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| Media installation artist Shim Young-churl poses with her artwork, titled "Secret Garden," in her workroom. / Courtesy of Shim |
By Jun Ji-hye
Shim Young-churl, a renowned media installation artist, believes that communicating with people who come to her exhibition completes her works of art.
She is exhibiting 121 pieces at the Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art till Aug. 22.
"I saw young children really enjoy my work as all family members can participate in completing the pieces," she said in a recent interview.
Shim gave one example. One of her pieces has a moving camera and a piece of thin cloth. When a visitor approaches it, the camera captures him or her, and then, their silhouette is projected onto the cloth.
"Visitors can touch and experience the pieces. This is the completion of the art," she said.
The exhibition dubbed "Blissful Garden" features Shim's works she created over the past 30 years.
Shim, professor and dean at the Department of Formative Art, College of Fine Arts, at Suwon University, has so far produced four garden series ― Electronic, Monumental, Secret and Matrix gardens.
Blissful Garden is an all-inclusive of these four series.
"My garden series has continued for more than 30 years. This time, I present the Blissful Garden in which I look to explore the chaos of all existence, along with the flamboyance of outward appearances and inner beauty," she said. "While at the same time, I tried to tie up the conflicting topics of creation and extinction, and virtual and true realities into one."
Shim was influenced by Korean-born American media artist Paik Nam-june (1932-2006) who sought to explore the new era of fine art by combining cutting-edge technologies.
"Likewise, I always looked for more sensational means, such as new media or new materials to incorporate them into my artwork," she said.
In the Electronic Garden series created during 1990s, she tried to create chaos by combining art and technology.
"At some point in my life, I had to endure my own chaos ― fate as a woman and uncomfortable stares from prejudiced eyes. They pushed me over the edge and in a direction that I had never expected. The emotions of such times were reproduced in the Electronic Garden as flowers and mushrooms," she said.
Flowers reflect women's wish to be modest but glamorous, and mushrooms represent admiration of men's masculinity. These reflections also filled up the Monumental Garden created in early 2000, she explained.
Passing through adverse times, the highlight of her artworks has moved gradually from exploring outward appearances to a deeper and inner representation of images.
"That is how the Secret Garden was born. I wanted to console women and myself; people whose lives consist of endurance and acceptance of fate," she said.
In the Matrix Garden, she used a stainless steel sphere as a unit for almost all works in order to express creation and extinction, and illusion and reality, while utilizing minimal forms and methods.
"In my fourth garden, I wanted the viewers to see the realms of virtual reality and true reality where what seems to exist doesn't exist and what exists only exists in appearance," she said.
For more information of her exhibition, call (064) 710-7806. She can be reached at ycshim1@hanmail.net
Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye
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