YONG SIK   PARK

Park Yong-sik Solo Exhibition

Monthly Magazine <Wolgan Misul> December Issue

By Kim In-seon, Art History

 

I was bewildered when I found only photographs at the exhibit venue of sculptor Park Yong-sik. In the photos were a variety of animals set in a specific space, living and open-air space. Park Yong-sik's works on display raise the problems of space, image and reality in a perplexed manner.

Such photographic pieces are of course two-dimensional but what we see is through the photographs are three-dimensional sculptures. These works thus lead us to redefine the conventional notion of space and to reconsider the reality of an unrealistic setting of objects.

 

Asked about the actual setting of those images at the venue, Park replied he worried that they might be tremendously intense. As the images varied, to move all spaces were perhaps beyond his capacity. He realized the media to convey his intention most efficiently was the photography. The characters in his photos were in action. In "The Vacation of Their Own" some ducks are basking in the sun with their bodies in washbowls. Is the vacation successful? They have no expression. In "House Party"mice models are set in the interior of a home. They see each other and gaze at somewhere. They look also inexpressive and thus there is no way how they feel. The cats in "Wartime Meeting to Defeat Goliath"gather together to discuss something but look at different directions respectively.

 

The artist is a sculptor trained in a conventional manner but his work conveys some narratives. The animal characters he renders are a medium to carry such narratives static and inexpressive like a cynical fable. The artist brings about another kind of space in the domain of contemporary art. The imagery in his photographs becomes a means to disclose three-dimensional objects.