Between Nature and Art Wongil Jeon

Between Nature and Art

Wongil Jeon, Artist/ Director of Yatoo International Project

 

 

I. Yatoo, Korean Nature Artists' Association (野投, 韓國自然美術家協會)

Yatoo is a group of Nature Artists who work in and around Gongju(公州), a city located along the beautiful Geum River(錦江) and the ancient capital of the Baekje(百濟) dynasty in South Korea. Yatoo was originally founded by a group of young artists from this area in 1981. They have been inspired and worked with and in nature ever since.

The Nature Art(自然美術) of Yatoo has developed through the 'Four Seasons Workshop(四季節硏究會)’ meetings which have been held seasonally since 1981. The founding members of Yatoo grew up in an environment characterized by the distinct change of the four seasons. As a result, they have been inspired by the continual process of extinction and rebirth around them.

In the early days when the group's membership was small, other members were the only critics who could appreciate their works. Therefore, Yatoo members gradually developed their own methodology of working with nature.

Over thirty-five years, these newly created ideals and working practices have gradually won recognition from a large number of local, national and international artists. These ideals have also spread through international events such as the Geumgang Nature Art(錦江自然美術) Biennale, the Yatoo International Project, and the Global Nomadic Art Project.

 

 

II. What is Nature art(自然美術)?

 

1. Nature Art

In the beginning of 1983, Yatoo members had a meeting following one of the "Yatoo Four Season Workshops" in the Gongju Geum River. We discussed the relationship between nature and our work what we are doing in the natural environment. From this time on, we began to call our works 'Nature art'. At that time, we took the word 'Nature art' for granted because Nature art was not art by human but rather came from and by nature. In fact, Nature art was 'something' that exists naturally between nature and man, and it was discovered by Yatoo members and named 'Natural art'.

 

2. Nature Art Zone(自然美術地臺)

When I go into nature to create nature art, I view the natural environment in a different way than from my usual walks in the forest. I prefer less well visited areas where the natural ecological environment is less affected by humans than well-known places where many people go. I can work anywhere where I can concentrate and be immersed in creating.

The moment I feel the element of nature that attracts me, I enter the surroundings I am immersed and see trees, grass, rocks, shadows in the forest as if I am entering a landscape painting and touching directly the objects within. This is the 'Nature Art Zone' which exists around us but is often missed in day to day life.

Nature art connects through the mind and spirit rather than the eye, so it has many of the same characteristics as conceptual art. However, if conceptual art is better understood and revived in the historical context of contemporary art, Yatoo’s Nature art is more concerned with nature as a raw material source(原素材). It could be said that Nature art has literally grown its roots in nature, which is the original source(根源) of all art, leaving the process of methodological evolution(方法論的進化) of Western art.

 

3. Doing Nature Art

 

1) Waiting

The best guide for doing Nature art is to wait until nature gives us something. This is a vague wait and a state of judgment suspension. I hope that my body and will(意志) will move together with the flow of nature by looking to find a place where my body senses react rather than following knowledge or artistic beliefs. I wait until preliminary knowledge(先入見) or beliefs are dismantled and get new ideas from nature and the idea finds the proper way after developing automatically through my consciousness as a puzzle being solved.

 

2) Meeting

When I walk through the forest I meet a myriad of scenes and various elements of nature. At these times, it is not beautiful scenery, flowers, or rare plants that attract my eyes. It is sometimes a dry tree branch, small stones on the roadside, and grasses that can be seen anywhere. I take off all the techniques and concepts common in the name of art and have an engagement in nature with curiosity and throbbing as if it were the first meeting.

 

3) Cooperation

Nature art is made up of the meeting between the vitality of nature and creative imagination. Nature and my eye catching trigger creativity. In order for the aliveness of nature to work vividly in art, we must look carefully at how nature's movements interact with other objects. I move nature itself to the center of my work to do Nature art. Because there is an idea of work in natural object itself, it cannot be considered just as a place or material for art.

 

4) Minimization

Nature art shows a minimized form of art as much as that it is necessary to discuss why it can be art. Nature art that responds to small scenes and phenomena of nature does not change the overall scenery of the field much. If you do not look carefully, you have no idea what is happening in the minutiae.

I don’t project personal stories or emotion whilst creating Nature art. It is because nature does not accept us when we are in emotional state or eager to realize my idea. Only when the human will is minimized is there a contact point between nature and art. At this moment I can feel the resonance between human nature and the environment leading to a simple and pure Nature art work.

