiness of the artists when complied. This approach and the installation firstly erases the boundaries of the closed space so that all that exists within the space expand infinitely; and secondly enables the individuals in the room - be it the artists or visitors - to perceive the disunion of the self by experiencing how the self may be multiplied.

Su-Yeon Oh's 'Gazing' which seeks to redefine space allows us to exist in reality rather than ponder about it. One must not cease to realize how the sculptures of men seize the actual space, or in other words the fact that these invisible forces have control over the space to covey the creator's message.

Shaping figures with earth as the medium is a time-consuming, repetitive, and above all arduous work. The unconscious repetitiveness that appears in all the artist's work is a key factor that creates the monotone of repetition in her work. However, the pieces created by the artist crosses the boundaries in our subconsciousness that has been unconsciously boosted every time a new form is created, and the artist breaks free within her work.