허진 Hurjin

The Imagination in a Circulating World – From Anonymous Men to Nomadic Animals

By Ryu Cheol-ha, Chief Curator of Woljeon Art Museum

Hur Jin, basing his art on the exploration of humankind, has endeavored to delve into the problem of environment, ecology and civilization. The recovery of humanity has recently become the main theme of his art. In his serial work “Nomadic Animal, Man – Civilization” the images of animals such as goat, camel, zebra and elephant are overwhelming, standing for a wild, primitive vitality. In this work a group of human figures are represented in black and white and the artist’s everyday stuffs including cellular phone, cork extractor, microphone, thumbtack, and the like are presented to the canvas. Such animals emerge in a space where modern people are deprived of their harmony with nature. They are wandering in the wilderness of civilization. The human beings Hur Jin mainly portrays are buoyant and anonymous and his animal images, spread like a montage, are a metaphor for our self-consciousness, traversing a deceptively tangled reality.

1. Floating, Non-individuality, the Text of a Paradox – Buoyant Man Shown in Hur Jin’s paintings are a group of men who are buoyant and anonymous, losing their directions to go. In his canvas, crammed with human figures passive and unsettling, modern people existing in chaotic civilizations are lampooned. These iconic images take on human forms black and white or made of color dots. Amid endlessly proliferating desires, these figures, separated or mingled, are visually symbolic of modern men losing their individuality.

 Hur’s figures are a manifestation of multi-layered reality and dramatic day-to-day life, visually implying his distorted self-portrait. In this serialized work “Buoyant Man” combined recently with “Anonymous Man” human figures appear to be more refined in form, maximizing their visual, symbolic effects. In this work a band of human figures, optically expressed in black and white or with color dots, are a representation of those losing a primitive vitality and wandering in a real world. This work, forming a narrative to grasp Hur Jin’s painting, demonstrates in a condensed form the superficiality and depth of psychology, the surface and essence of existence. In other words, modern people who remain severed and alienated are roaming about the world, floating in vanity. These buoyant forms assume the role of dividing the canvas, exuding a sense of space. They are likely to be attached to the surface or, at the moment, detached from it, raising their own voice. These shapes are divided or overlap, combining their existence with other objects in a space. In Hur Jin’s painting, dots and planes are more significant than lines in shaping a form. Through this combination, a space is more efficiently created and optically strengthened. The floating elements are like a text reinforcing our awareness of existence. This is the text of a paradox continuously appearing in Hur’s canvas.

 2. Comparison and Irony, Montages – Anonymous Man The efficient subjects appearing in Hur’s images are anonymous men who are deprived of their identity, symbolizing an aspect of life. In reality, diverse, heterogeneous, paradoxical situations are simultaneously developed in a mixture of the natural and artificial, everyday life and objects. Everyday objects such as cellular phone, thumbtack, light bulb, screw, and road sign are blended in parallel together with human figures and nature. Like a montage, their multi-layered meanings are spread in the contrast of nature and civilization. By randomly overlapping real conditions, the montage generates the paradox and irony of connotations. Such irony is none other than a message the artist intends to convey. Hur Jin, through his exploration of humankind, complexly presents aspects of human behaviors along with floating objects and symbols. In the structure of civilizations, humans appear incomplete and defective due to the desires they have. Through diverse looks and gazes of the dogs such as fighting dog, shepherd dog, bulldog and Jindo dog, in Hur’s serial work “Anonymous Man – Dog’s Dream” various facets of human figures traversing and floating are visually represented. Presenting Jindo dog and other animals, these paintings narratively describe friendly ties between man and animal, accumulation of time, and tales of everyday life. Some aspects of modern life are symbolically expressed by contrasting a slender pointer dog with a sumptuous flower. At the center of “Anonymous Man – Journey” is a landscape(called anti-landscape) which is imbued with his self-consciousness. Scattered in the canvas are facilities of civilization like light bulb, cork extractor, hair dryer, coffee pot, street sign board(under construction), and so on. While men and animals are floating here and there, each canvas is dominated by a massive rhinoceros and an old antelope respectively. A man roaming about the landscape poses questions on the conditions of man and civilization, seeking his own identity. The anti-landscape, embracing an outgrowth of civilization, paradoxically symbolizes the irony of realities in which people are away from harmony and equilibrium. These paintings make a comment on positive and negative aspects of civilization, rejection and acceptance of a tradition, and a will for improving reality. 

3. Excessively Rampant Civilizations, Confusion, Irreversibility – Nomadic Animals Human civilizations eventually come to an end due to their excessive, irreversible destruction of human nature. Nomadic animals are driven out of nature by the arrogance of civilization, rampant materialism and massive destruction of ecology. Hur jin notes the destructive force of civilization that threatens the fundamental conditions of human existence. The animal images rendered audaciously by pointillism become fragmentary through the overlap of buoyant and anonymous men, reinforcing a non-circulating reality with intense colors. In the “Nomadic Animal, Man – Civilization” series, some stuffs utilized in a civilized society like bottle opener, thumbtack, cellular phone, key, hammer, electric wire and others remain more salient. By applying the image of the massive elephant to the buoyant, languid human figures, Hur accuses of the evils of civilization and weakness of mankind. In another serial work “Nomadic Animal, Man – Man,” men and nomadic animals are depicted in subdued hues. The flowers and human figures represented in a rather enlarged scale are in accord with the cat-like animal curled up in the woods. The human figures are floating against the background of zebra and antelope and the elephant emerges, as if signifying the end of civilization and destiny. The imagery of the camel crossing over a desert is thought to be as an indicator of human survival and environment. Hur’s imagination to insight into irreversibly destructive civilizations is steeped in his images of such nomadic animals. The hues applied to the stuffs are relatively intense, while the colors of animal and human figures are properly adjusted. Through his awareness of systematic absurdity, current situation and his imagination of nomadic animals, Hur Jin deepens his thoughts on the world and develops his canvas abundantly. Even if some point out that his montaged images seem to be randomly selected and modernistic with their overlap, his imagination towards the source and wholeness of objects appears to be consistent. The icons and figures he exploits show a lampooned world with absurdity and irony. Hur’s montages signify his formal aesthetic through which the cycles of absurd human relations, destructed nature and wild animals are represented. Some modern products such as notebook computers and mobile phones apocalyptically demonstrate the false images of floating human society, along with the images of dashing, roaring nomadic animals. Although Hur’s apocalyptic images should be further elaborated and more dramatically contrast individual forms, they are all formally inevitable in the process of his pursuit.