Korean Artists Shine in Singapore Biennale
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
Korean artists are attracting attention for their eye-catching and thought-provoking art works at the on-going Singapore Biennale.
Three Korean artists Rhee Ki-bong, Han Jong-gun and Lee Yong-deok were invited to participate in the biennale, which opened last September. The theme for the show is ``Wonder,'' inviting viewers to allow themselves to be surprised and challenged by the contemporary art on display.
One of the highlights is Han's ``Evolutional Mythology,'' on display inside a former restaurant at the landmark City Hall. His work, featuring real gourds shaped to resemble human faces inside glass bottles, has definitely intrigued many.
``The plant silently comes and tells me `Drop all your delusion and desire.' My artwork is like soundless echoes, resonating from the process not from the result. I am a sculptor but tired of carving and decorating. The plant has brought me a gift, a great freedom,'' Han said.
It took Han over a year to finish the work, which involved planting the seeds, growing and nurturing the plant until it bore fruit. He patiently shaped the gourd with his hands everyday to create the eerie-looking human faces, which Han says are everyone's faces.
Rhee's ``Bachelor ― The Dual Body'' is an installation piece involving a book suspended in an aquarium. The special leather copy of Ludwig Wittgenstein's ``Tractatus Logico ― Philosophicus'' does not rise to the surface or sink to the bottom, because of the constant water current. Viewers are mesmerized by the book's pages seemingly dancing inside the tank of water.
``In this work, I wanted the dream-like image to be dominant over the meaning or the material,'' Rhee said.
In the exhibition guide, artistic director Fumio Nanjo said ``it looks like the classic text of Western European analytical philosophy is suspended in midair, coming loose from its bearings due to the waves of globalization.''
On the other hand, Lee's installation ``I'm Not Expensive'' engages the viewers with illusory tricks. On an aluminum plate, there are images of people walking, dancing and sitting around a street. Depending on where the viewer stands, the images seem to shift and move.
``We move towards them, across and away from them, experimenting with our sense of sight and our location. His works are engaging on this basic level of visuality, but then our exploration of his works demand a physical response and an intellectual challenge,'' curator Joselina Cruz said in the exhibition guide.
With 66 artists and art collectives participating, the Singapore Biennale is hoping to establish its place on the international arts map. Organized by the National Arts Council Singapore, the biennale provides a platform for discussing the issues facing contemporary arts around the world.
``The title and theme of `Wonder' call for us to question and be curious. Yet at the same time, to let ourselves be challenged or simply informed by what we can experience through contemporary art as an aperture to the world,'' Nanjo said.
The Singapore Biennale runs through Nov. 16. Admission fee to the biennale venues at City Hall and South Beach Development are 10 Singapore dollars (roughly 9,500 won). Entry to other biennale venues is free. Visit www.singaporebiennale.org.