<From Review>

"Intersection and Transversal Between Dimensions" Sun K. Kwak Exhibition (10.8--11.5, Gallery Scape) By Sun Young Lee (Art Critic)

Sun K. Kwak's work(10.8--11.5, Gallery Scape) involves folding and stacking colorful planes to create three-dimensional forms or drawing in space and in a 360-degree space, Bernd Halbherr's work (November 11 - December 11, Sabina Museum) captures landscapes without any blind spots, sharing the commonality of moving between two and three dimensions. This is implied by the terms 'Sculptural drawing' by Sun K. Kwak and 'Photographic sculpture' used by Bernd Halbherr. It’s about the illusion on a two-dimensional plane wanting to break into real space, and a certain object in three dimensions wanting to be distinguished from reality itself, meeting at some point in time or place. Through this, illusions are materialized, and reality gains more cohesive symbolism. This speaks of the tendency of illusions wanting to become more concrete and art striving to differentiate itself from everyday objects. This differentiation is for their works to stand out amid the plethora of images and objects overflowing in reality. It's also a concern that has arisen as art pursues its autonomy. For a long time, art was part of the myths and religions of the world, distinct within its own achievements and content, but modern art has moved away from these archetypes. Art, separated from both reality and illusion, became a self-sufficient entity, existing in a world already saturated with both existing and newly created objects. The inability to distinguish art as art outside the framework of institutions has led to a crisis in art. Contemporary art, which denies being reduced to one category and embraces change as its identity, is therefore so uncertain. Sun K Kwak's exhibition, with its title "125 rolls, 48 layers, 72 yards," and Bernd Halbherr's exhibition titled "Intersections" suggest the intersection and transversal among dimensions. Their works are at the active junctions between different dimensions. Their emphasis on the meeting and variation between dimensions may reflect their self-awareness, as Bernd Halbherr is originally from Germany but settled in Korea, and Sun K Kwak, although Korean, lives and works in New York. Kwak demonstrates "space drawing" and "sculptural drawing" through methods such as rolling, stacking, and wrapping in her exhibition title. An example of "space drawing" is her work [Sewing Space], where thin materials like wire and thread are twisted and turned to create a 'drawing' in a three-dimensional space. The background through which the line flows is not a plane but the exhibition hall itself, and there is no frame. The 'needle' that stitches the space can extend infinitely in all directions, breaking free from the confines of a flat plane. Among the drawings displayed separately on the second floor, in a series titled [Times Composed], separate drawings seem to have been collaged, not confined to a single dimension. The interplay between three-dimensional and flat surfaces is prominent in works like [Undefined], where colored lines are stacked within a frame and at certain points flow out as three-dimensional forms, and [41 Rolls of Winding], where one end of a flat surface made of colored tape transforms into a three-dimensional structure. The densely packed layers of time build up surfaces, and these surfaces, under the influence of gravity, flow downwards. Conversely, these layered masses seem to sprout and evolve, becoming structured. The potential mass materializes into a plane. In Kwak's work, the variation of dimensions is translated into chaos and order, unconsciousness and consciousness, and these elements frequently interchange positions. In the work [Your Self-Portrait], a mirror, a typical device of illusion, is surrounded by a frame made of colored tape, and protrusions emanating from it appear busy like tendrils searching for another support. These protrusions seem to connect the fragmented realities imperfectly reflected in the mirror. Thus, different dimensions, like the realms of imagination and reality, are connected. The units of tape become larger, forming shapes like rolls. In the work [Rolling Space], a loose roll of black plastic takes on a wave-like form against a white wall background, unfolding a flat surface that was once rolled up. The work [60 Pounds of Dust, 2 Kilograms of Sand, 32 Grams of Ash] uses materials that could typically comprise a flat work on the exhibition wall as its title, emphasizing the reality of the illusion spread out like a topographical map. Sun K. Kwak's work, creating diverse forms, structures, and relationships with long tapes, evokes the contemporary view of the universe composed of strings and planes. Margaret Wertheim, in [The History of Space], introduces the hypothesis of modern physicists who believe in a vast 'cosmic string' and 'thin plates' scattered throughout the universe. "These are strings and planes condensed with enormous gravity, stretching millions of miles, strongly warping the spatial structure between galaxies. According to this, like an ocean, relativistic space is constantly transformed by a massive and fluid four-dimensional curved surface that undulates and swirls - a space between stars, like the sea between them, with waves and currents. Here, time is merely another dimension of space. Space and time are bound together as one within the totality of four dimensions. Consequently, time is another dimension of space, and this four-dimensional composite is expressed by the term 'spacetime'. The layers of time seen in Sun K. Kwak's work is very flexible and moves like the modern relativistic universe as previously described. The things that exist on the ceiling, walls, and floor in various ways are both matter and wrinkled space. This is not a matter of objects being in space but rather objects being the space itself, resonating with the contemporary view of the universe."
-Art in Culture, December issue (2015), Korea

