YONG SIK   PARK

Standing on the borderline

 

 Anthropomorphized animals are found in fables, cartoons or fairy tales to 'scold' or to 'satire' wrongdoings of human. Their world is just like ours with the still rampant law of survival of the fittest. Also, so-called, justice rules the world so the good prevails and the villains are punished, like the Aesop Fables, Lion King and the Big-Eyed Frog. Sometimes, the animals in those fables and cartoons are smarter tasks; actally, they help their owners to go into the right track when people go astray. They drive away the villains and solve the problems. They are the real heroes of the stories. These familiar animal characters actively participate and influence the human world in various ways. They are close friends of us and sometimes represent the human world, enriching our narratives.

 Park Yongsik's dogs, mice, ducks and cats exist in their own world; in their own private league. They do not stand in the relation of master and servant with human; furthermore, they are neither parastic nor overrule our intelligence. In Park's works, flowers bloom with the tails of the mice and dogs; ducks are sitting in their tubs on the beach; and the dog with a cat claw floats around with wings. They do not pose symbolic gestures nor try to give us some lectures; rather, they are just 'being in (certain) state'. They are free from any grand narratives yet appear to be laid on the line of boundaries. They exist in the regin of 'state'; the state of action, the state of silence, and the state of suspension. We could try to make up some stories with their 'state', but they're too quiet and too harmonious to derive any artificial narrative. As can be seen from the titles of Park's previous works, Park's works display grim sentiment and hypocritical paradox even with their cute size and charming looks. In his works, animals set up a monument for the sake of 'Village Peace' and host an operative mission to win over Goliath. In other works, they fly over ships; participate parley (try-partite conference); or randomly show up in the peaceful gallery space. They are anthropomorphized but do not tell us what they are really doing and where the came from. We see a mouse with a Jedi pose, staring at us with dignity; a big belly cat with a thick fur scaf standing on piled-up books; ducks in the rubber tub; and a winged dog.  Who knows, they will soon leave to the sea, to the unknown and mysterious realm where we can never reach. /skape gallery curater Yunkyong Kim