 

5) Connection

Nature art can be a door to enter nature. Nature art is connected to nature as a whole and appears and disappears in one nature. Even if it relates to one part of nature, since it has the connection state with other elements of nature as it is, turning the gaze a little will lead to the whole body of nature or the surrounding landscape. It is Nature art that allows me to feel the vitality of nature in the flow of time, finding a way of connecting the environment to me.

 

6) Disappearance

Nature art appears when the natural and human will are in balance and can disappear like a flame. Nature art is a poetic state in which nature and art are transparently intertwined or entwined with each other through very concise acts. As soon as the artist stops the act or leaves, it sets down the 'qualification資格' of being Nature art and disappears without trace.

 

7) Rumination(反芻)

Nature art exists without creating boundaries between the natural and art. Therefore, the meaning of Nature art is different depending on how to accept pure nature connected with work. The meaning of a work is continuously generated according to the constantly changing nature and the mind state of the viewer.

 

4. The significance of Nature art

 

1) Recovery of body sensation

Nature art happens when the 'name' of elements are forgotten, the eyes and ears are sensitive, and when our body meets directly with nature. Like those who find a certain plant that can heal diseases by separating poisonous plants(毒草) and medicinal herbs(藥草) in mountains, or the ancients who predicted the weather by the direction of the wind and the movement of the birds, I explore the places where Nature art can occur by using the primitive body senses. The Nature art that responds to the movement of nature is like taking a point at a specific position on a moving train. If I do not have a sense of body moving with the flow of nature sensitively, I cannot create Nature art at that moment.

 

2) Natural Free Art(自由美術)

Nature art is a state of creation between nature and art that occurs under the most basic states of natural and human. Nature art suggests to the contemporary art world the possibilities of artistic and frivolous arts free from the powerful oppression of knowledge, desire for success in the Infinite competition system.

 

3) Self-discovery(自己發見) in Nature

Human beings are living in close ecological connection with nature, but in general, personal communication is not possible between nature and human beings. In order to communicate for the two worlds of different entities, one must find a point of mutual contact where it is possible to initialize my own consciousness and activate my inner nature. Nature art is a kind of 'communication(疏通) code' to meet my source inherent in nature, which is consciously ‘independent(分離)’ from nature, but in a contradictory situation that cannot exist for a moment apart from nature. If we think of nature only as material for art, we cannot have artistic sympathy with nature.

 

4) Breathing art in Life

Nature art is easily conveyed because natural elements and phenomena are familiar to people and this is maintained in the art. Nature art uses and moves human life habits taken from everyday living into art. It is made up of acts of cutting, folding, stacking, fitting, attaching, drawing, and moving so that people might have the thought of wanting try for themselves.

 

 

III. Location(位置) of Nature Art

 

1. Nature and Art

Since nature is an inevitable condition of human life, all art activities can be said to be related to nature. Many artists want to incorporate the essence of nature into their works, but the 'naturalness(自然性)' of art is obtained only through constant efforts. On the other hand, Nature art has a different aesthetic form from general art because the naturality(自然性) of nature dictates Nature art as it is. This is because Nature art creates an art state in which elements of natural field act vividly. People can feel the real meaning and value of nature art through 'experience(體驗)' doing directly rather than 'appreciation(鑑賞)'.

 

2. Conversion of Natural Art

As conceptual art(槪念美術) uses texts and photographs that record the process of work as an important expression and method of art, the photo records of Nature art can also be regarded as art works. However, the photographic material can be art, but it is not entirely Nature art. This artform in which nature itself operates as a state of art with minimal human will moves into the realm of contemporary art(同時代美術) such as conceptual art when it is recorded as a photograph or at the moment when the artistic idea is enlarged upon. This means that Nature art exists in a different form, but is essentially connected to art.

 

 

VII. Finishing the article

When we concentrate on making something by only our idea in nature, nature disappears and only art remains. On the other hand, there is no art if nature is left as it is. Nature art is an attempt to form an artistic relationship with pure nature and pursues the 'art state' in which nature and my artistic will are balanced.

Nature art plays a role in art that awakens people’s removal from environment, allowing them to communicate with nature again and expand their world.

'Natural Art' occurs at a point where nature and human art are balanced. We cannot take the vitality of nature in Nature art if we neglect my other ‘artwork’, leaving it behind or, trying to show it in superiority to nature. The point of balance between nature and art can be found by restoring the innate naturalness within.