JACQUES H. L. EXHIBITION

The first half of last 2017 was a period where I made the most trips (to exhibitions, museum and cafe) during my stay in Seoul. From D-Museum, to MMCA Seoul, to fashion weeks in DDP (Dongdaemun Design Plaza) to other small and big exhibitions and museums inside of South Korea's capital city. All of the works I saw and conversations I had while visiting all of those places, they were all beautiful pieces that touched my soul and filled me with wonder. And I wish... sometimes I wish to have all the time in the world to make more trips to these aesthetically pleasing places, to spend hours letting the visuals converse with my soul. Because as Elaine Scarry has written in her book, "Beauty quickens. It adrenalizes. It makes the heart beat faster. It makes life more vivid, animated, living worth living."

But I figured out that although I just can't ignore this longing for beauty, I also know that now really isn't the time to regret my decision. I already made the choice not to take a gap year and instead proceed to grad school right away after I got my bachelor of arts last August, and I prayed and sought for advices and went through countless of sleepless nights before I was able to decide to start my masters in Philosophy at that time. What could be the solution then? Taking a trip down memory lane seems to be the answer. Unless...

Unless you have really bad visual memory. Looking back, I realized that my memories have never been about the the sensory experiences nor an entire sequence of events. They are usually just an abstract understanding of what I think happened. Like when I try to remember a moment, I notice that a vague experience, internal though processes, as well the gist of events that is essence of memory and how it was relevant to me are some of the things I could recall, not the visual nor the auditory details. I also notice that when I try to retell memories, the memories themselves usually change slightly based on how detailed I am as I'm recalling them. It's like when I try to go over something and I fail to specify where some objects were in the memory, the objects will usually move based on where I assume they would logically be rather than where they actually were in the memory.

Sometimes I do envy those with excellent visual memory, because I think that's one crucial gift that can help you move forwards in your journey as a visual artist. I mean, of course there are some who create works based on their abstract imagination or intuition. (I obviously I belong to this category, as I rarely make draft/theme/design board, whatever you call it, before I create visual works. I usually just go with the first thing object, colour, texture that came or comes into mind and work my way through my on-set evolving imagination. For my semi-editorial shoots, like this one I did with Kam, for example, I literally just decided to do that 50s theme photoshoot the moment I saw Kam's scarf lying on her bedcovers. We improvised with the poses after a few google search. And as for the editing, I truly only created the color palette based on the vibes and lighting that we got on the photoshoot set that day). But even though I have come to terms with my weak visual memory, I do really want to develop a skill where I can re-imagine something I just saw and create a precise copy out it. It will totally help me improve my drawing skill (which is a required step before I can move on to learn painting).

So I came up with a solution; I need to learn to take more realistic and 'normal' pictures—by normal I mean pictures of common objects like places, landscapes, and humans instead of my usual pictures of lights, colors, textures, and shadows—and write about it in a less opinionated way and more in a descriptive and objective way. I know it ain't going to be easy. After all, I am indeed quite idealistic when it comes to creating visual works that I tend to over-layer and distort the original image. It is painful, having to go out of your comfort zone—the art habit you've developed throughout the years—but I want to improve, so 'll give it a try.

With that in mind, let me introduce you with a board I made to curate some of my favourite pictures of photographs of human by my new favourite french artist, Jacques Henri Lartigue. The Korean curator named one section of his photograph series as "순간의 마법", or Magic of the Moment (roughly translated). And I can't agree more; I just couldn't stop my ooh and ahh as I was looking at his works. He'd probably done most of his works with films (it was in the 1900s), and I was just simply amazed by all the delicate moments he captured with his lens.

Well then, I hope you feel as enlighted as I am when you take a closer look of his works. Until we meet again!

P.S.

I know, these are pictures of framed pictures, but we all have to start small right? And look at that last lady picture. Instead her shadow or her cloth textures, I took almost a full frame of her, my human korean unni friend!

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Picture: Stella Nikiko / Brush: Stella Nikiko / Location: Hongdae