For the Proliferation and Circulation of Nature-Art

For the Proliferation and Circulation of Nature-Art

Jeon Wongil (Artist, Director of Art Space Sonahmoo)

I

 

In the early 1980s, the young artists of the Korean Yatoo Group started a new type of art that they had never experienced before. Since then, I have been working with them and experienced a creative practice that does not make boundaries between nature and art.

In the background that Nature-Art occurs within, there was the influence of Conceptual Art and Land Art that had flowed from Western art to South Korea in the 1960s and 1970s. However, Yatoo did not follow only the theories of Western art, but instead developed a unique methodology by attempting a straightforward encounter with nature. At that time, artists listened to the sounds of nature rather than pushing their idea onto nature. They pulled the grass and put it on a tree, tried to touch fingers on the dry tree branches, and sometimes throw a stone at the calm water and looked at their figures scattered in the ripples. In Yatoo's working area, the artists met with nature in a minimal way and wanted to see the balance of their expressive will with nature.

 

Jung Jangjig, Surfing, 1983 / Ri Eungwoo, From River to Land, 1981 / Ko Seunghyun, Me& a Cow 1983

 

In this article, I will think about ways to revive the spirit of Yatoo by overcoming the current aesthetic situation, stylization, deindividuation, and regressive signs which have been happening in the Nature-Art movement for more than 40 years.

 

 

 

II Location of Nature-Art

In the early 1980s, Yatoo worked in direct contact with nature. This is because they had found that the ideas and materials prepared in advance do not fit the location when the moment to work arrived. As a result, they did not rely on personal artistic experience or aesthetic beliefs, but rather moved to the way of nature to reveal the vitality of nature through their work. Thus, Yatoo shifted its focus from 'art by humans' to 'art by nature'. This is the result of the intrinsic human will to find a point of communication with nature and to renew the way people and nature relate.

 

1. Stylization

Yatoo has been able to continue their activities for forty years because they were able to work in an infinitely creative space where nature and art are integrated. If general art was able to maintain its vitality by pursuing methodological change, Nature-Art did not necessarily need a driving force obtained only through the change of form. This is possible because nature itself was used as the source of life and inspiration for their artwork. However, it cannot be said that all of Yatoo's individual works reveal their vitality through actual encounters with nature. Since the 1980s when Yatoo's methodology was solidified, there has not been much work that went beyond the formerly created Yatoo works. Yatoo also cannot avoid a retrogressive phenomenon in the process of formalization. This is because the encounter with nature has become a ritual. It has not maintained the novel sensibility that was shown at the time of inception, that being searching for new art.

 

2. Deindividuation

Yatoo's methodological attitude of emptying oneself in order to follow nature has opened up the possibility to renew this experience of being in nature. Indeed, I had never seen this before. However, when Nature-Art focuses on the universal world of nature, rather than starting from an experience of an independent 'self', it is possible to share this inspiration with other artists who are also influenced by the natural world.

It would be difficult to fully reveal the naturalness of a unique individual in the state devoid of identity. Of course, Yatoo's Nature-Art movement in the 1980's did not undermine its ideals by maintaining a balanced attitude of working together with nature. However, as soon as artists began to emphasize their own personality, the strength of art from nature, which is a fundamental distinction from other artistic movements, was weakened.

 

 

III Diffusion and Circulation of Nature-Art

Even though I have been practicing Nature Art for a long time, I cannot avoid to talking about the individuation inherent in its practice. It is because Nature-Art cannot be separated from art that emphasizes the artist's own personality. As soon as Nature-Art work is recorded with photos and video, the work returns to general art by the artists' aesthetic judgment. This happens because the work is captured and framed by a camera viewfinder. Therefore, the new representation of the work would be hinge on the question of what is the creators own artistic idea is. The way to avoid these questions is to completely differentiate itself from general art by not leaving any documentation of the Nature-Art work. However, if we must document the work, we should accept this situation as described. Nature-art practitioners should not seek only self-annihilation in order to chase a pure experience of nature. Rather, we should also try doing our own personalized work. Then finally, we should engage in the creative flow with our personalized, general art work, as if entering nature again. This practice would be akin to participating in a creative cycle between nature and art, and would expand our artistic possibilities as we navigate both the natural and human worlds.

