音の貌（かんばせ）The Face of Sound Juyoung Park 展
Solo Exhibition in Mar 2020
Matsumoto Art Center Gallery. Japan
Organized by Kazunori kitazawa
---------------------
Ju-young Park: The Face of Sounds
Kazunori Kitazawa (Sculptor, President of Matsumoto Art Center)
“Park Juyoung: The Face of Sounds,” a solo exhibition of Korea’s woman artist Park Juyoung, was held at Matsumoto Art Center — located in Matsumoto, Japan — from March 19 to 30, 2019.
The show was timed to run concurrently with the 24th Nippon International Performance Art Festival (NIPAF) organized by the performance artist Seiji Shimoda.
She visited Japan at the end of last year and gave performances at Sasayama, Osaka, Nagano, and Tokyo.
I was a part of those performances and became familiar with Park’s artworks during the event. And I immediately wanted to hold a solo exhibition for her.
The works featured in this show were originally exhibited in the space where Park gave a performance; specifically, the works presented in her September 2018 solo exhibition at Insa-dong, Seoul.
The bow of a string instrument, a tambourine with a face painted on it, a painting on canvas that reminds you of a watercolor, and a music score with drawings on it.
Just like how love has both joy and sadness in it, just like how a color can vary in saturation and brightness, objects resonate with the two-dimensional works in the exhibition space, and you can see how the artist’s sentiments resonate in silence.
As you confront these works, Park’s world of sentiments pulls your mind into her pitch, and you can feel your mind moving in response.
When I saw Park’s performance, I was impressed by how she maximized the emphasis on her body. Whereas, her artworks are visible objects that dive into the depths of her inner world.
Also, in the drawings she made on the music score, every line seems to represent the musical tones coming from the lighthearted part of her soul.
Therefore, Park’s artworks are akin to the act of playing music in the sense that Park’s desire to transfer herself is visually expressed and becomes unified with the flowing sensations.
Upon realizing this, the title “The Face of Sound” naturally came into my mind.
Park is trying to draw something that doesn’t even have a defined shape yet, and she does this by feeling out with her hands. This reminded me of tracing — the act of copying the outlines of another picture.
From what I can understand, Park’s vibrant, energetic artworks seem to be created by converging her ideas with her research in technique and material.
Park is someone who constantly holds honest, sincere conversations with her own self. This is why I believe that the human figure appearing in her drawings and paintings is the manifestation of her empiricism.
In that sense, Park’s works are direct.
These delicate images cannot be seen in her performances because she instead takes the images and cordially places them on her artworks, which then silently anchor themselves onto the surface.
In other words, Park’s two-dimensional works seem to be related to her way of having conversations.
“But face-to-face conversation requires a response. And while ‘speech’ is one way of greeting the other, the greeting itself is, in fact, a response to him or her.”
(Excerpted from “Ethics and Infinity” by Emmanuel Levinas)
These are the words of the French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas (1906 - 1995). Levinas’ philosophy gives me hope, that by responding to her works, or by greeting every activity she conducts — including non-artistic ones — I could share her feelings.
Artistic practice, I believe, is an activity that supports and benefits life. Creating art trains you to extract ideas and techniques from almost anything, like contemporary philosophy, religion, conceptions of history, regional relations, family, or the physical details of your own body. It gives you the skillset to pursue your own research and learn ways to express yourself.
And moreover, asking questions about life is another positive role of art. Park admits that she cannot express certain things in painting, and she shows through her performances. And yet, it is painting through which she redefines her life, and this choice further expands her identity.
Park’s expression seems leisurely and relaxed, but in this context
, it’s entirely normal for her to be that way.
