Lot 1376: PARK SU HYUNG

PARK SU HYUNG
(B. 1983)
Sea Flow
signed and titled in Korean; titled, inscribed and signed 'Sea oil on canvas 130 x 130 cm park soo hyung' in English; dated '2010' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
130 x 130 cm. (51 1/8 x 51 1/8 in.)
Painted in 2010

Park Su Hyung's concern for an existential crisis of contemporary society is compressed into rigid borders of a square canvas in Flow (Lot 1376) and a cube form in Cube Flow (Lot 1377) to trap the human beings in absurdly vivid claustrophobia. For Park, organic portrayal of minute human beings is his brushstroke as well as his concept; it is a social anthropological investigation of color synchronization manifested in Abstract Expressionism.

Park's literal depiction of a circulating pattern of aimlessly colliding souls not only underpins its obvious link to the patterns of sociality, consumption and exchange but more so adeptly criticizes our easy recognition of these two ties. Establishing his observation as true, we too are already part of this inexhaustible struggle within the monotony of everyday life. Though Park endeavours to improve their conditions through his insertion of vibrant primary colours, the result is still a homogenous image with individuals stripped of autonomous consciousness and emotions, only to be reduced to dull replicas of each other. The sense of flow is fundamental in managing the composition but is also brutally crucial for these human beings to regulate this stream - if one fails to maintain the momentum in laddering up, one may be drowned by the surging currents of people. Cube Flow takes a three dimensional form, drifting figures in a never-ending whirlwind of the arbitrary flow of everyday banality, forced to be bound by social conformities in order to fit within the cube of the given norm. Uttering the same concept, Flow takes on a faster and denser flood with intricate layers of figures tangled in pulsating colours and complex imagery of intriguing intensity, depth and moving shapes to mimic the congested environment and hectic pace of the daily life. Park articulates a criticism on the enduring effects of undigested modernity that in contrary has neutralized and customized our personalities into a mechanical fit, appearing physically homogeneous and harmonious, but only to consequently create a sense of deep isolation within every individual.