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Thursday, November 3, 2016

Art of Dansaekhwa / Resonance of Ki (氣, Energy)

Resonance of Ki (, Energy)

                                         Yoon Jin Sup(Art Critic)

 Park Daa Won visualizes the vitality of life with one bold and skillful stroke with her new body of works in her a solo exhibition. This exhibition is to show her unique works she painted with spontaneous and intuitive lines in the state filled with energy as if she practiced Zen with all her Ki (, energy) and spirits. This exhibition is significant in a lot of senses in light of the Dansaekhwa (monochromatic paintings) movement popular at home and abroad.


     Art of Tansaekhwa /Nowhere in Blue / Park Daa won

                  Park’s bold strokes runnning on light beige or dark blue planes on wide canvases are based on the One-Stroke Theory coined by the Chinese artist and philosopher of painting, Seok-do. One-Stroke Theory aims to ultimately reach ‘a pure state of primitive essence.’ In other words, the artist’s stroke reveals a longing for ‘the un-scattered state of nature in its primitive form.’ In this perspective, Seok-do claims, ‘One stroke is the basis of ten thousand strokes and ten thousand shapes.’ The fact that Seok-do’s philosophy is sought after in contemporary paintings - in conjunction with issues on artificial intelligence - points to contemporary artists who insist on the technique of single strokes, like Park Daa Won. In short, Park is an artist who persists on the analog method of creation in digital times. Thus, it can be presumed that Park had a strong sense of purpose in her decision and praxis of One-Stroke Theory. Consider the following texts disclosed from Park’s artist notes:   
 “When I begin with my strokes, I pray for time, space and history of the universe; for God’s presence and His love. I hope to share these sentiments with anyone who looks at my paintings.”



                Art of  dansaekhwa /  Now here /  Park Daa Won

Art is a way of expressing the mysterious rules of the universe with a single stroke or a dot. Park Daa Won’s statement may appear rather grandiose, but it includes her vision of the universe or her perspective of time, space and history. The artist realizes her artistic intuition through her body of works. At times, the empty canvas may appear as an object of terror for an artist. The entirety of these ideas act as a metaphor of the Great Void, also known as the universe in its primitive form. In this sense, the two-dimensional planes covered in sun-bathed hues of beige (Now Here series), structural hues of brown (Becoming series), or universal hues of blue (Now Here in Blue series) may all be considered as a metaphor of the universe at large.

 Therefore, Park’s one-stroke painting with her single-color brush embodying all her energy signifies the primitive act of creating ripples of energy into the uninhabited vacuum of the universe. If such energy is regarded as the concentration of the artist’s Ki collected from the body, the act of translating Ki onto the canvases can be observed as a primitive form of artistic gesture. Park’s employment of the brush is an artistic event occurring on canvas, much like the cosmic event widely known as the Big Bang. Although the scope of her artistic endeavors is limited to the canvas, it may also be defined as the performance of body.

                      
               Art of Tansaekhwa /Nowhere in Blue / Park Daa won

Park Daa Won’s paintings do not leave room for modification or repainting, which means that the act of making a single stroke also defines completion. In other words, the act of repainting negates the very notion of completion, as this very act equates to the acceptance of the artist’s failure to attain perfection. This illuminates the fact that the chances of failure for perfect completion of Park’s work is very high. However, considering the artist’s exceptional level of standards for perfection, one may assert with confidence that the works displayed in this exhibition are works completed with outstanding quality.  
Park Daa Won’s act of painting aims to emulate the primitive state of the world - the Great Void. This may also relate to the state of chaos or the state of total darkness as mentioned in the book of Genesis in the Bible and the Great Ultimate in the Book of Changes (周易). In Knowledge Wanders North (知北遊篇), Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi (Chuang-Tzu) engaged this expression to convey that the ‘intangible’ source of the world, as drawn from the ancient philosophy of Taoism(). The monochromatic canvas set forth by the artist represents a physical phenomenon; but it also serves as a medium that triggers psychological events such as tranquility or terror. The subjects to be translated onto canvas are chosen entirely by the artist. Depending on the artist’s capacity, the empty space may become a product of meaninglessness or end up as a psychological event. This likens to what we know as Jackson Pollock’s act of dripping technique - an artistic phenomenon taken place outside of the typical canvas-on-easel technique – which was to become an artistic phenomenon to go down in history.  

