Fantastic Virus
Park Young Wook, Humanities Korea Research Professor, Yonsei University

    One of the defining characteristics of Baroque music is the basso continuo. In rock music, the basso continuo -- as represented by the bass guitar -- does not reveal its distinctive tones, drowned out as they are by drums and electric guitars. However, it does serve to add a sense of tension to the piece as a whole. Without that ever-present basso continuo, like the sound of a beating heart, the tension present in Baroque music would never have come to be. Though the basso continuo is nearly imperceptible, the beat of Baroque music owes itself to that sound. This is similar to the style of Tenebrism in Baroque painting. This style is characterized by a powerful contrast between light and dark on the canvas, as seen in the works of Caravaggio. By themselves, the dark backgrounds in Baroque painting may be meaningless to us, not representing any obvious object of perception, but they constitute an unconscious foundation that generates a dramatic sense of tension in the canvas as a whole. In other words, minute elements that are not directly perceived by the consciousness function to create a feeling of artistic tension.
    The work of Kim Byoung-ho represents a process of creating a fantasy out of these minute perceptions. Kim gathers very tiny elements, imperceptible to the eye like viruses, and groups them together to create highly sophisticated forms. At first glance, the resulting shapes resemble the kind of ordinary objects and structures that we encounter on a daily basis. But Kim's works possess a tension within them that cannot be found in ordinary objects or simple structures. Like the sound of the basso continuo, microscopic viruses are endlessly bursting forth. Expressed in visual terms, they are like tiny bits of pollen flying through the air. It is for this reason that Kim's works are not simply objects, but fantasies. If they were simply objects, not only would there be no tension present, but no fantasy would take shape either. Fantasy must by necessity carry with it a relationship of tension with reality or the object.
    What kind of tension is present in Kim's work? It is manifested in manifold ways, including tension between the stable and polished image and the environment external to the work; tension between the objective and the subjective; tension between the artificial and the artistic; and tension between the "product" and the "ready-made." In terms of their external aspects, Kim's works not only are highly sophisticated but also exhibit an artistically flawless level of polished beauty. However, artistic perfection is not at all what the artist is after. Rather, there emerges a paradox in which a piece seems less like a work of art and more like a product the greater its level of perfection, and instead of trying to avoid it, Kim is attempting to show that very paradox.
    Upon closer examination, the paradox is also one involving the artificial and the artistic. Kim's pieces are extremely artificial. To make one of them, the artist not only sketches the general shape of the work but also generates a plan so that it can be produced accurately. His methods are similar to the design process that leads to sketches and planning. In essence, Kim's pieces are like machines made up of very minute parts. In order to create one of these machines, he not only manufactures each part to precise specifications according to his plan, but he then assembles them into a whole. Naturally, the result is an exceedingly artificial product rather than a natural object. But Kim is merely producing the artificial, and excluding the artistic.
    Exclusion of the artistic is also connected with exclusion of the subjective and arbitrary. When "producing" one of his works of art, Kim adamantly refuses to admit any subjective elements. This refusal can be witnessed in the two aspects of form and physical properties. In terms of form, he cracks down on any excessively subjective or superfluous elaboration. For example, in "Horizontal Intervention," the oblique lines create a geometric symmetry. The purpose of this symmetry and simplicity is to prevent the emergence of arbitrary, that is to say subjective, elements. If arbitrary elements are added to the form, the result will appear to be a subjective work, bearing the intentions of the artist, rather than a complete product; it will end up "artistic" rather than "artificial." In that sense, Kim's works could be viewed as carrying on the mantle of minimalism. However, because they are "products," they cannot be seen as a continuation of minimalist sculpture.
    In addition, the exclusion of subjective elements is seen in a faithfulness to the physical properties of the materials used. This recalls the "faktura" of the Russian constructivists, who viewed steel, then a new architectural material, as suitable for geometric and scientific images, in contrast with the marble that had previously been used. The properties of steel as an architectural material were not suited to the splendid embellishments of aristocratic and extravagant tastes, and the new sculptures and architectural works that stayed true to these physical properties were seen as highly scientific and representative of the progressive world view. Kim Byoung-ho's works also adhere to the practices of faktura, in that they remain faithful to physical properties. Even when using a diverse range of materials such as stainless steel and brass, he attempts to stay as true as possible to the properties of that material rather than transforming them to suit his artistic intentions.
    The results of this process and its faithfulness to the objective can be summarized in the word "product"; both the use of a process similar to design and the utter exclusion of any subjective elements can be viewed as characteristics of a product. Another paradox, however, is that in spite of these similarities, Kim's works are most definitely not industrial products. This can be witnessed in the fact that their meaning as "products" does not merely express a relationship of tension with the work of art. Rather, the significance of his works in the context of art history emerges from the subtle tension they betray with the "ready-made." Kim's works may appear ready made, but they are not. As the words indicate, a "ready-made" work is one that has been prefabricated. But Kim's works are "products" rendered according to a carefully planned design. If ready-made works have been used in art in order to break down the boundary between art and the everyday, Kim's efforts at creating "products" is an effort to reestablish the tension between art and the everyday that was broken down by the ready-made.
     This tension hints at a certain social dimension that goes beyond simple artistic concerns. Through his "products," the artist is pursuing a rigor that is not visible to the naked eye. He creates highly polished structures by making products reminiscent of intricate machinery, but he shows that such polished works can only be born out of a stable system of micro-level parts. If we liken society to an artificial object, a product, then it is formed by the norms and systems of micro-level elements invisible to the eye. A product is a systematic work created from standardized criteria or interfaces. Such a system cannot come into being without the involvement of the micro-level. The work of Kim Byoung-ho is the creation of a fantasy that seeks to form the system of a society as interface from a micro-level of virus-like elements.

