그럼에도 불구하고 | OBSCURA
2022. 7. 1 - 7. 24
2022. 7. 1 - 7. 24
[notwithstanding]은 이정웅의 판타지가 상징 중심에서 탈-상징으로 변화하는 기점이다. 이번 그의 판타지는 실재계적 어떤 것(근원)으로 해석되지 않고 상상계 안에서 진화를 추구한다. 작가는 문학의 형태로 진화의 시도를 제안한다. “고목나무와 흰 두꺼비, 물길을 따라 쪼개지고 쓰러졌다, 타일이 있는 붉은 벽, 불타는 나무를 위한 춤, 안개.” 현상 서술적인 작품 제목의 모둠은 작품 간의 상호 작용을 일으키고 상상을 증폭시킨다. 다른 하나의 제안은 “인 더 레인(In the Rain)”이란 제목의 짧은 이야기이다. 이는 작업의 시작에서 기획하며 적은 것이 아니다. 그는 마쳐진 결과물들 앞에서 상상의 이야기를 써 내려갔다. 우리가 유의할 점은 이것은 작품의 안내서가 아니라는 것이다. 상상을 위한 초대장이다. 이제 이야기의 시작은 여기부터이다.
“내가 말했지, 비가 그치면 모든 것이 바뀔 거라고.”
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Notwithstanding : OBSQURA
2022
2022
On July 1, Obscura will present Notwithstanding by Jeongwoong Lee, an artist who creates fantasy narratives with multi-layered symbols. Lee has been active internationally holding exhibitions in places such as the UK, Hong Kong and Singapore. Notwithstanding will mark Lee’s first solo exhibition in South Korea in nearly ten years, where twelve works of painting, including new and old, will be featured. His paintings portray imaginary narratives that traverse reality and fantasy in a manner unique to the medium of painting.
Lee combines not only various images but also different points in time and places, and presents them in fragmentations. In his work, there are also a number of conflicting symbolic codes such as the Korean white veil and Japanese kimono; black stones and white marble; burning wood and processed, exposed wood; and flowing streams and closed water taps. A general reading of such work would take a note of these symbols to decipher their meaning, which is analogous to a process of approaching “the real” through “things.” In his previous series Reverie and Laputa, the interpretation of their symbolic imagery served as an identity of the work; it no longer holds in the new work. Rather, they function as a symbolic veil, which distracts the viewer from approaching the work in a meaningful way. In this vein, Notwithstandingrepresents a groundbreaking point in Lee’s artistic journey since his Laputa exhibition.
Notwithstanding can be understood as a turning point/watershed moment/threshold where the previously symbolism-heavy tenor of Lee’s work shifts to the non-symbolic. In this exhibition, Lee’s fantasies are less about tracing some sort of transcendental Real that gave rise to such fantasies than immanent developments within imagination. It can also be transformed into a form of literature. The titles of the work, such as Old Trees and White Toads, Split and Collapsed Along the Water Path, The Tiled Red Wall, The Ritual Dance for Burned the Old Tree, and The Myst, are descriptive, which create relationships between paintings and unexpected imagination. The objective description stretches the imaginative elements of the narrative. Meanwhile, Lee makes another suggestion with the title, In the Rain." Rather than starting his painting from a certain narrative, Lee has been inspired to write fictions by his own finished work. Thus, the narrative is not a guide to the work. Rather, it's an invitation to the realm of imagination. In Notwithstanding, the beginning and the end of the narrative complete the circle.
"I give you the idea, and everything will change when it stops raining."
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<In The Rain>
“온종일 비가 내렸다 그치길 반복하는 곳에서 그들은 기약 없이 배회하고 있다. 입김이 나진 않지만 공기는 차갑고 주변의 모든 것이 젖어 있어 짙은 색을 띠고 있다. 돌들은 대체로 검고 하얀 돌들은 반듯하게 조각되어 있다. 무엇이 지나간 것일까? 대부분 나무들은 성한 곳을 찾아 보기 힘들게 꺾이고 부러졌으며 속이 타들어 가거나 나무 무늬의 선명한 속살을 드러내고 있다. 그 광경을 바라본 유카타를 입은 여인은 장옷의 흰 옷깃을 여민다. 계곡에 이르렀을 때 굽이 치는 물살이 내는 소리에 맞추어 소매가 긴 여인들이 춤을 춘다. 장옷을 여맨 유카타의 여인은 위로 받는다. 그곳에서 잠시 쉬었다가 이동할 계획이다. 검은 나무 밑에 자리를 잡았다. 가지가 하나만 꺾였는대도 그 모습이 볼 품 없었다. 그리고 이름도 없었다. 그 앞에 그들처럼.
