Ki Chang Han

Ki Chang Han (엘나이트) is one of 21 outstanding artists selected by the Korean Artist Project.

Artist's Education: Chugye University for the Arts. Seoul, Korea. B.F.A., Korean Painting.Korea University. Seoul, Korea. M.A., Art Education.Dankook University. Seoul, Korea. Doctorate Course in Formative Arts.

The Motive:
Han Ki Chang’s works gives me the impression that the main motive for the painter is to give the viewer an opportunity to acquire a new perspective. Although Han is not a typical painter who only sticks to the act of painting itself, the reason why I am using the word ‘painter’ to refer Han is that a ‘painter’ is a person who builds a relationship with the world. He has previously been labeled as an “Oriental painter” by the discipline he majored in, but in fact, he has actually been breaking the boundaries of the Oriental painting tradition while simultaneously maintaining the Oriental painting style. The definition of Oriental painting is not derived from the method or medium. Rather, it is more about the theory or aesthetic. From this point of view, Han is at the same time an Oriental painter, an installation artist, and a video artist.
It is well known that Han’s changed perspective of the world is based on his personal experience. While he was getting ready to study abroad, he got into a terrible car accident which brought about a complete reversal of his life’s trajectory up to that point. During his year and half recovery in a hospital bed, he reflected on his past and began a process of discovering his real self. It is this process which led him to a change in the way he was thinking about society. To a patient who is in a life and death situation, a hospital is a place that provides the opportunity to find the completely different perspective. For example, one of Han’s notes reads: “After surgery, I had a chance to take a look at the X-ray film to see how my bones are healing and repairing. I cannot forget about the wonders of the body. The wonder of life was flowing between bones which are the very parts I am composed of.”
After being discharged from the hospital, it was natural that his work had completely changed. This extreme experience filtered his thoughts; he was now able to see the vague ideas of art theory, -ism, and aesthetic value through the filter of pain, despair, and hope which was given to his life. In other words, Han was motivated by his experience and his own physical body and mind. His new reality caused him to observe his surroundings differently than he had before, and he gained justification for the self-transformation which came from within. He chose X-ray film as his primary medium and used it to reveal the story, and formative significance, that the medium (X-rays) contained. He once confessed, “I could sincerely stand in front of my work after all.” Ten years have passed since Han introduced . What has been driving him? Where does his inspiration come from?

Amor Fati:
Han titled this exhibition . ‘Amor Fati’ became well known because of Friedrich Nietzsche, and is translated in English as ‘the love of fate’. It is about not only accepting the undeniable destiny we each have been given, but also going beyond that acceptance and embracing that destiny. Nitetzsche believed that by loving our fate we could show the greatness of the human being. He also stated that this kind of fatalism coincides with creativity. There is an ultimate principal to return to. There is an eternal cycle which every human being would experience, and return to, at some point in their lives. The Eternal Return (Ewige WiederKunft) is a concept which states that every single living thing appears, disappears, and comes back to life as it used to be. The eternal circle is a fate that no living human being can get away from.
However, in this case the return itself is not a simple repetition or return to the same thing. “Return” enables the construction of the existence to be equal to accepting it as it passes. In the eternal cycle, “return” provides an insight into what the unexpected and uncertain could have done. The tightly related causes that one is attached to circle around one’s being and any one of them could arise within the cycle with unknown results. “Amor Fati” means accepting the returning fate with the knowledge that both the processes and the results could be unique upon each cycle. We are living creatures which, despite facing numerous life-and-death situations, will continue to exist. Although life is filled with humiliation, despair, and pain, we can escape this cycle when we realize and accept that this is merely the natural course of life.
From this point of view, all art comes from our being. By reflecting on ourselves it is possible for us to understand and accept ourselves. We can understand all the coincidences that we encounter, accept them, and dissolve them as an inevitability in life. It is this mentality which inspired Han to try to become one unified body with the medium. Therefore, this exhibition shows the process of overcoming the self while accepting the self, and finding self while erasing oneself. This process seems to be a true driving force to Han. For instance, he attempts to remove the distinction between the X-ray film and artist himself, and allows the picture talk about itself rather than actively transforming the picture into the medium. He tries to reconcile the meaning of healing, resurrection, and the laws of nature. Ultimately, he tries to reach what he believes to be the highest level of thinking: contemplation through the use of the whole body.

