Is of: Seoraksan

Is of Seoraksan
Printed with pigments extracted from fall leaves
90 x 70cm, 2013


Is of Seoraksan
Printed with pigments extracted from fall leaves
90 x 70cm, 2013


Is of Seoraksan
Printed with pigments extracted from fall leaves
90 x 70cm, 2013


Is of Seoraksan
Printed with pigments extracted from fall leaves
90 x 70cm, 2013


Installation view from Is of Seoraksan
Solo show at Alt space loop, Seoul, 2012


Installation view from Is of Seoraksan
Solo show at Alt space loop, Seoul, 2012


Installation view from Is of Seoraksan
Solo show at Alt space loop, Seoul, 2012


Installation view from Is of Seoraksan
Solo show at Alt space loop, Seoul, 2012


Installation view from Is of Seoraksan
Solo show at Alt space loop, Seoul, 2012


Installation view from Is of Seoraksan
Solo show at Alt space loop, Seoul, 2012


Installation view from Is of Seoraksan
Solo show at Alt space loop, Seoul, 2012


Installation view from Is of Seoraksan
Solo show at Alt space loop, Seoul, 2012


Is of 시리즈의 최종결과물은 사진이다. 하지만 그 이미지는 사진 속 실제 피사체로부터 추출한 색소를 잉크로 써서 프린트한 것이다. Is of: Seoraksan (2012) 제작과정에서, 작가는 설악산의 단풍이미지를 실제 설악산의 노랗고 붉고 푸른 낙엽을 수집하고 각종 장치를 이용해 추출해낸 색소로 프린트했다. 이렇게 프린트된 사진이미지는 일반 기성잉크로 프린트된 것에 비해 색의 재현이 정확하지 못하고, 빛이나 산소에 노출되면 시간에 흐름에 따라 점점 색이 바래진다. 이러한 점은 마치 단풍잎이 색이 바래지는 것과 같이 그 이미지는 자연의 본질과 매우 닮아있다. 또한 단풍잎에서 추출한 색소로 프린트된 단풍 이미지의 색은 작가가 의도한 색이 아니다. 즉, 단풍이 ‘스스로 그러한 색’을 스스로 표현한 것이다. 이 작품의 또 다른 특징은 과거의 이미지이면서 동시에 현재에도 존재하는 물질이라는 점이다. 일반적으로 사진은 찍힌 순간부터 사진 속 실제 피사체와 시공간적으로 분리되기 시작한다. 예컨대 우리가 어떤 피사체의 사진을 바라보고 있을 때쯤이면, 이미 실제 피사체는 변해버렸거나 사라져버린다는 것이다. 하지만 Is of: Seoraksan의 이미지는 단풍잎의 색소, 즉 생물학적 속성을 물려받은 추출물로 이루어져 있다. 다시 말해서 관객은 이 작품을 통해 단풍의 허구적 이미지가 아닌 실재 단풍의 일부를 보고 있는 것이다.

The final output of the Is of series is a series of photographs. The photographs are printed using the pigments extracted from the objects photographed. For example, the work Is of: Seoraksan (2012) is printed with ink made with the pigments extracted from the yellow, red, and green foliage I collected from Seoraksan, or Mount Seorak, and the extraction itself involved an elaborate set of equipment and processes. In comparison to photographs printed with a commercial ink, the photographs printed using natural pigments are not as accurate in terms of color spectrum; moreover, when the prints are exposed to light or oxygen, they gradually lose their colors, in the same way that autumn foliage might gradually lose its color on the ground. In this aspect the images in this series have the natural quality, which is the quality of being what it is. The colors in the print are dictated by nature itself, not by me; in other words, they are what they are. The photographs in the Is of series are images from the past, but materially they continue to exist in the present. In general, an object in a photograph begins to be separated from its own image from the moment the object is photographed. By the time a viewer is looking at an object in a photograph, the actual object is either transformed or no longer in existence. However, in the case of Is of: Seoraksan, the viewer sees the object made in its own biological properties. In other words, what the viewer sees in this work is not a fictional image of autumn foliage but a component of the actual foliage.