"차원들 사이의 교차와 횡단” 곽선경 개인전 (10.8--11.5, 갤러리 스케이프) 이선영, 미술평론가 360 도 공간 안에 어느 한 부분도 사각지대 없이 풍경을 구에 담는 베른트 할프헤르의 작품, 그리고 색색의 평면을 말거나 쌓아서 입체를 만들거나 공간에 드로잉 하는 곽선경의 작품은 2차원과 3차원 사이를 넘나든다는 공통점이 있다. 할프헤르가 사용하는 ‘Photographic sculpture’, 곽선경이 사용하는 ‘Sculptural drawing’라는 용어가 암시하는 바가 그것이다. 현실 공간으로 뛰쳐나가고 싶은 2차원 상의 환영, 그리고 현실 그 자체와는 구별되고 싶은 3차원 상의 어떤 대상이 어느 지(시)점에서 만나는 것이다. 이를 통해 환영은 실재화 되고, 실재는 보다 응집력 있는 상징성을 획득한다. 그것은 좀 더 구체화되려는 환영, 그리고 일상의 사물과 구별되려는 예술의 경향을 말한다. 이는 그들의 작품을 현실 속 넘쳐나는 이미지나 사물과 차이 짓기 위함이다. 그것은 예술이 자신의 자율성을 추구함과 동시에 생겨난 고민이기도 하다.  오랜 시기 동안 예술은 성과 속의 구별이 분명한 세계의 신화나 종교의 일부였지만, 근대에 예술은 그러한 원형으로부터 벗어났다. 현실로부터 떨어져 나온 예술은 동시에 환영으로부터도 떨어져 나왔고, 그자체로 자족적인 사물로 존재하게 되었는데, 세상에는 이미 있는 사물들과 새로 생겨난 사물들로 포화상태였던 것이다. 제도라는 틀 외에 작품을 작품으로 구별하지 못하는 사태가 예술의 위기를 불러왔다. 한 항목으로 환원되는 것을 부정하고, 변화 그 자체를 자신의 정체성으로 삼는 현대예술은 그래서 그렇게도 불확실하다. ‘125개 롤 감기, 48겹 쌓기, 72야드 말기’라는 긴 전시부제를 가지는 곽선경 전과 ‘Intersections’라는 부제의 베른트 할프헤르 전은 차원들 사이의 교차와 횡단을 암시한다. 그들의 작품은 서로 다른 차원 사이의 접속지점이 활성화되어 있다. 그들이 다른 차원 간의 만남과 변주를 중시하는 것에는, 독일 출신으로 한국에 정착한 작가와 한국 출신이지만 뉴욕에서 거주하고 작업하는 작가의 자의식도 반영되었을 것이다.

