[비즈한국] The 'Korean Art Support Project,' a program designed to cultivate fertile soil for Korean art, begins its 12th season. This initiative has now been recognized by the art world as a meaningful event for discovering and nurturing artists. It is well-regarded among artists as a project they aspire to participate in. The core keyword that the 'Korean Art Support Project' has pursued from the beginning is the 'embrace of diverse trends in Korean art and the pursuit of developmental change.' As a result of these principles, it is credited with establishing a unique perspective for viewing contemporary Korean art.
We feel a sense of comfort in familiar realities and landscapes. In unfamiliar places, we drift into feelings of alienation. Yet, there is a strange excitement in that—a flutter of anticipation.
What, then, is the feeling of anticipation mixed with comfort? It is like a deviation in the lives of ordinary people living based on stable routines, such as the emotions one might encounter in a travel destination for the first time. It is also like the subtle thrill felt when suddenly stumbling upon a unique landscape hidden within a famous scenic spot.
There are times when a familiar reality appears unfamiliar. If we pay just a little attention to the mundane daily life we encounter every day, we can find it anytime. The unique landscapes shaped by nature are such cases.
Blood-red cumulus clouds rising as they soak up the sunset on a late summer evening after a downpour has stirred things up. An unrealistically large moon that suddenly appears between downtown buildings around the first full moon of the Lunar New Year. A village landscape glowing brightly in the sunlight against a backdrop of pitch-black clouds heavy with rain. A pale moon floating in the blue sky we glance at thoughtlessly. The skyline of a palace encountered in the heart of downtown Seoul, where high-rise buildings abound.
We often receive a fresh shock when we encounter such landscapes within the banal routine where yesterday is like today and tomorrow will be no different. It is similar to the excitement of finding anticipation within familiarity.
Isn't this the freshness that art brings? Making highly ordinary subject matter appear new is one of the conditions for a masterpiece. Numerous masterpieces that have earned their names in art history have discovered new aspects of familiar reality in just this way.
The goal of Song Gwang-chan’s work is also to find that unfamiliar perspective existing within familiarity. He captures familiar everyday landscapes through photography. His work captures the atmosphere of the city, the appearance of streets, the mundane daily lives of people in strange cities, or the people passing by nonchalantly within them.
The essence of the photographic medium is primarily to capture reality without addition or subtraction. The reality that Song Gwang-chan has used as the scope of his work consists of landscapes that are very familiar to us. Yet, they look unrealistic. This is because an unfamiliar perspective is embedded within the familiar landscape.
The artist's gaze, which shows the inner side of the palace coexisting with modern buildings, is like that, and by processing the flowers blooming in the palace courtyard in achromatic colors, he creates a strange atmosphere. It seems as though he is trying to show the distance in time between the palace and the era in which we live. The artist says he uses an 'infrared technique' to create these effects.
“I try to capture the world through infrared techniques. Just as an ordinary landscape becomes a special one depending on how individuals interpret it with their own purpose, a place seen through a specific wavelength makes common daily life appear a little more special.”
That is why Song Gwang-chan's photographs hold a familiar yet unrealistic sense of anticipation.