A Tint of the Media Element Infiltrated Assembled Installation Art
writing_ Seo Jung-im Staff Reporter

Kim Byoung-ho’s recent work A Host is a wall installation made of trumpet-shaped aluminum tubes of diverse length, stretching out from the center in all directions. It looks like a Duchampian readymade, or mass-produced product, and may be misunderstood as a minimalist artwork due to is simple form. However, we soon realize it has a media art element by listening to its electric sounds, like a bird song, successively heard form each tube, rather than it being just a sculpture of form and mass.

Many of his pieces maintain sculptural form, but have a media art aspect, as they emit sound. Because his work highlights the sense of hearing and embraces other senses, it can be defined as media art. This definition is not always correct, because his work has no sense of non-materiality, non-casualty, or non-crystallization, often peculiar to media art, and often relies on its sculptural form. But, it is also beyond the definition of sculpture, as it shows no dexterity of hand or labor-intensive fidelity. His work focuses on concepts and ideas based on diversity, rather than on material and form. It also blurs the boundaries of genres, showcasing a clash between matter and idea; a confrontation or cohabitation of existentialism and metaphysical thought.

Through works such as Floating Space, Floating Light, and Floating Land displayed at his first solo show, Kim raised psychological aspects, and visualized intangible energy. These traits he has moved to diverse relations in the world, between himself and others, power balances, cause-and-effect relationships, relationships between work and viewer, sound and object, space and work, and artist and work. Elements produced by these relationships can be interpreted with the keyword ‘fantasy’.

Fantasy and its ambiguousness derive from the reduction of perceptual, psychological tension between ‘self’ and ‘others’, moving beyond the world with a multiple-identity. Fantasy results form his assembled sculptures, by Kim, who refers to himself as a rational not a maudlin artist. (Kim’s work does not define ‘fantasy’. For him its meaning is diverse, and offers many possibilities, interpretations, and impressions.) To this, Kim allows the intervention of media as mediator and conciliation between human beings and the world, firmly reinforcing these relationships.

In the process of visualizing the fantasies of man, society, and history, Kim uses media art to stimulate viewers’ perception and their psychological reformation. Media art is effective in preventing the breakaway of viewers, caused by interactive art’s excessive interaction. However, he is reluctant to highlight media art in his work. The proportion of sculptural and media art elements is 50:50 in his work, but its result is 99% visual, 1% media art! It means he conceals such a media-art element as much as he can, but helps it operate to the full.

One of the clues to read his work is he seriously considers which kind of work and role he has to assume, and where he has to position his art within the landscape of contemporary art. With this reason, his work does not pursue high-tech art. Kim tries to verify if a new medium he selects is appropriate to his work. In this respect, he seems to properly divide his work into two categories, ‘reflected’ media art and installation art.

A Way to Face Desire in Reality
By Yoo Won Joon, Director of Aliceon

A French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan says that human desire is a chain of empty spiral rings that lacks perfect signification, and ceaselessly obscures the actual meanings. His comments imply that the objects of human desire appear to exist, but are just illusionary images in reality, which thereby forcing it to end up being a signifier without perfect signification. But does it also apply to our awareness of desire? Is it true that the objects of such a human desire, as attractive as they appear to be, are meaningless and unsubstantial?

