[안치홍]Day and Night in the Forest, and ‘Old Future’

The Exhibition of Chi-Hong An, ‘The Forest Packed’

Day and Night in the Forest, and ‘Old Future’

Tae-Ho Lee (Professor of Kyunghee Univ. Art College, Art Critic)

1. Day and Night in the Forest

This exhibition of Chi-Hong An, ‘The Forest Packed’ is special. It leads us to experience special. It leads us to experience special. He moves the forest in the middle of the city. The forest is different and strange one with we meet deep in the mountains ordinarily. The lamp in the space of the forest repeats ‘turn on’ and ‘turn off’ about 3-4 minutes interval. So visitors experience ‘day and night’ the front of his works. We discover ourselves standing the forest under bright sunlight and forest of dark night around the sudden end of the month. The artist leads us to experience by half-force. What because of? What is the reason that makes the space and the time and make us fall into there?

The landscape of day

Several branches run to one direction becoming one massive stem. Like flames of storm, it rolls from over my head to the end of room there. small branches advancing each to sky is the expression of life. The energy from that the branches crashed, mixed and made one by one each other, this become the greater energy by uniting again, and divide the air and search the stretch place.

The landscape of night

At last the lamp turns off and it is at night. It is dark not to be able to see foresight. In the darkness, we feel fear at first that the reason is not clear. When our eyes adapt to the darkness, the tress trunk and branches reveal the existence gradually. Was the dragon, the imaginative animal, that figure? Same landscape became different one in the darkness. At night, the spirit of night manages the forest. Some animals begin behavior at darkness, planes stop the life-phenomenon of day and begin the one of night.

But now human of today forgot and lose the life-phenomenon of night. Modern city drove out the darkness. Human in the city only lives in the light of midday. It is not only the day a and night that we forgot and lose. It is also nature. The chain of the mystery order, circulation, give-and-take, being composed in the forest is cut now. In the city, the moon behind the electronic display becomes dim, the star in the night sky disappeared. And small lifes repeats the crash death and the drown death on the expressway.

The history of human's arrogancy cut off the chain of the biological evolution circulation and pregnancy of lifes that come down millions of years. For one day's survival and pleasure, the life that have evolved millions of yeats cut off, the forest of Amazon is destructed, the temperature of Earth is rising continually. There are rare someone to say about disaster and ruin approaching before.

But late, human being is aware. They begin to understanding to stop the destruction nature and the cruel development for the human survival above all. And human modestly admit that they also the part of the mature, so they have to live together with nature.