2020 Time of Events
Breaking Up, Bunche on Paper, 120 x 162 cm, 2020
2019 Return of the Real
In Return of the Real, I present a series of paintings which portray the tensions in brutal boxing, mixed martial arts and wrestling matches. The extreme moments of being punched, choked and kicked are transferred into thought-provoking events through the painting process. These images can be uncomfortable and traumatic, yet they may be able to provide us an opportunity to rethink our lives in a different way beyond predetermined social criteria and expectations surrounding us, which sometimes make us feel as if we were being situated in the fights.
The fighting images symbolise the events, which can lead to inevitable changes of our lives in a similar way of circulation of the material energies of Yin and Yang in Taoist philosophy. In terms of the colour choices, red represents active energy of Yang (male) and blue symbolises receptive energy of Yin (female), and together they shape our lives and natural world through complementary interconnections. I combined Korean ink and coloured painting techniques together for my new paintings to experiment with their incompatible material characteristics in an entirely new and different way.
The title of this show has originated from the article of the American art critic and historian Hal Foster in 1996. Informed by his critics on the 20th century post-war avant-garde art, the notion of the traumatic real in Abject Art has heavily influenced my own art practice since I was working in San Francisco in 2013. Through my PhD research in the aesthetics of French Philosopher Gilles Deleuze, I have developed the concept of the Real which is ultimately affirmative and transferable. In Deleuze's Transcendental Realism, art is provisionally defined as Agencement machines which operate by connecting different fields and giving the connected assemblage a new sense through experimental processes.
Feb, 2019
Young Maeng
2018 Fractured Affection- Al Real Doll
I am interested in the ethical issues regarding the treatment of Artificial intelligent robots as companions, which could become an indispensable part of human life very soon. This project touches on the issue of the quasi human being, which can blur the boundary between human and non-human and the actual and virtual reality, and how they force us to dispel any pre-existing understandings and well-disposed presuppositions.
2017-2018 Fractured Affection
My project, Fractured Affection, explores questions about your reaction when an object you hold dear is broken, or a strongly held belief betrays you. As French philosopher Gilles Deleuze states, this might be the moment which leads you to encounter the real through involuntary violence. This series of paintings includes broken pieces of everyday life objects and continuously drying flowers, which express their own beauty and existence as they are.
2015-2016 Sandys (The Process of painting Sandys)
2012 -2014 Bunche Painting on Korean Paper
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The Memory of San Francisco (Bunche on Korean paper, 18" x 24", 2014)
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring (Bunche on Korean Paper, 2015)
2010 -2012 Perfumed Violence
I am interested in the invisible form of violence which stems from social criteria and pressure from dominant value. I call it “perfumed violence”. My work Perfumed Violence was inspired by the Filipino filmmaker, Kidlat Tahimik whose film is titled “Perfumed nightmare (1977).” His film is playful and humorous but relates to social criticism and includes a bitter satire on post-neocolonial world. This neo-colonial power disguises themselves as progress and convenience for the future.
Life in peace never seems to be attainable in excessive capitalism which has been producing gluttonous desire. The uncontrollable, surging gold hair is trying to grab whatever it wants. This symbolizes unsatisfied desire in the highly capitalistic society which has obliterated indigenous Korean cultures and values. Peace never sits in company with unattainable desire. Contemporary interpretation of peace is another name of the unattainable.
2010 - 2012 Daily Life- Pressure (Oil and Acrylic Paintings)
Mom help me!, Oil color on canvas,180"x 38", 2011
