Micro-Landscapes of the Anthropocene

Concept-Generation


Chung Chang-Sup, "Untitled”, 1992, Tak fiber on canvas, 260 x 390 cm / 102 3/8 x 153 17/32 inches, Courtesy Galerie Perrotin

Of the smeared whites and beige paint on blue background, one can almost sense the textures of the sky and clouds. It has been smeared on with the body, with all its efforts and exhortations on tak fiber, a natural fibre used to make paper for writing but also to line the walls of houses. “In battering and kneading tak, I unknowingly put my breath, odour and finally my soul into the process, thus becoming a part of the process itself” said, the artist (Chung 241). Where is then the line between the natural, the human, and the non-human? Self and matter unify, what was once separate has merged: man merges with nature and nature subsumes man. Human gestures and patterns are inherently natural, just one sliver of the substantial act of the cosmos.


Lee Ufan, From Point, 1983, oil and mineral pigment on canvas, 91.5☓72.3cm (30), 36.0☓28.5in

Fingers of grass fall and lean into each other like human figures. Imprints and fingerprints that fade away like yellowed weeds and corn and people. The empty space is white and blank and empty – it is mono, or in other words it is single. Is it then the blue or empty that is the colour? Dansaekhwa is a bleaching of the human and the non-human into something beyond – into that which is holistic and meditative which allows for a return to nature. The corals and the figures are one and the same. Deny the subject.


Park Seo-Bo, Ecriture No.3-78, 1978. Pencil, oil on canvas, 130 x 162 cm. Private Collection.

What is rain? What is the scratch of a pen? What are the bullets? What are imaginations of the mind? So we go into the in-human, the non-human, the extra-human. When exploring the physical limitations of the human, one must go to materials that absorb the energy of the natural, the material, and the tactile. What are the scratches now? Are they human or the cause of nature? The canvas must be soft indeed to impress upon itself the relief, texture, and repletion of such movements. The dynamic and the versatile; dansaekhwa “show[s] the expansion of formal boundaries that these artists were going for.” https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/dansaekhwa-korean-art

Process of concept generation:
Extended Metaphors/AllegoriesMetaphorsEcological Issues
2019-2020 Australian Bushfires - Center for Disaster Philanthropy
Australian wildfire smoke had dramatic impact on global climate in 2020 - The Washington Post
2019–20 Australian bushfire season - Wikipedia
Australia's 2019-2020 fires had surprisingly wide-reaching impact | Science News
My week in Austin's deep freeze - by Jillian Anthony (substack.com)
Four long-term impacts of the winter storm on Austin - austonia
A deep freeze is coming to Texas, and no one knows if the power grid is ready | Ars Technica
IN PICTURES: A close-up look at the Great Barrier Reef's bleaching | Climate Council
Coral Bleaching - Great Barrier Reef Foundation
Mass Coral Bleaching Now Affecting Half of Great Barrier Reef (earthisland.org)
The Great Barrier Reef Has Lost Half Its Corals in the Last 25 Years (globalcitizen.org)

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