 

1. Commitment

Methodological development of natural art can be done in various ways, but what is most important is to immerse ourselves more deeply into nature. Even if there are many Nature-Art works in existence, nature is new every day, and our social environment is always changing. Because human beings also change through growth, experience, and so on, the meeting between nature and humans can be always fresh.

 

Marty Miller Framed 1, 2015  /  Majid Ziaee Leaving no trace, 2016  /  Jeon Wongil, a Leaf, 2018

 

Personally, as soon as I try to minimize my artistic will to do something, my own personal creative aspiration eventually rebounds. By emptying myself of preconceived intentions of what to create, I often experience the nature and environment surrounding me through fresh eyes. It is also a problem to think of nature in purely economic terms, but looking at nature with only praise from an objective perspective can also lead to a superficial approach. We should feel how our individual bodies and consciousness react to each other while gazing at nature and our own selves as they are. Then our unique existence can also be revealed with nature.

 

2. Back diffusion to Contemporary art

In the early 1980s, all created works were taken with one camera. When artists came up with ideas while they were scattered about the working area, they screamed or searched for the artist with the camera who came and photographed the work. Sometimes, there were works which could not be photographed. It was a time when we put a greater emphasis on the work itself rather than on the documentation of it.

 

Choi Yemoon, 2017  /  Kwon Oyeol, Estranged Woods, 2010

 

At that time, the photo was an ancillary for the catalog. Now, most of the artists take photographs themselves. They then modify these digital images on the computer, and edit them by trimming and collaging. Nature-Art is moving in the direction of strengthening its photographed, documentary aspects. In the working locations of Nature-Art, when the camera recorded the works, the vivid action of nature disappeared and became a two-dimensional object of appreciation. While the recorded image retains some of the feeling of nature, it cannot be an accurate state of Nature-Art practice of being one with nature. Photographs exist as a result of an aesthetic judgment by artist. Nature-Art, which has been returned to general art through documentation, must recreate the vividness of nature through its visual language. It must acquire meaning in art only by arousing aesthetic pleasure through novel concepts. In accordance with current working methods, Nature-Art should now seek to reveal the vitality of nature by utilizing contemporary characteristics of photographs and video work.

 

Seo Heayoung, Carving in the mountains, 2014 / Choi Yemoon , Walking along with Wind and Water, 2015 / Kim Deungyong, 개미집 Ant's nest, 2015

 

Now, we need to find new ways to relate to the vitality of nature, not only through record-oriented media such as photographs and videos but also into art areas such as painting, installation and sound art etc. The attitude of Yatoo, who realized an aesthetic synergy at the border of nature and art through minimal intervention, will enable another type of art to emerge. An artist who has widened their own experiential contact surface with nature will be able to try to connect unknown aesthetic elements contained in various ecological aspects of life into an expanded concept of art. Furthermore, I hope to be able to advance an art of circulation where nature, art, and life are linked together.

I do not think that Nature-Art must necessarily enter contemporary art through media such as photography, video, painting, or installation. Rather, as someone has probably already done, I hope that there will also be works from artists working alone in the forest that no one else sees, leaving no trace or record.

 

 

III

So far I have pointed out the problem of the absence of the artist due to de-personalization and typification, and have postulated that this is a goal which Nature-Art must inevitably reach. I have also wondered how Yatoo could move forward onto a path of new diffusion and integration of nature, art, and life. I am not claiming that Yatoo is in itself insufficient. The limits of Yatoo come not from Yatoo work itself but from the fact that our natural will for human self-realization does not stop.

Nature-Art should be reborn as a 'Saeng Saeng Art 生生美術' through a nature-based scene and an avant-garde art scene. This is beyond the limitations of my personal artistic world at this time. However, to this end, Nature-Art practitioners will continue to delve deeper into nature while also leading it to the forefront of contemporary art.