Lot 266: Bae Bien-U , Pine Tree chromogenic print mounted on diasec

chromogenic print mounted on diasec

49 1/4 by 98 1/2 in. 125 by 250 cm.

Executed in 2002.This work is number 2 from an edition of 5.
The work of Korean photographer Bae Bien-U successfully straddles two approaches to the depiction of the natural world, one based in the recording of nature as it is, the other pushing towards abstraction and the imagination. Bae's sweeping photographs of mist-laden Korean pine forests infuse an authentic landscape with an ethereal sense of transience; for Bae, the actual becomes the ephemeral, all through the simple act of tripping the shutter at just the right time and from just the right distance.

Bae's impeccable sense of composition and understanding of the atmospheric space that may be captured within the frame results in hazy images in which viewers can lose themselves as though in a dream; the eye penetrates Bae's dense pine forests just as the mind becomes enveloped in their twisting and gnarled tree trunks. This in turn creates a multi-tiered sense of awe, reverence, and perhaps even a certain unsettled displacement that produces a most seductive tension between viewers and the unusual document before them.

The large-scale work Pine Trees from 2002 (Lot 266) is a prime example of Bae's mastery of both his subject matter and technique. An almost magical light emanates from the deep recesses of the print, perhaps signaling a rising dawn or an unknown nefarious presence lurking deep in the heart of the woodland landscape. Indeed, the juxtaposition of light and dark looms large on the surface of Bae's high-contrast pictures, lending dramatic overtones to the pictured pine forests that are placid and disquieting at once. The crisply black trees inhabiting the foreground of the image and set against the mist-laden recesses of the forest beyond are particularly demonstrative of Bae's tonal control. The diagonal and vertical crosshatching that comprise the surfaces of these solemn pines becomes a web-like skein that traps and cautions viewers in equal measure.

Characteristic of Bae's eloquent depictions of nature, the 'real' here expands into a seemingly illusory realm as the pines take root in our imaginations as firmly as they hold tight to the native soil of South Korea's far reaches. Before Bae's photographs, the mind and the earth unite as one, fertilizing and nurturing each other in the production of a rich, floating landscape that seems to transcend the boundaries of time and space, the here and now of more common photographic imagery.

- Eric C. Shiner