Are the works created by Chung, Kyoung-Yeon craft-works or sculptures? This question is a keyword which reminds us of the position of the artist in the art circles. The works may be craft-works or sculptures; this definition may lead to a conclusion that they are neither craft-works nor sculptures. When she first appeared to the art circles, her works were a topic of discussion over some time about which category they could be classified into. Speaking of their materials (substances) themselves, they can be definitely called fibrous craft-work; in contrast, as for their form and function, they can be considered sculptures or cubic objects. Fiber is an artistic sphere in which daily supplies are produced by using cloths as a basic material. However, the works of Chung, Kyoung-Yeon go constantly beyond the scope of craft-works since their function gets out of the original purposes of fiber and are intended to be artistic works in themselves. That is why somewhat conservative fiber artists contend her works are not fibrous craft-works and why progressive artists consider that the works have opened a new horizon in the circles of Korean fiber art in line with the trend of the times that soft sculptures are emerging as a new genre. Moreover, an art critic named Il Yi evaluates her works, saying "The works are at the same time paintings and sculptures which maintain the physical property and texture of an object. In a word, they are of various natures." Still now, the position of the artist is considered not a half measure but an extensive one. She serves as a professor in a university and teaches fiber art, but her activities cover fiber art, paintings, sculptures, etc. She is asked to attend major invitation exhibitions for modern fine arts not as a fiber artist but as a modern formative artist. In this sense, she clearly goes beyond the scope of fiber art and stands as an artist who has expanded the possibility that fiber art can become modern formative art. She treats fiber as a substance and, in practice, gloves as a material. In other words, in her works, material as a substance is exquisitely turned into material as a subject matter. In exceptional cases, gloves are expressed with not fiber but with such materials as terra cotta and bronze; but anyone always regards Chung, Kyoung-Yeon as a formative artist who expresses gloves with either a substance or a material. She is called "an artist of gloves" since she sticks always to a certain material. In fact, she has treated with the material of gloves ever since her taking to the stage till today when her position as an artist is inseparably interwoven with gloves, which have been established as an image of her other self.
What are gloves? They are things worn around hands and fingers so as to primarily protect hands from cold or harm. There are few other things which are worn closer to a human body to protect it than gloves. So, gloves have the most bodily or humane odor and gloves materialize a specific meaning and/or symbol. In many cases, hand-knitted gloves are given as a gift to loved or respected people. Chung, Kyoung-Yeon herself said that she started to use gloves as an artistic material during her staying in a foreign country when her mother sent her a pair of gloves as a gift. The gloves, which are simple things, embody the artist's yearning, longing and thanking for her beloved mother.
Gloves do not simply function as a wrapping for the body but humanly as an extension of the body. It is probably due to gloves' great personification that the artist has especially stuck to gloves. The essence of this personification can be particularly attested in the humors unique to the groupings of gloves. Anyone cannot help smiling at the specific expressions of the groups of very common gloves. Anyone cannot help exclaiming at the humorous ways in which gloves are mixed together. Anyone cannot help being touched by the wonderful sentiments in which commonplace gloves are not simply used as a subject matter but the bodily properties of gloves are clearly personified. Gloves embody, following a logic of propagation, the phenomena of life when being plied up according to a certain order. Also, they are protruded outwards like inoculations or mushrooms in order to describe the self-assertions of outcrying beings. Gloves are piled up like gigantic towers or extended long like growing fingers. Sometimes, they are densely tangled together to form a large orderly structure or they materialize the beings which flounder in the air in a disorderly manner. The combination of dyed parts and non-dyed ones depict the visual variations of change and creation. The works are developed, as Il Yi says, “into the world of visual fantasia as if they were propagating infinitely beyond the scope of their entity."
Chung, Kyoung-Yeon consistently uses the material of gloves while trying to make various changes, unlike other artists who like to stay within the realm of their own world. Particular features of the changes she makes in recent days are the employment of planes and rich colors. It is recognized that regression from cubic to plane naturally requires rich colors. The regression may be the results of the changes she has made pursuing after simplicities and depths, which cannot be attested in the structural formative artistic works produced usually from the bodily expressions of and their entanglement of the main material of gloves. Conclusively, it is not an exaggeration to say that sinking deep into the splendid inside represents the richer maturity of the artist.
