Confronting the World as an Individual
There is a portrait of a naked body with a monochromatic background. This person, whose eyes are half-closed, appears repeatedly in several other paintings, and it is assumed that each component of this series represents a portrait of a different person. However, upon closer inspection of the title of this series, we come to realize that it is actually the artist's self-portrait. There is not any expression on his face, such as laughter, sorrow, anger, or irritation, which would create even the slightest movement of the facial muscles. Instead, there is a mouth twisted by a hand, a bent nose, and a contorted cheek. When we turn our eyes to the other paintings in this series with the expectation of seeing a face that is intact, we soon find that various objects appear in the middle of the canvas and block the human figure. We soon realize that it is not easy to see the figure as a whole. The portraits show faces distorted by having their skin and muscles pulled by the subject's fingers. Sometimes the face is obscured by an object. The imagery refuses to be recognized as one person and quietly gazes back at the viewer. Ung Pil Byen's work opens a dialogue about the realization of human existence and the problem of translation. This originated from his research on his own identity through self-portraits and series of human figure paintings and drawings.
The Refusal of Realization and the Involvement of Action.
Byen's signature series entitled, demonstrates his subject matter very well. Generally, when the viewer encounters a realistically depicted painting, s/he will naturally try to assess what is happening by reading the facial expressions, poses, clothing, external appearance, background, and situation. However, in Byen's self-portrait, these elements are, from the outset, excluded from the work, and this is what allows Byen to tactfully avoid the de-facto standards of translation which are fixed within the confines of the traditional portrait genre. Thus, he contorts his own face as a gesture, or performance that shows his intention of eliminating the possibility of being interpreted by the viewer. By bringing the elements of performance to his painting he reminds the viewer of what one can learn from a painting through the confrontation that arises when one sees a face that is impossible to read. During a stay in Germany for study, he experienced prejudice against his foreign appearance (as compared to the locals). This experience has had a huge influence on his work. This is his way of dealing with the idea of a ‘stereotype’, in a way that is humorous and wise, after spending much time agonizing over how shallow and fragmentary one’s perception must be to judge a person by his external appearance. It was merely an aesthetic choice to position mundane objects in front of the human figure and it is in this context that his intention lies.
Reserved Judgment in Front of a Distorted Face
Byen’s painting does not reveal the entirety of its subject matter directly. As mentioned earlier, Byen's performance shows us that what we observe and recognize is merely the distorted shape of the human body. Because of that, it is not easy to recognize the face of the human figure in his paintings as a single complete shape. Considering the fact that Byen's paintings are the subject of viewing and interpretation, the reason why they are thought to have a unique quality in the portrait genre (specifically self-portraits), is that he accounts for the viewer’s consciousness and recognition system-- both of which come into play when s/he confronts the human figure in the painting. He creates new shapes using his body. The distorted shape and modification methods do not push the viewer beyond his/her capacity to recognize that the painting depicts a human face. Byen's paintings are often interpreted as a figurative expression. Byen chose his face as the primary subject matter which the viewer can easily perceive and observe any time. He challenges the viewer to question existence using distortion and modification in conjunction with the usage of elements of performance as a formative method. The viewers’ desire to find the intact shape of a human figure on the canvas is maximized at the very moment of confronting the intentionally distorted face. His painting disobeys the rules of the expression of portrait art while simultaneously compelling the viewer to confront, become curious of, and also doubt, the real appearance of the human figure on the canvas. When faith in a well-known form, such as the face, is challenged, and when the viewer's desire to see that which is expected to be seen is blocked, common perceptions and judgments are questioned. Through his work, Byen indicates that there is no single true face, and that each individual sees the face as they wish depending on his/her own experience and judgment. He induces the modification within a recognizable range. In other words, his painting is in the figurative painting genre and depicts ‘human figure’ so it is relatively easy to interpret. At the same time, his works are self-portraits which refuse to be observed under the limitation of fixed idea in regards to traditional human figure painting. These aspects are the center of Byen’s unique painting style.
