막 . 幕: Bang Byoungsang
Gallery Chosun will hold a photography exhibition by Bang Byoungsang from May 16 to June 9, 2012.
Bang has explored how we see real landscapes through the many signs that appear in the lives of people in a consumer and urban society. Modern life is driven by the desire for greater comfort and value. Meanwhile, true nature, once a subject of reflection and longing, is forgotten. Nature becomes a grey backdrop, understood only as something that supports our desire to live better.
In this exhibition, the artist captures ways of seeing landscape from a present point of view through photography. In his earlier summer series, he showed exaggerated landscapes through repeated editing. In contrast, these new photographs reveal differences in how landscapes are seen within the same theme. By adjusting light, tone, and colour, he expresses how landscapes change with climate and environment. This reflects the distance between our perception and reality. It also recalls an older attitude that once sought to appreciate nature with a sense of leisure and reflection.
Today, landscapes shaped by artificial forces are no longer objects of quiet enjoyment. The artist records scenes shaped by climate, environment, and shifting states of body and mind. Many of these scenes have become little more than visual attractions. Through his photographic approach, viewers are invited to think again about the landscapes he presents.
_Lee Sangho, Gallery Chosun
About the Work
An area that had long been restricted as a greenbelt was released for urban development. A family reduced its 16,500m2 ancestral burial ground, which had been maintained for generations, and moved the graves to a new site. The 107 year old pine trees around the graves were also relocated. Across a nearby two lane road, a newly built neighbourhood park contains young pine trees planted neatly according to landscaping standards. The once dense pine forest that had shaped the local scenery lost its place due to development. Young decorative pines now stand in its place. Some of the old trees were replanted near the relocated graves, but most will likely be distributed throughout new apartment complexes as landscaping trees.
There is also an abandoned tunnel that was dug during the Japanese colonisation to store ammunition. One entrance has been blocked with soil, and water that seeped inside over many years has formed unusual upward growing icicles, Water drips to the ground, freezes, and builds upward into strange ice formations. Although the cave is not easy to reach, many people travel there to see this rare sight. Around the same time, news headlines reported a similar phenomenon at a temple on Mount Mai in Jeollanam-do. A bowl of sacred water left outside froze into an upward growing icicle about 25 to 30 centimetres tall. Changes in wind, temperature, and air pressure caused the water to freeze in a way that formed a crystal structure. Air bubbles beneath the ice pushed the growing icicle upward. These natural yet unusual events became objects of public attention.