              Art of Tansaekhwa /Now here -Beoming / Park Daa won

Park Daa Won’s painting technique can be surmised as an act of inspiration, breathing meanings onto the empty canvases through a single stroke without leaving room for repainting. The act of waiting is compulsory in this process. Once an idea is conceived, the next step is to collect Ki, energy in its preliminary stage. When Ki is collected, the artist approaches the canvas with a brush dipped heavily in one color followed by the controlled breathing in line with the intuitive employment of brush strokes. Therefore, the discursive process of collecting Ki and the intuitive conception of these psychological events are all part of what appears to be a shorter counterpart and the final act of brush strokes. These are substantial reasons to regard Park Daa Won’s unique way of creation as an act of performance.
    
 In the end, such creative methods interpreted as acts of performance, may also be read as an effort to realize the rules of nature associated with life. The rules of nature such as the rhythmic strengths and weaknesses of lines, and controlled breathing in relation to span of time, life and death of creatures, movements of space, and cyclic changes of seasons and so on are all visualized through extremely reductive acts. Park Daa Won’s monochromatic paintings, therefore, have meanings of setting back events through reductive and primitive acts. At this point, the events refer not to physical phenomenon, but to cultural ones. In that not many of countless events on the canvases have meanings, the performance of body by Park Daa Won is based on the fact that it has its own meaning as a one-time event. Unfolding his theory on the game of Go, Lee Ufan once put that when he places a stone on the Go board, tension spreads throughout the entire board; and such is the case with Park Daa Won.  



      Art of Dansaekhwa  /  Now here  /  Park Daa Won
                  
Park Daa Won’s works start with drawing a line with a brush dipped in single-color paint onto the under painted canvas. The stroke created at this point is made by intuition accompanied by incidental effects of paint splashed or dripped in the process. Sometimes split brush brings about rough coats and runs. Such traces of brush constructs incidental effects within the given frame. This is also the point when Ki springs up. The flow of Ki transferred from the tranquil state of contemplation where the mind has achieved peace, sometimes in its intense and sometimes in its simple form, is translated onto the canvas in its purest and primitive form by the ends of the brush.  I have had the privilege to expound on the resonance of Ki in Park’s solo exhibition not long ago.


    ‘Park Daa Won’s paintings are statements of resonance revealed by touches of brushes. How are touches of brushes resonant? Is it possible to introduce this word which shows auditory effects to form? When a brush encounters the surface of a plane and finally parts with it, I see its traces remaining on the canvas. It is as if the traces of replica have disappeared yet seems to wander about somewhere else. A silent event which occurred ‘now and here -hic et nunc’ sets off a silent echo like a wavelength of a ripple. A dot and a line drawn on the canvas brings about silent waves. Park’s paintings are a statement of resonances echoed by touches of brushes manifested by the dots and lines on the space of a canvas.’


               Art of Tansaekhwa  /  Now here  /  Park Daa Won

I wanted this essay to be titled as “Resonance of Ki().” How does Ki resonate? First of all, Ki is the state of being alive. It implies the ‘vital impetus (élan vital)’ by Henri Bergson, which means that life is in present continuous state, in an endlessly moving form. I exist Now Here (the integrated state of the past, present and future); and thus as an existential being, I (the artist) transfer onto the canvas the vivid experiences of my life. At this point, the essence of life projected onto the canvas extends outwards to the larger world through the appreciation of the viewers. Such chain of these benefits may be identified as ‘Resonance of Ki.’





 Park Daa Won’s monochromatic paintings are both the Book of Life and the ultimate medium that reaches for the primitive universal phenomenon. In any cases, they become imageries in sometimes discontinuous rhythms and sometimes in lengthy spans. It is clear then, that Park’s ‘Now Here Series’ are products of seasoned calligraphic skills stemming from ancient philosophy. What is the trajectory of her brush stroke? Where is the end of its journey? We are left wondering about the next chapter of Park Daa Won’s artistic career. 

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