The artist Byoung-ho Kim's work represents such an illusionary human desire and its fantasy substantially. He creates a particular shape of figure by assembling pieces of cold metals together and giving them refined finishing touches, and let such a process of work stand in contrast with multiplying of human desire. His work is similar to the process where a new cluster of desire is being produced as a result of a combination and amplification of different kinds of human desire. Human desire is itself composed of all the yearnings towards intangible and immaterial objects. Therefore, the desire full of accumulated emotions can be considered to be innocent despite its slightly negative connotation contained in it. Desire is fundamentally the driving force for human beings to continue with their lives, but sometimes subjects them to its control. In his work, these kinds of features of human desire are portrayed in different patterns.


The first type of his creation is to reproduce a quiet propagation of human desire, as suggested by his series titled <Silent Pollen> (2007). A series of work featured by tens of aluminum tubes visualize the fantasy of human desire that is generated silently, combined together, and propagated. Byoung-ho Kim describes such a process as “a flower” indicative of beauty which symbolizes the moment when human desire comes into existence as a tangible object. Such a concept materialized by the artist is intentional considering the idea that desire itself cannot be generated without its objects. But he successfully achieves a sense of equilibrium for his work by not only metaphorically adopting the concept of the pollination of a flower into his works, but also even connecting the abstract idea of desire with the cold surface of materiality.


What is particularly noticeable in this work is that the propagation of desire is being unfolded by intervention of media. On the surface, it looks as if multiplication of human desire is being unnoticeably and quietly processed, but deep inside, there are a number of driving forces behind its propagation. Likewise, the installed work absorbs little voices and sounds of the audience and amplifies them into arbitrary sounds. But such an engagement of media remains thoroughly hidden. It is interpreted to represent moments of surging desire symbolized by the amplification of small input and output devices contained in the aluminum-based pollen tubes for flowers. Such a restrained use of media reminds us of where the engaged media is positioned in the entire work. Byoung-ho Kim's work involves 99 % of his creating energy and efforts on its forms and a 1% minimum of media intervention as if God had shaped human beings from the soil of the ground and blown the breath of life and spirits into them. Such a concept prevents the deviation of the audience caused by excessive interactivity of media. This explains why Byoung-ho Kim can be regarded as a media artist despite the passive engagement of media in his works.


The second type of his creation such as <Assembling for Eternity> (2008), unlike the first type, boldly reveals the reality of human desire. The propagating structure of desire is no longer confined to a quiet process, and the abstract concept of carefully polished desire begins to make its presence as a lump of extreme materiality. As if Byoung-ho Kim tries to be sarcastic about the aforementioned Lacan's remarks, a heap of desires presented by him seems to be greedy and persistent like the substantial desire that used to exist in the depth of the mind, but has been just pulled out from the body. Now, let us explore his consistent attitude toward materiality, a recurring theme in his works. The works of urethane rubber on steel that reveals the slippery and dribbling color pigments as if showered with paint show that he intends to let the audience to appreciate his creation tactually, audibly, and s ynesthetically beyond visual delivery. While the cold and restrained surface demonstrated in his first pattern of work discloses the propagating process of the subject based on refined materiality, the second type shows that a heap of human desire itself swallowing media evokes synesthetic appreciation of the work.


The aforementioned two categories of Byoung-ho Kim's works begin to produce their variations. The sound sculpture titled <Assembled Fantasy> (2008) provides room for the audience to be engaged, unlike his previous works. While the preceding sculptures visualized the spiral structure of desires being propagated and circulating, and the moments that they cohered into one lump, The Assembled Fantasy allows each audience to experience their own fantasy of desire. Its geometrical figure, similar to the huge reproductive equipment, appears to deliver his recurring theme, but the sculpture can be interpreted in a different way because each component with refined finishing touch like an industrial design product servers as a kind of sound modulator that varies and generates sounds. The artist plays a variation on the moments when desires are being assembled and multiplied based on a vibration of sounds that originate from each component through the audience's involvement.

Byoung-ho Kim is combining several principles of his work with space. He tries to create a new context by placing his works in a different time and space as if desire propagates itself, spreading from object to object. He says that he imagines the shapes that do not exist in the world when working on them. Even if their motif and his fundamental source of thinking can be traced back to personal experience and perception, I believe that such attempts can set free the autonomy and imagination buried in functionality. Furthermore, like the fantasy of desire structured in his works, logical organization of forms by imagination allows us to perceive and reflect ourselves, and be aware of reality as a fundamental base. Let us step back from his works and contemplate our reality, although it is sometimes a dirty and ugly reality.