Lot 1128: SON JONG JUN

SON JONG JUN
(Born in 1978)
Defensive Measure in Kanagawa 08002; 07005 & 07003
three digital prints
110 x 73.5 cm. (43 1/6 x 29 in.) x 3 pieces
edition 1/6
Executed in 2007 & 2008 (3)

Seoul, Korea, Artforum Newgate, Defensive Measure, May 6-17 2008.

Artforum Newgate, Son Jong-Jun, Seoul, Korea, 2008, not paginated. (illustrated)

Son Jong Jun built figurative sculptural clothing that bear the insecurity of contemporary society, where individuals exile themselves from collective society into a dangerously introverted world of their own. The protagonists featured in Son's photographs are dressed as victims of the economic and political structure, where trust is scarce and alienation and skepticism becomes of comfort to individuals.

The schoolgirls in Defensive measure in Kanagawa 08002 (Lot 1128) are caught in quotidian acts of washing their hair, dishes or checking their phones. The spectators unconsciously find themselves sympathizing with these lost teens, in which we reflexively correlate with their adolescent challenge in guarding their susceptibility against their peers. The intrinsic link between these three individuals is of their frailty concealed under the hazardous adornment that tricks the audience of their being as dangerous. However, they are shielded by Son's intuitive capture of their head-down, weakened shoulder, disclosing their fractured morality that is bolted into one piece by this mechanical uniform that appear as a necessary survival crutch to the vulnerable, like braces to their young soul.

Son shrewdly attempts to criticize the juxtaposed understanding of the bipolar function of a weapon as an item of protection and yet of harm. With this connotation in mind, Son further delves into the cultural necessity of adaptation by presenting the mechanical gear as a kryptonite to individuals, exhibiting their power of transforming their function according to their environment. Appropriating its utility as a weapon, Defensive measure in Seoul (Lot 1129) positions salary man in a combat, as if to battle the monotony of an everyday life, where in a place of work becomes a political battle of the survival of the cunning. Protected with an armory, they hold a weapon in full preparation of playing war. This toy kryptonite bestows these salary men momentary strength and security, where their subdued violence arises within their mental frustration of vengeance and angst. In comparison, the primitive nudity of the protagonist exudes strength from his independence. His fearless presence within the blankness of the background augments his supremacy, affirming that his body is his weapon, where his solid spirit is his kryptonite, tamed by the mechanical prop.

In the face of its adaptive quality, what Son strives to criticize is the futile entity of this contemporary accessory that toy with human instincts and ethics, deceptively misleading it to materialism. Consequently, this alleged defensive measure is what diminishes trust and increase speculation among society, causing erroneous conflict, where society becomes a mental war with end factor of annihilation, where the conception of humanity may disappear.