The ‘Made’ Man, The ‘Made’ Painting
The ‘made’ human face which is intentionally distorted and modified in order to refuse fragmentary understanding resembles the way Byen creates his oil paintings. Byen uses short, orderly, horizontal brush strokes to complete the human figures which are reminiscent of weaving a fabric on a loom. Byen mentioned in a note on his oil on canvas series that it would be more appropriate to use the word, ‘make’, rather than, ‘paint’, to describe his working style. In his paintings, brushstrokes move in an orderly fashion from the top to the bottom and from left to right without a second coat, like weaving. By using this method, he has established his own unique style of painting, ‘made’ painting, referring the gestural aspect of contorting his face and painting it.
Standing in Front of the World as an Individual
The reason why Byen selected the human figure as the main subject matter of his work and why he chose to use this particular method and technique is that he wanted the human figure to be thought of not as a specific person but as a universal human existence. He is the main subject of the painting but he refuses to make a definitive judgment and is willing to create distance through a series of motions such as distortion and modification. He does not reveal himself entirely and consistently reminds viewers that it is not enough to judge a person by his/her looks. The face they are looking at is just an artificially made face. Judging a person by his appearance is just a result of their consciousness based on experience. These aspects give a chance to viewers to ask about the issue of recognition and judgment on a human being in society and make us think again about the human figure in the painting which is beyond the self-portrait of the artist-- it could be every individual’s self-portrait. Perhaps Byen hides between his own fingers or behind an object while asking the viewers about the identity of the artist himself. As an individual, he tries to talk about an existence which stands before the world and solicits the viewers’ thoughts about him.
The Gesture with Thoughts and the Blank Space with Stories
His tactic, which transforms a specific person into an unfamiliar object using the distortion and modification method, involves a restrained gesture within the confines of a simple canvas. Composition still remains an important aspect of his drawing series and is a fertile ground for his painting. If the issue of the recognition and judgment of a human being was focused on his self-portrait , the drawing series is an extended version of the theme through the relationships between people. If the series of works entitled ‘self-portrait’ represents the expression of contemplation on the human existence by depicting one person (the artist himself), then the drawing series which shows two or three people with abstained body and hand gestures in a white blank space indicates that Byen’s thoughts can be expressed in various ways through the relationship between people.
On a blank white canvas, people who seem to have a special relationship don't come from a specific model or situation. They are from Byen’s imagination. They could be an incarnation of himself as seen in his self-portrait in a simpler form. If one person with an unknown movement and gesture appeared on the canvas, another figure would appear with new lines and colors on the other side of the blank space as a reaction. Byen brings out a story using the movements and gestures of people and the space between the people and the blank white space. This story creates a subtitle for a work which started out having no title. The accidental combination of the movements and the natural blank space created between the people functions as an element to maximize the narrative of the work. He has created these human figure drawings consistently since 1997 as if it were a diary. It is an important body of work which became a foundation of series which started in 2002 as a series of oil paintings. To Byen, drawing is the starting point of artistic contemplation and all the poetic language derived from this work could be considered as the result and fulfillment of this practice. Recently, in the process of figuring out the relationship between drawing and oil painting as well as drawing and installation, Byen tried making a life-size human figure installation with attaching the drawing on plywood as a formative experiment. By positioning human figures which project the identity in a blank space and building a relationship between them, he deepens the subject. In this regard, the objective he attempts to achieve is indeed notable.
Byen shows human figures with minimal shapes and under certain conditions and creates a depth of the contemplation on the subject. This is the result of searching for human existence in various ways based on his artistic contemplation of human recognition and judgment. As far as he is concerned, one individual human is not something that can be completely understood. It could be something that allows a slight chance of being understood in conjunction with collected fragmentary impressions and a complex agreement of ideas. It seems very natural to him to express his thoughts on human condition through drawings which were created by a combination of formative experiments, not limited by one genre. He has been searching for a way to create a figurative drawing with a vast array of concepts and has been focused on various ideas generated by the interpersonal relationships. His consistent effort is the reason why we look forward to seeing his future works. Jung In Hwang (Independent Curator)