Grim Park Solo Exhibition : 《44》 24. 8. 17. – 9. 20

Grim Park’s Solo Exhibition 《44》

Four paintings are hung on both exhibition walls, facing each other. In Park’s solo exhibition 《44》, we can see forms of juxtaposition, repetition, confrontation, and superimposition. The seemingly monotonous structure of the exhibition is not a simple repetition but an attempt to reconsider and expand the content and form of previous works. As such, the artist presents this solo exhibition as a move to something else and another layer of superimposition.

Let’s take a look at some of the paths of movement in 《44》. First, the 'Sasa(師事)’[1] of Buddhist art. Park was traditionally apprenticed to Buddhist art. However, his work is not an unconditional return to traditions. Rather, the artist explores and reinterprets the previous norms and rules in his own way, and his work seems to be more of a process of revision and renewal. The artist mainly uses the traditional Goryeo Buddhist technique of dipping and layering, which involves the accumulation of multiple brushstrokes by lightly mixing water and paints (Seokchae, bunchae, and oriental paints) on the front and back of the silk. At the same time, the tiger figures and ‘Shimhodo(尋虎圖)’ that often appear in his works are the result of his appropriation and reinterpretation of the Zen painting tradition of ‘Shimwudo(尋牛圖)’[2], which likens an individual’s compositional journey to the process of finding and taming a cow. In this way, Park adheres to the methods and formats of traditional Buddhist painting while revealing his identity behind the scenes through appropriated iconography and reconstructed narratives. This can be understood as the unique dual structure of Park’s work.

[1] study under. (The English exhibition title “44” and the Korean exhibition title “사사四四 ” and all references to “sasa” in the text are homophones in Korean.)

[2] “A drawing that illustrates the stages of Zen practice using the analogy of a cow and a child, and is also known as the ten cow drawing because it has ten stages of practice.”, 「Shimwudo」, 『The Encyclopedia of Korean National Culture』: https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0033873.

One axis of this dual structure is the artist’s queer identity. The artist explains that several queer codes can be found in this exhibition, and it is not difficult to find images that evoke the form of an erect phallus, scenes of ejaculation, and orifices. For example, in the works <Sun play 日劇>(2024) and <Moon play 月劇>(2024), which spew out different substances such as water and fire, the tiger’s tail is an explicit image of ejaculation in the form of a male penis. The open curtains in the same work are flesh or body parts rather than the usual cotton fabric. The same can be said for the red holes from which flower- or penis-shaped pockets hang, the tiger in <Tiger Flow 虎流>(2024), which is woven in and out of the fabric, and <Spring Umbrella 春盖>(2024), which depicts genitals like a plump phalaenopsis orchid under an umbrella that is said to be worn only by noble subjects in Tang painting.

The imagination of self-identity in 《44》 is expressed through a kind of autobiographical narrative, which seems to be emphasized once again by the "overlapping" of the artist's past works and their various relationships. The most vividly self-conscious image is the aforementioned simhodo. In his previous work, <Shimhodo_Vegabond 尋虎圖_樂流>(2019), the artist depicted a scene in which a tiger is born after a bodhisattva stabbed the artist. Here, the artist juxtaposes the tiger, which he identifies with as an embrace of loss, in a relationship with another figure (bodhisattva). However, in this solo exhibition, the figures are nowhere to be seen. Some of the works appear as if they are posthumous scenes in which the artist/tiger has eliminated the bodhisattvas around him.