In 2009
Oh, Gwang-Su
Are the works created by Chung, Kyoung-Yeon craft-works or sculptures? This question is a keyword which reminds us of the position of the artist in the art circles. The works may be craft-works or sculptures; this definition may lead to a conclusion that they are neither craft-works nor sculptures. When she first appeared to the art circles, her works were a topic of discussion over some time about which category they could be classified into. Speaking of their materials (substances) themselves, they can be definitely called fibrous craft-work; in contrast, as for their form and function, they can be considered sculptures or cubic objects. Fiber is an artistic sphere in which daily supplies are produced by using cloths as a basic material. However, the works of Chung, Kyoung-Yeon go constantly beyond the scope of craft-works since their function gets out of the original purposes of fiber and are intended to be artistic works in themselves. That is why somewhat conservative fiber artists contend her works are not fibrous craft-works and why progressive artists consider that the works have opened a new horizon in the circles of Korean fiber art in line with the trend of the times that soft sculptures are emerging as a new genre. Moreover, an art critic named Il Yi evaluates her works, saying "The works are at the same time paintings and sculptures which maintain the physical property and texture of an object. In a word, they are of various natures." Still now, the position of the artist is considered not a half measure but an extensive one. She serves as a professor in a university and teaches fiber art, but her activities cover fiber art, paintings, sculptures, etc. She is asked to attend major invitation exhibitions for modern fine arts not as a fiber artist but as a modern formative artist. In this sense, she clearly goes beyond the scope of fiber art and stands as an artist who has expanded the possibility that fiber art can become modern formative art. She treats fiber as a substance and, in practice, gloves as a material. In other words, in her works, material as a substance is exquisitely turned into material as a subject matter. In exceptional cases, gloves are expressed with not fiber but with such materials as terra cotta and bronze; but anyone always regards Chung, Kyoung-Yeon as a formative artist who expresses gloves with either a substance or a material. She is called "an artist of gloves" since she sticks always to a certain material. In fact, she has treated with the material of gloves ever since her taking to the stage till today when her position as an artist is inseparably interwoven with gloves, which have been established as an image of her other self.
What are gloves? They are things worn around hands and fingers so as to primarily protect hands from cold or harm. There are few other things which are worn closer to a human body to protect it than gloves. So, gloves have the most bodily or humane odor and gloves materialize a specific meaning and/or symbol. In many cases, hand-knitted gloves are given as a gift to loved or respected people. Chung, Kyoung-Yeon herself said that she started to use gloves as an artistic material during her staying in a foreign country when her mother sent her a pair of gloves as a gift. The gloves, which are simple things, embody the artist's yearning, longing and thanking for her beloved mother.
Gloves do not simply function as a wrapping for the body but humanly as an extension of the body. It is probably due to gloves' great personification that the artist has especially stuck to gloves. The essence of this personification can be particularly attested in the humors unique to the groupings of gloves. Anyone cannot help smiling at the specific expressions of the groups of very common gloves. Anyone cannot help exclaiming at the humorous ways in which gloves are mixed together. Anyone cannot help being touched by the wonderful sentiments in which commonplace gloves are not simply used as a subject matter but the bodily properties of gloves are clearly personified. Gloves embody, following a logic of propagation, the phenomena of life when being plied up according to a certain order. Also, they are protruded outwards like inoculations or mushrooms in order to describe the self-assertions of outcrying beings. Gloves are piled up like gigantic towers or extended long like growing fingers. Sometimes, they are densely tangled together to form a large orderly structure or they materialize the beings which flounder in the air in a disorderly manner. The combination of dyed parts and non-dyed ones depict the visual variations of change and creation. The works are developed, as Il Yi says, “into the world of visual fantasia as if they were propagating infinitely beyond the scope of their entity."
Chung, Kyoung-Yeon consistently uses the material of gloves while trying to make various changes, unlike other artists who like to stay within the realm of their own world. Particular features of the changes she makes in recent days are the employment of planes and rich colors. It is recognized that regression from cubic to plane naturally requires rich colors. The regression may be the results of the changes she has made pursuing after simplicities and depths, which cannot be attested in the structural formative artistic works produced usually from the bodily expressions of and their entanglement of the main material of gloves. Conclusively, it is not an exaggeration to say that sinking deep into the splendid inside represents the richer maturity of the artist.
In 2009
Oh, Gwang-Su