h project: home & house  2002. 8. 20 - 29

Unstable fence, floating house : For sun young byun's solo exhibition

by Shin Eui Park (Art Critic)

We constantly ask question: What is art? This is not a new question, but has been asked for years. ?And it appears to be more appealing in this era of tremendous change of media culture through fast growth of digital technologies. Is art something great? If art has some significant meaning, what is its entity? The concept of art may be updated through contemporary circumstance and evolution, but the fundamental question on art itself may not be changed. Then, the power of art can be considered coming from our daily lives. That is, we consistently ask questions via observation and way of thinking. The artist's sharp line of vision wakes up our routine life and shakes up our stagnant way of living; the reason for existence of art may come from the role of disturbing our lives. This should be kept on going in this digital era with the same driving force as ever.

Byun's works talk about home and house. The house is suggested by only subject matter in her works. but the artist so that the eye of artist always stops it with detailed concepts. The thought of artist, therefore, never depends on the framework of ideology which around the giant shrine of art. It must come from her vivid experiences, and it must be practical. It speaks in languages which are small but not dwarfish, and not in large scale but precious. In these reasons, Byun's works start with extremely personal stories, but make sufficient sympathy for everyone.

She understands home not only as a place where family gets love and protection but also as a site where there are complications and confrontations. The members of family meet and depart in the entangled atate of each other's social life, desires of self-accomplishment and confrontations. The image of warm and happy sweet home is too abstract to express these real environment of home. Rather, speaking in functional sense, home may be considered as a junction of roads where members of family rest, sleep, excretion and then again go out for work. Byun's works disturb us in this sense. Her works start with breaking the traditional and symbolic meaning of home. Sometimes as a woman, the meaning of home and house might not be a shelter for self-accomplishment and social activity to her, but a unstable fence which cause a lot of agony and trouble rather. Perhaps, "unstable" at home may be similar to the structures of society. She depicts home as an uncomfortable place which is not comforting her exhausted flesh with warm heart and soul, but where she is hurt, depressed.

Byun prepared two spaces for this show. One is composed of 100 painting works, and the other is for big scale installation work. The painting works are the ?results of narrative story of her personal diary written in following the flow of her unconsciousness. The icon of the house is, in the form with roof and main frame as in children's drawings, and in sweet pink hue. One hundred works show various transforms along with her internal stories. The house are expressed in overlapping forms of happiness and peace, and as a deformed body which is attached to her flesh as well. Houses coincide with the form of Eros and connected with detailed wings of house. The broken wing represents the imperfect completion of happiness and peace. Houses, on the other hand, are connected to her head, connected to her breasts forming milking ways, and sometimes set sruck on her heart. House is a life-form like a living body to women; what dose it mean? That might be the expression of the assumption that house moves according to her movement. That might also mean that house are always with her as a bulky, slow, and mind disturbing body.

On the other hand, house is the space of existence and absence. The being of a pair of shoes represents the existence of someone in the house. However, it may symbolize the "absence" at the same time. That is ; someone is there but there is not anyone; family is here, but there isn't any real ego and self. Sometimes house contains the mind and circumstances of the artist. We can find the expressions of chill, loneliness, and along the blowing winds around the house. This atmosphere carries on her installation works. lots of pink fur are on the 300x240 cm floor, and in the middle of it lie big threatening needles, and a 220x180x80 cm pink house made of pink balloons, looks as if it is about to fly propelled by the fur, and there also exists a sense of crisis as if the house falls on top of the needles and explodes. We can see some uncertainty, falsity in her paintings, but also the will of light and floating freedom as well. Everyone should give some thoughts on the floating house and body and its purposes. What are we seeking in this wandering sense of float, what meaning are we looking for.....?