Where have the Bodhisattvas gone? What has happened to the tiger? In <Shimhodo_Chosen 尋虎圖_柬擇>(2018), the artist/tiger relationship is situated within and relies heavily on the relationship. In a similar vein, in his first solo exhibition in 2018, 《Hwarangdo 花郞徒》, the artist drew figures from his surroundings, aspiring to a 'gay' image, and at times, he was self-loathing. If we apply the aforementioned dual structure to the dimension of self-awareness, Park's fourth solo exhibition, 《44》, can be understood as a reconsideration of the past iconography through which he recognized and identified himself within relationships. In other words, the tiger on the screen of 《44》, where the bodhisattvas have disappeared, is a form and iconography that examines itself, not the relationship with its surroundings, but itself. In the aforementioned <Sun play 日劇> and <Moon play 月劇>, the tiger (usually depicted in the form of a Buddha) wearing a shin-gwang/du-gwang[3] seems to attain the enlightenment of good behavior in the midst of the different qualities of the outer and inner world. In today's world, where all human relationships are theatrical and dramatic on a curtained stage, the tiger comes across as a symbol of the will to affirm one's identity. In the same vein, we can read the images in <Zero two 無二>(2024), where the bodhisattvas from past works have been erased, leaving only the figures of spears piercing from above and below, and <Tailless 無尾>(2024), where the figures have disappeared, leaving only the helmet and trident of Dongjin Bodhisattva.

[3] head aureole

In the end, the confrontation, repetition, and rewriting of 《44(Sasa)》 simultaneously pass through "Sasa 師事", which means to be taught, "Sa 辭", which means to refuse, "Sa 死", which means to die, and "Sa 些", which refers to something insignificant and small. The very structure of the exhibition already implies the meaning of reminding us of something trivial, something private, and the act of erasing something. Perhaps the exhibition invites us to see not only the individual works, but also the more distant traditions and the artist's previous works together in a three-dimensional relationship, to 'layer' what is being repeated and transformed, and to see what feelings and allusions are being conveyed. The intertextuality of the exhibition is both a cohesion in which multiple forms, contents, and narratives are brought together and an expansion in which they are layered. The relatively large-scale images of <Return 回>(2024) and <Wheel 輪>(2024) in the center of the exhibition, such as the Shimwudo's "人牛俱忘"[4] iconography, clearly reveal the duality and complexity of Park's work throughout the exhibition, as well as its cohesion and expansion. Stripped of any superficial temporal narrative, or of the events that occurred between the cow and the herdsman, any relationship in these works, like Shimwudo's "人牛俱忘", offers no basis for interpretation beyond their simple markings. Such starkly simple images, "self-conscious scenes that overcome dichotomies such as "beginning and end, inside and outside, me and the other, past and present, tradition and newness," backgrounds and margins support the superimposition and circularity of the seeker's journey.

In <Enigma 我尾>(2024), a self-portrait included in 《44》, the artist's figure appears within a gap, or even torn state. This "appearance as torn state" is a different kind of image than the appearance of the artist in his surroundings in the aforementioned works such as <Shimhodo_Chosen 尋虎圖_柬擇>(2018) and <Shimhodo_Amrita 尋虎圖_不二>(2021). It's also a different kind of personality image than self-loathing and admiring others.

[4] ‘Both Bull and Self Transcended.’, The eighth of the ten figures of the Simwudo, “人牛俱忘” depicts the state of forgetting the cow and then forgetting oneself, and is drawn as an empty circle. It symbolizes the state before the separation of the subject and object, that if the object, the cow, is forgotten, the subject, the child, cannot be established, and only when this state is attained is one said to be fully enlightened.”, cited above.

The facing of the 《44》 can also literally refer to the collective confrontation of the different elements that make up the artist's work, such as the Buddhist art tradition, queer identity, relationships, and past experiences and events. While the work that traverses different times, experiences, forms, and narratives cannot be categorized as autobiographical, it is possible to present this solo exhibition as a sharing and expansion of queer identity and its relationship to the other, as well as various rituals and forms of thinking about its manifestation. I try to perceive the seemingly monotonous works with enlarged margins and bland backgrounds as attempts to confirm, juxtapose, and superimpose their heterogeneity within a more intimate space-time, or to expand them into an infinite screen. In this way, I imagine a scene in which the artist's queer identity and contemporary narratives are grafted onto the form and content of Buddhist art, explored anew, overcome, and then confronted and confused again.

Hyukgue Kwon(Curator)