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Solar Eclipse
Jaehwan Park2011
Korean Art Museum Association
Seoul, South Korea
Details
- Title: Solar Eclipse
- Creator: Park, Jaehwan
- Creator Lifespan: 1978
- Creator Nationality: Korean
- Creator Birth Place: Jeju, Korea
- Date Created: 2011
- Physical Dimensions: h20 cm
- Type: Media, Installation
- Medium: Single channel video
- Critic's Note: Park, Jaehwan’s Erussisiom is the product of observations and analysis of the world of molds. His perspective can be divided largely into three parts. First, he considers the comparison of the formation of mold to the birth and formation of a small universe. Second, he reveals the invisible world from a miniature proportion. Third, the process the mold undergoes is parallel to the course of the earth and human history. Let’s look closely at what he experienced while observing the mold. After the Big Bang when major continents were created, the rainy season took place and the appearance of mold, including the spore, could be found at this early stage. When you look at the course of human history; the formation of civilization and population’s increase and decrease is similar to mold’s development when it is affected by a sudden temperature change. Park presents his evidence through detailed scientific experiments. He emphasizes the credibility of the scientific experiments by displaying graphs and distribution charts, which refers to different types of mold production from temperature changes. The analysis is presented with photographs and movie clips, which insinuates a scene from a science museum. Actually, Park’s work is a farce. He shows the results of simulations based on the scientific experiments. The data, statistics, analysis, and verification process from the experiments are manipulated and planned from the beginning. His continental drift theory, temperature changes, population growth, and characteristics of cell division are not exactly right comparing to the actual fact. Many changes are created and patch-worked by Park. For example, in the work entitled ‘The Beginning of Rainy Season,’ he waters the mold and makes changes to it. Also in ‘The Movement of Earth’s Crust,’ he breaks the moldy bread and rearranges it like the continents. Why does he keep manipulating his work to create fictional experiments? Of course, the change in the mold itself is a real phenomenon of the nature, not fictional. One more curious thing is that his experiment is considered artwork, not a science report. What ground to accept his documentation on the process of the image creation, which comes from the observation on the mold. How different would an audience distinguish the same work if it is presented in a science museum and a fine art museum? Let’s bring light to the matter by first focusing on the fact that his work is a fictional experiment. Also, let’s consider that he compares the mold’s developmental stages to the movement of the earth’s crust and considers it as makeup of the soil. As discussed at the beginning, the answer is derived from the second point of view, revealing the invisible world in miniature proportion. The proportion can be changed depending on what the standard is, which leads to the discussion: the change of human perspective affects the standard. When the mold expands and when the human accepts this as a natural phenomenon, the micro world becomes a grand creature beyond the human’s eye. The direction of the project, which he entitled , includes the experiment of the microscopic world. The change of proportion manipulates the perspective on the object or phenomenon. “Micro” literally means very small thing, but in his work, the word “small” is to be translated as a symbolic term. The viewpoint of “micro” is leading the audience to rethink the real meaning of the object and/or phenomenon by showing the proportion shift. The outlook on the micro world includes scaling the objects up and down depending on the human standard. Park attempts to have the audience have a new view of the small object when it is brought up to the human eye level. As he said, it is a kind of architecture, fictionally created as an information structure. His experiment confuses people over its validity, and through this exercise the world of molds doesn’t seem very different from human history. It is a way to urge introspection on the view of humanity, to see the object or phenomenon. Park’s experiment is about the mold, it is not limited to the image of mold. He tries to show the change and flow of the energy that is related to the birth and death of the universe. Therefore, his experiment uses the small world of the mold as a metaphor to show large-scale changes, such as, the movement of the continents. Bringing the invisible world of microorganisms to the visible world is another way to actualize the fictional world. The new point of view is to see the situation that has developed by going through the change in proportions. This confirms and recognizes the human’s point of view in a new light. Park’s experiment provides reasons to pay more attention to the phenomenon, rather than to change the perspective and cognition of human.
- Artist's Education: Ecole supérieure des arts, Saint-Luc de Bruxelles, Bachelier en arts plastiques, visuels et de l'espace, IllustrationEcole supérieure d'art de Mulhouse, Diplome Nationale d'Art Plastique, ArtDong-A University, Korea. B.A., French Language and Literatures
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