곽선경은 전시부제 그대 감기, 쌓기, 말기 등의 방식을 통해 ‘공간 드로잉’과 ‘조각적 드로잉’을 보여준다. ‘공간 드로잉’의 예는 작품 [공간 꿰매기]로, 철사와 실 등, 가느다란 재료를 이리저리 꼬아서 3차원 상에 ‘드로잉’ 한 것이다. 선이 흐르는 바탕은 평면이 아니라 전시장이며, 프레임은 없다. 공간을 꿰매는 ‘바늘’은 평면을 한계를 벗어나 얼마든지 사방팔방으로 뻗어 나갈 것이다. 2층에 따로 전시된 드로잉들 중에도, [구성된 시간]이라는 제목이 붙여진 시리즈에서는 따로 그렸을 법한 드로잉들이 꼴라주 되어 있어 단일한 차원에 머물러있지 않다. 입체와 평면 사이의 유희는 프레임 안에 색선들이 쌓여있고, 선들은 어느 지점에서 입체로 흘러내리는 작품 [규정지을 수 없는], 그리고 색색의 테이프로 만들어진 평면의 한쪽 끝이 입체구조물로 변형되는 작품 [41롤 감기]에서 대표적이다. 

촘촘히 쌓인 시간의 층은 면을 구축하고, 면은 다시 중력의 작용을 받아 아래로 흘러내린다. 반대 방향으로 생각하면, 겹겹이 층진 덩어리들은 씨나 배는 발아하고 발생하여 구조화될 것이다. 잠재적 덩어리는 평면으로 현실화된다. 곽선경의 작품에서 차원의 변주는 무질서와 질서, 무의식과 의식으로 변주되고, 그것들은 수시로 자리를 바꾼다. 거울은 대표적인 환영의 장치라고 할 수 있는데, 작품 [당신의 자화상]에서는 블랙 미러를 감싸고 있는 프레임이 색색의 테이프로 되어 있고, 거기에서 나오는 돌기들은 마치 덩굴손처럼 또 다른 지지대를 찾느라 분주하다. 돌기들은 거울이 불완전하게 반영하고 있는 조각난 현실들을 이어줄 듯하다. 그렇게 상상계와 실재계라는 서로 다른 차원은 이어질 것이다. 

테이프의 단위는 좀 더 커져서 말대 형태가 되기도 한다. 작품 [공간 말기]에서, 풀려진 검은 비닐 말대는 물결처럼 오려진 형태를 하얀 벽면을 배경으로 흐르게 한다. 둘둘 말려 있던 평면은 벽면을 배경으로 형태를 펼친다. 작품 [60파운드의 먼지, 2킬로 그램의 모래, 32그램의 재]는 전시장 벽면에 붙어있는 평면 작품을 이루고 있을 법한 원재료들을 제목으로 삼아서 지형도처럼 펼쳐진 환영의 실재성을 강조한다. 긴 테이프로 변화무쌍한 형태와 구조, 관계를 만들어내는 곽선경의 작품은 끈과 판으로 이루어진 현대의 우주관을 떠올린다. 마가렛 버트하임은 [공간의 역사]에서, 우주 전역에 흩어져 있는 것은 거대한 ‘우주의 끈’과 ‘얇은 판’이라고 믿는 현대 물리학자들의 가설을 소개한 바 있다. 

그것들은 거대한 중력이 응축된 수백만 마일 길이의 줄과 판들로, 은하계와 은하계 사이의 공간구조를 강하게 휘게 한다. 그에 의하면 해양처럼 상대론적 공간은 파동, 기류, 그리고 소용돌이, 즉 별과 별 사이의 바다와 같은 공간에서 거세게 굽이치고 물결치는 거대하고 유동적인 4차원 곡면에 의해 부단히 변형된다. 여기에서 시간은 공간의 또 다른 차원일 따름이다. 공간과 시간은 4차원의 전체 안에 하나로 묶여있는 것이다. 결과적으로 시간은 공간의 다른 차원이며, 이러한 4차원의 복합물은 시공간(spacetime)이라는 단어로 표현된다. 곽선경의 작품에서 보이는 시간의 층은 매우 유연하며, 전술한 바처럼 현대의 상대론적 우주처럼 움직인다. 천정과 벽, 바닥에 이런저런 방식으로 존재하는 것들은 물질이자 주름 잡힌 공간이다. 그것은 공간에 물체가 있는 것이 아니라, 물체가 바로 공간이라는 현대적 우주관과 상통한다.  

이미지: Sun K. Kwak_41 Rolls of Winding, 2008, gaffer tape, wooden panel, varnish: top, 99x60cm bottom, 139x40cm

출전; 아트 인 컬처 12월호(2015)