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9/1/2015

Chae Sung-Pil

Red Zone Contemporary art gallery, Geneve

According to “Taoism” that perceives the Universe as a constant interaction between “the Primordial Wind” from the “original vacuum” and the “Vital Winds Yin and Yang” which govern the ternary relationship between Heaven, Earth and Human Beings”, “Heaven gives, earth receives, human-beings accomplish.”

The artist here becomes the “medium” and activates this interaction of “Wind-Spirit” in artworks which are representation of a dynamic “space-time continuum”, of an Universe born from Chaos, and in constant expansion.

François Cheng writes about this specific aesthetic in a similar manner: “As a result of this philosophy, the painting of a landscape is often showing a movement of expansion and circularity, which corresponds to the spatiotemporal understanding of the Taoist cosmology”.

Chae Sung Pil revisits the art of the Chinese landscapes whilst totally remaining in this understanding of the Universe; he uses soil to speak about his childhood and the nostalgia of his native land, that he blends with water to recreate the appearance of mountains and valleys.

Chae Sung Pil revives the “original myth” describing the Emperor and demiurge Yu the Great ( Hia Dynasty, 2000 b.c), “filling the water overflown from the holly rivers with soil, thus creating the five holly mountains, supporting the sky and opening the way to the Gods”.

His wish to remain as faithful to the Great Ancestors, lead Chae Sung Pil to use paper made from wood and fire, as well as silver pigments made from metal, recreating with soil and water the Five Elements, an essential part of the Taoist philosophy.

The cycle of the Five Elements leads to understand the Cycle of Life (birth, growth, maturity, aging and death) and to classify everything in five categories. In this way, the Five Elements are used in the “ Shanshui Theory”, associated to a compass point, a color, a season, a feeling, an organ, as to define good and bad interactions.

Soil, major element of Chae Sung Pil artwork, is, in this understanding, associated with the color yellow, to the end of summer, to the maturity, to the “thinking process” and is “the center of the feeding function. Soil feeds the body. Soil gives birth to metal. Soil dominates water.

Naturally, soil contradicts water which is associated to darkness, fight, death and is “linked to winter, to our vital essence; it is a mysterious elements linking surface to depth”.

For Chae Sung Pil, the “Qi” that one has to find in any artwork, starts in the material works as it starts to realize his artworks. he knows how to transmit “the Qi” first to his art and then to his audience.

While admiring an art piece from Chae Sung Pil, we may remember a poem from Li Bai (Tang Dynasty 7th Century a.c)

“The wind blows across the vast cold landscape
The white sun hides at twilight
The floating clouds do not know where to hang”

Opening january 15, 6 pm, with the artist

Red Zone Contemporary art gallery
Rue des Bains 40 - 1205 Geneva
Hours: wednesday – friday 14:30–18:30, saturday 11:00–18:30 and on appointment

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