No one would deny that, since the epiphanal moment when humans first became aware of their own existence as humans, humans themselves have remained the object of their foremost interest. “Who am I?” “What is a human being?” “Does a deity that transcends humans exist?” “What makes humans human? — finding answers of these questions have been Yang Soon-yeal’s lifelong passion, and her vast treasure trove of work accrued over more than four decades testifies to her relentless pursuit of these answers. Even her flowers, trees, and natural landscapes from the early 1990s suggest that she is harboring grand questions. Ever confident of her brush strokes, Yang illustrated the natural objects around her in the most sincere manner possible. A careful examination of her works from this period gives the impression that the stems of plants have been carelessly painted and that flower petals, rather than being demure, wildly radiate outwards. Similarly, in her corn painting, the stalk of a corn plant throbs with life, vigorously soaring from the bottom to the very top of the canvas as if to penetrate right through it. In her The Heart of a Flower (2003–2004) series, Yang depicts objects in a simplified or exaggerated manner using the so-called “boneless” technique, which is characterized by a lack of outlines. The paintings hint at the resolute nature of her mind, seemingly trying to instill a sense of cosmic order on each stem and petal of flowers in bloom. Her drawings from the same period, created using pen and ink on paper, reveal the expressive power that goes far beyond the figurative nature of plants, an effect achieved through the use of line drawing and the dripping technique. This suggests that the artist’s consciousness seeks to portray fundamental and cosmic dimensions even when representing natural objects.
In 1998, Yang visited Unjusa Temple, where she painted the Buddha. At first, it was in the form of a single Buddha, which, at some point, became divided into two lumps. Presumably, the transformation was a manifestation of her unconscious, where the Buddha became distinct and separate from a human being, or a human was born from the Buddha. At any rate, through her repeated painting of the Buddha, Yang was finally able to draw the subject that formed the crux of her life’s work: homo sapiens. The questions of “What is a human being?” and ”What kind of being is a thinking human?“ have been posed in her numerous works. The Adoration, Desires, and Realization, her expressionist paintings from 2007, are the culminating works of her early Homo Sapiens series. On enormous canvases measuring four to five meters wide and more than two meters long, Yang sought to express human desires as well as their antithetical counterparts: existential awakening and adoration toward humans and nature.
Let us first examine the artwork, Desires. It features five chrysalis-like lumps on a gray background. By giving form to human desires, the artist attempts to provide a symbolic reference to the anxiety, peril, and calamity given rise to by desires. At the antithesis to Desires, The Adoration and Realization lie. In The Adoration, Yang illustrates two human figures, each positioned on the left and right side of the canvas. Instead of being elaborately portrayed, the figures are large and roughly painted, barely recognizable as humans. Such mode of expression, however, creates the effect of accentuating the reverential attitude of these figures that harbor adoration. In this way, the artist paints strong people imbued with unwavering conviction. Standing firmly on the ground and offering a prayer of gratitude to a deity with their heads bowed, the two figures present a deeply moving spectacle to the audience. Similarly, in complete contrast to Desires, Realization presents a metaphor for a sacred mindset vis-à-vis humans, nature, and transcendental beings. It is not difficult to imagine a group of people performing a worship ritual based on this painting, where Moai statue-like archetypal human figures consisting only of the head and torso fill the entire canvas. It evokes a prototypical scene from a holy ritual conducted somewhere in some remote ancient era.
Realization is a work directly related to a small drawing created by Yang in 2006. In this drawing, a red sun is positioned on the right side of the canvas along with several reddish standing stones below it. Here, what draws our attention is her clear signature that reads: “二ㅇㅇ六 太陽人 順烈” (which reads “2006, sun person, Soon-yeal”). The signature provides a clue as to with what determination she was developing her artistic world. It is also a declaration that her interest in homo sapiens, which began with her drawing of the Buddha at Unjusa Temple, will be amalgamated into her identity as an artist. My conversation with the artist led to one fascinating discovery about her homo sapiens figures from this period: Almost all her figures are standing straight. In Yang’s works, these figures function as something akin to an antenna. Traveling back and forth between the conscious and unconscious worlds, the artist has continued to explore the existence of homo sapiens, attuned to the frequencies of humans and nature, humans and the universe, humans and deities, and human dreams and the very notion of love itself.