잠시 뒤 다시 추스려 이동 준비를 한다. 반나절 하천에 이르러 원숭이랑 조우했다. 하얀 돌로 매끈하게 다듬어진 다리를 건너갈 생각이었다. 일전에 안개 낀 계곡에서 해코지 하던 원숭이 인줄 알았지만 의심할 새도 없이 알 수 없는 말을 남기고 떠났다. 곰곰히 생각해보면 안개 낀 계곡에서 해코지하던 원숭이에 대한 변명처럼 느껴졌다. 생각을 접고 다리를 건넜다. 반대편 멀리 고목나무를 오르던 염소들이 나무 속이 타들어 가자 내려 오지 못하고 있었다. 가랑비에 꺼질 불이 아니었다. 소매긴 여인들이 또다시 위로의 춤을 춘다. 한 참 뒤 흐린 날임에도 그림자가 길게 드리운다. 언덕 위 붉은 벽 폐허에서 밤을 보내려 했다. 기존의 것을 덮고 그 위에 지어 놓은 것 같은 조악한 이곳에 타일로 된 수조가 있었다. 그 안에 비단잉어가 갇혀 있었다. 오래전부터 인적이 없을 이곳에 누가 가져다 놓은 것일까? 미움을 산 그 원숭이가 떠오른 건 좀처럼 지울 수가 없었다.
다음날 언덕 넘어 내려갔다. 지난 밤사이 폭우가 쏟아졌다. 하천은 불어나 있었고 하얀 돌로 매끈하게 다듬어진 다리는 그 형체가 일부만 남아 조각나 있었다. 이곳 저곳 흩어진 곳을 찾아 또다시 여인들은 위로의 춤을 춘다. 고목나무 근처의 다리 조각에서 흰두꺼비가 말을 걸어왔다. 무슨 말을 전할지 빤히 처다보다가 한참 뒤에서야 자신은 할 만큼 했다라며 떠났다. 그 또한 무슨 말을 전하고 싶은 지 그 또한 도통 알 수 없었다. 밑빠진 독을 막을 수 있지만 쌓이고 쌓여 불어난 물살을 막을 수 없다는 것인가? 발길을 돌려 쪼개지고 쓰러진 나무들 따라 흐르는 얕은 계곡을 따라 이동한다. 여인들은 소매를 들어 적삼을 휘두르듯 춤사위를 춘다. 상처 받은 나무들을 지날 때마다 동작은 더욱 크고 대담해지지만 펄럭이는 소매 소리는 생각보다 낮고 간결하다. 얕은 계곡의 물살 또한 마음의 궂은 부분을 조용히 씻어내린다. 크고 작은 물살들이 모여 만나는 지점 그 끝에 다다르게 되면 이곳에서 정처 없이 떠돌던 배회도 끝이 보이리라.“
작가노트중
<In the Rain>
In a place where it repeats raining and stopping all day long, they wander aimlessly with no promise of return. Though no breath fogs the air, the atmosphere is biting cold, and everything around is drenched, taking on a deep, saturated hue. The stones are mostly black, while the white ones are neatly sculpted. What could have passed through here? It is hard to find a single tree intact; most are snapped and broken, either burnt to their hollow core or exposing the vivid flesh of their wood grains. Gazing upon this vista, a woman dressed in a yukata tightens the white collar of her jang-ot. Upon reaching a valley, women with long, flowing sleeves begin to dance in time with the roaring sound of the twisting torrent. The woman in the yukata, her jang-ot held tight, finds consolation. They plan to rest there briefly before moving on. They take their place beneath a black tree. Though only a single branch was snapped, its appearance was utterly forlorn. And like them standing before it, it had no name.
A moment later, they collect themselves and prepare to move again. By midday, they reached a river and encountered a monkey. They intended to cross a bridge smoothly fashioned out of white stone. She wondered if it was the same monkey that had harassed them back in the misty valley, but before she could harbor suspicion, it left behind incomprehensible words and departed. Thinking upon it deeply, it felt like an excuse for the harm it had caused in that misty valley. Dismissing the thought, they crossed the bridge. Far on the opposite side, goats that had climbed an old tree could not come down as the inside of the tree began to burn from within. It was not a fire to be extinguished by a drizzle. Once again, the long-sleeved women perform their dance of consolation. A long while later, despite the overcast day, shadows stretch long across the ground. They intended to spend the night in the red brick ruins atop the hill. Within this crudely built place, which looked as though it had been hastily constructed over the ruins of something pre-existing, sat a tiled water tank. Confined inside was a koi fish. In a place where no one could have set foot for ages, who could have brought it here? The thought of that resented monkey came to mind, and it could not easily be erased.
The next day, they crossed over the hill and went down. Heavy torrential rain had poured during the night. The river had swollen, and the bridge that had been smoothly fashioned from white stone was now fractured, leaving only a partial silhouette. Searching for the scattered and broken pieces here and there, the women dance their dance of consolation once more. Near the old tree, from a fragment of the broken bridge, a white toad spoke to them. Staring intently to see what message it would deliver, the toad left after a long pause, saying only that it had done all it could. It, too, left her completely unable to comprehend what it truly wished to convey. Did it mean that while a leaking jar could be plugged, there was no stopping the swollen, accumulating torrent? Turning away, they move along a shallow stream that flows past split and fallen trees. The women lift their sleeves, dancing as if wielding the fabric of their inner robes. Whenever they pass the wounded trees, their movements become larger and bolder, yet the rustling sound of their fluttering sleeves is lower and more succinct than expected. The gentle current of the shallow valley also quietly washes away the grim, troubled parts of the heart. When they reach the end—the very point where the large and small currents converge and meet—the aimless wandering that transpired here will finally see its end.
-Artist’s notes
Exhibited Works