Hwang Kyu-tae at 88: Defying the body by means of experimental pictures

 


Lee Eun-joo






The creator is a senior reporter on tradition on the JoongAng Ilbo.

  

People encountering the works of Gyutae Hwang, the 88-year-old pioneer of experimental pictures in Korea, are normally shocked a minimum of twice. First, they’re startled to study that the colourful rhythms and colours earlier than them usually are not work however pictures. Then they’re shocked once more to find that the artist, who has been working with digital photographs because the late Nineties, is an octogenarian. In entrance of Hwang, fastened notions about style — or age — lose a lot of their that means.

 

 

“I suffer from curiosity,” he as soon as mentioned. “Curiosity led me to peer through a loupe, and that brought me all the way here.”

 

Hwang made the comment in a 2019 interview with this paper, when his solo exhibition “Pixel” was held at Arario Gallery in Samcheong-dong, central Seoul. Standing earlier than works that radiated highly effective vitality by means of geometric patterns and vivid colours, he mentioned he started just because he was curious and stored going as a result of it was enjoyable. This time, Hwang is holding a solo exhibition, “Beyond The Frame,” at UNAW Gallery in Seocho-dong, southern Seoul, by means of June 13.

 

Born in Yesan, South Chungcheong, in 1938, Hwang studied political science at Dongguk University and joined the Kyunghyang Daily in 1963, briefly working as a photojournalist. His experiments started after he moved to the United States in 1965. Working as a darkroom technician at a coloration photograph lab, he challenged the normal strategies of pictures by burning movie, combining photographs and utilizing double publicity. His later growth into digital imagery confirmed that pictures may “deconstruct” and “select” photographs to create a brand new actuality.

 


 

Looking again, all of Hwang’s experiments have been questions in themselves. He persistently requested how far the medium of pictures may go. His “Pixel” sequence, created by radically enlarging current pictures and dealing with pixels, the smallest items of a picture, stands on the peak of that inquiry. In his personal language, Hwang revealed that what now we have lengthy been is, actually, an accumulation of numerous fragments of knowledge.

 

 

There can also be an intriguing twist to this journey. While the questions he poses are endlessly philosophical, the works themselves are sensuous and playful. “The variations of geometric patterns are infused with visual rhythm,” artwork critic Moon Hye-jin has written, whereas machine critic Lee Young-jun has famous Hwang’s “highly refined sense of color and light.”

 

“Even now, many people do not see my work as photography. I do not mind,” Hwang has mentioned. “What matters is imagining freely and satisfying my curiosity.”

 

For Gyutae Hwang, experimentation has been each a critical inquiry and an satisfying type of play. His work reminds us that artwork, at its highest degree, is each the final word pursuit and the final word sport. 

This article was initially written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the assistance of generative AI instruments. It was then edited by a local English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.