Yang’s Dream & Love Motherly Flower (2009) is another work that deserves attention. Measuring 80 x 180 cm, this scroll-shaped painting is rather complex. Created using the ink wash painting technique, it features dark and rough shapes produced by ink diffusion on the left and right side of the canvas. In the middle, there is a bright space that gives the impression of something soaring upward, where the form of a flower and that of a heart are seen overlapping. When she reached the age of 50, the age when one is said to be capable of understanding the decree of Heaven, Yang painted a motherly flower as mentioned in the title. Almost hidden in the area slightly left of the middle of the painting is the figure of a pregnant woman in gold, the representation of a mother conceiving life. It appears that, by painting this woman in gold, Yang sought to express everlasting motherhood that is never altered. This artwork thus suggests that her obsessive exploration of homo sapiens is broadening to include the subject of motherhood.
Once her artistic world adopted homo sapiens and motherhood as dual subjects, Yang’s artistic prowess began to explode in earnest. Her artistic journey from the Dream & Love series and portrait series, such as Clara Schumann, to her post-2009 objets d'art, including Father’s Chair, Rearview Mirror, Peanut, and Fatherland of Combat Boots, is the result of the creative fever she had to tide over in order to express all her senses, sensibilities, fantasies, and imaginations. As for style, Yang has reached a phase where she can express her unique style of art while straddling expressionism and surrealism. What has appeared at this phase is the Epiphany series, where Ottogi sculptures and figures, which are considered her most representative works, have been perfected through the painterly vision of her late Homo Sapiens series.
Yang’s Ottogi sculptures were first produced in 2011. Ottogi, which originally had appeared as prop items in her paintings, were later made size of palm, child, and human, as well as gigantic 3–4 meter tall ones, and displayed around the world. Ottogi takes the form of a mother wearing a long skirt and never falls down. Just as a mother embraces her child and the world with maternal affection, Yang’s Ottogi springs back upright of its own accord. In her artist’s note, Yang speaks about her Ottogi in the following way:
Ottogi (Roly-Poly)
You (汝) within you – your Ottogi
Me (我) within me – my Ottogi
In the imaginary world of the artist, a motherly-shaped Ottogi is a reflection of motherhood. Motherhood is always made possible through the essence of love and trust, emptying and submitting. Motherhood is made possible when the mind becomes united with the universe, when one moves forward not only with other humans but also with everything that exists. Motherhood is the ver
Yang Soon-Yeal, the artist, regards motherhood as a “chunk of energy” that lifts us “like an auspicious talisman.” If that is the case, how can motherhood be depicted in paintings? The answer to this question appears to be hidden in the Epiphany series. Mostly created over the previous and current year, Yang’s Epiphany paintings make it possible to speak of the cosmic dimension of motherhood that cannot be fully explained through Ottogi sculptures. Let us first delve into her polyptych called Epiphany Play. She has drawn small circles on the background that fully covered with black; pitch darkness. Compared to the size of their backgrounds, these circles are quite small but bright in color, so it is only natural that the artwork evokes in many viewers images of stars in the night sky. In 2022, Yang’s star-like circles came apart and reconnected through lines. They were then united in the next step through orderly lines, where she conjured up the form of Ottogi. Yang refers to this as an Ottogi picture. In her recent works, her Ottogi figures are evolving into a form of mandala structure. Through this series of processes, She attempts to prove that motherhood constitutes the fundamental energy originating from the early universe and that it has remained the very energy that can save humans and the world with its vibrant waves.
Yang Soon-yeal has grown into an artist who talks about overcoming, with the power of innocent motherhood, human desires and the resultant demise of the Anthropocene. This message is conveyed to people through motherly Ottogi, her persona. On a bomb-exploding battlefield, in a skyscraper-packed megalopolis with the remnants of our dried-up humanity, or in a wasteland with starving humans and animals, Yang’s motherly Ottogi is an existence that reminds us of the preciousness of life and that makes us dream of human salvation and a peaceful future. The conviction that all beings in the universe reflect one another and are mutually connected — at the core of this conviction, Yang has firmly raised a motherly Ottogi as a reminder of the power of motherhood. The very artist dedicated to this cause is none other than Yang Soon-yeal.
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