Page 7 - 공병개인전 2022. 5. 26 - 5. 31 인사아트센터 3층G&J갤러리

The soul is intangible.
That’s why I wanted to express the intangible with light.

- Artist's note -

The light is here

- Posted on the exhibition of Gong Byung's works Then why is it about light? What light means to writer Gong Byung?
Although Gong Byung had majored in sculpture, he is not a sculptor. In religion, mythology, and folklore, light is a symbol of divinity,
Though he enjoyed painting watercolors on paper and oil paintings wonder, beauty, mystery, energy, and the birth of life. Kings and saints
on canvas, he is not a painter either. He cannot be called a craftsman are born where it shines. So light is sacred, noble, and high. Light
just because he is good at handling materials such as stones, iron, drives away evil. There is no dirt in the light. Where there is no light
wood, and soil which he used in his works. So, you can't call him a is death and barren wilderness. The reason why morning represents
sculptor or a painter, and nor a master who is experimenting and hope is because it is time when light drives out darkness. All life
exploring various materials. When referring to Gong Byung, who is begins with light. When we embrace the light proudly, we become
fluent in sculpture, painting, and the use of various materials, it would disillusioned. Light is also the enlightenment of the mind. So light is
be appropriate just to say a "Writer" in the most comprehensive sense. moral and ethical. In the light, there is a will to live on the straight and
narrow, and a good desire to shine on the dark. We say that people
And now he is hooked on acryl. Acrylic plates can be simply divided who belong to the truth, good, and beauty are in light. Writer Gong
into transparent, translucent, and opaque by color, and Gong Byung Byung wishes to become this "light" himself by creating light from the
mainly uses transparent 15-30mm thick acrylic plates. The reason acryl that has been apart one by one. While looking at the works of
why he uses transparent acrylic plates is because "the transparent is Gong Byung, we marvel and admire the holiness and rapture of light,
the house of light", he says, and because he likes at bottom to use preparing for the excitement of becoming a 'person of light'. So we
relatively thick acrylic plates to give three-dimensional effect to flat can say that Gong Byung's works are aesthetic and soulful.
works. The affectionate encounter of three-dimensional sculpture
and two-dimensional canvas work that he has devoted to so far is Art pursues beauty. It may be not fair to discuss ethics or morality
well-presented in the works. in art. However, when we face the light that roars and converges
intensely throughout the works of Gong Byung, we experience the
Using the specially crafted drill, writer Gong Byung grinds, spears, majestic sacredness permeating our bodies. Suddenly, we fall under
digs, breaks, and slits the acrylic plate so that he can open its solid the illusion that we are in a holy place and eternal time which is
shell by groping, touching, and tapping the inner flesh of the plate. untouchable. A pulsating sense of life penetrates and envelops the
Each time he spears, digs, breaks, and slits, the lights of spearing, whole body. So we decide to become a ‘person like a light’ even
digging, breaking, and slitting are born. Of course, other various tools without realization.
such as hammer and chisel are included in the process. However, he
does not work by drawing sketches on acrylic plates. It is not even Everything in the world is on the path of life. In other words, it is in the
possible. Because as soon as the process begins, sketches disappear futility of life and death, birth and extinction, first and end, gathering
immediately. So, they are replaced by intuitive thinking, senses, and scattering. However, light is closer to life than death, birth rather
experienced skills, artistic agony, and intense experiences. A single than extinction, first rather than end, and gathering rather than
mistake of spearing, slipping and digging instantly destroys the scattering. I hope you can feel the beauty of the aesthetic soul along
work's unique intention, because the RPM of the drill is 12,000 times with the aura of sublimity in the work of Gong Byung.
per minute. Acryl gives off a unique chemical smell when it is worked.
When working, the artist's industrial mask, protective glasses, and
working clothes are instantly covered with dusts and pieces of acryl
removed from the blade of the drill. Acryl is relentlessly let the lights
get in their own broken spaces. Poet Kim Yongguk

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