Natural Return:
This exhibition includes installations, two-dimensional works, and media art. Han’s passion and motivation towards the creation of art has enabled him to complete a massive amount of works. Exploring various ways of expression without reserve is the virtue of Han’s art. Although he uses many different types of media to express ideas, his work has always been focused on a consistent theme. This exhibit could be described as a journey through course of birth and death, an exploration of nature’s life cycle or a realization of wise death.’ It reminds us of the face of a person who has perceived the core of the eternal cycle-- a cycle which states that we must die in order to live and we must live in order to die. This is a fundamental truth of the nature: everything on earth must live and die in nature in order to became one with nature.
Han usually looks for abandoned X-ray film from the hospital. The anonymous wounds in the film are amazing artwork in itself. However broken or ruined, each one still shows a hint of life through the shape of its shadow. Han found this ‘light painting’ in the X-ray and gave breath to this abandoned item. This time, he saved the shape of the object and made a water tank out of it. In the water tank, there are fishes, butterflies, and seaweed, and they are decorated with bright and vivid colors. The water tank could be a monument with praises of the power of the life. The most important element is water. Every life form springs forth from water and water is found in all living organisms. The gorgeous movement of the fish and the waving seaweed seem like a mass of humanity flowing together in a splendid concert of motion.
The meaning of the natural return can be found in his video works. The sound of dripping water and calm waves are arranged with continuous display of X-ray film of the inside of a human body. This work begins with a very small part of the body, which looks like an eye socket, and continues on to the torso, the inside of the organs, up the spine and bones with a slow and gradual movement, and then zooms out to return to a small part (similar to the one from which it began), and then it becomes an image of breathing. Then, the work reveals to us a blood vessel which becomes a tree branch, which then becomes transformed into a bone. The bone is then transformed into a scull, which, in turn, is then transformed into a sacrum, and then disappears. This process, the transformation of the image including appearance, transformation, death, and rebirth, seems like a wave pattern because of the sound of the waterdrops coming from the audio portion of this exhibit. The sound creates tension and provides a mysterious feeling with a spiritual atmosphere. Han presents circulating images mysteriously and intriguingly throughout video portion of his work in order to convey a sense of the passage of time to the viewer. The animated portion of his video is very exceptional in this sense. It begins with a blood vessel which gradually moves like cigarette smoke and then changes into a combination of lines, blank spaces, and strong brushstrokes which typically are found in Eastern ink painting. The blood vessel, which represents the origin of life, flows through a tunnel, which bears resemblance to an air pipe, and transforms into a beautiful magnolia. It depicts splendid flowers which were able to overcome the pain and death of the eternal cycle and were finally able to blossom. After the flower blossoms, a tumor begins to spread throughout the magnolia. However, the scene of flowers falling down is not depicted tragically, but heroically. This story, which illustrates how nature is living while at the same time expiring, how nature infinitely endures and is also finite, is depicted as a sentimental and indistinct image.

The Birth of Death:
Han collected medical equipment for this particular exhibition. He boldly installed LED plates forming the shape of a fish onto the wheels of a broken wheel chair. He also showcases rare surgical machines in museum displays. The LED plates attached to the wheel chair wheels are equipped with motors. These motors enable the wheel chair wheels to freely spin, thereby giving the appearance that wheel chair is moving across the wall. The displayed surgical equipment are arranged in the shape of dissected animal bones. The exhibit mimics the intersection of a theoretical image and a physical object. These objects are already dead and have lost breath of life. Like the debris of ancient ruins, the objects from which the scene is composed reminds us of half of the cycle of destruction and repair within our own physical bodies. They are an apparatus which lead us to the other half of this cycle, which is a revitalization within us. At the moment that eternal cycle is revealed to the viewer through the exhibit, the objects undergo a marvelous transformation. This transformation is not brought about by the artist; it is revealed to the viewer through the exhibit itself.
A tree composed of medical staples simultaneously represents the wretchedness and beauty. We do not look at the shape of the tree with flawless lines and beauty. Instead we look at and feel the pain which we are reminded of by the cold sound of the staples being pinned to the bone. On the contrary, Han’s pen drawing reminds us of the stitches of a doctor’s suture applied to a wound with surgical thread. The fine line drawing resembles a suture that would typically be applied to a wound. The stitched part looks like a tree branch, a flower, a falling petal, and a broad landscape. His work is also like the journal of a patient with chronological records of the birth of death, the death of death and disappearance.
The X-ray film and photographs of cells await the audience. The meaning of Amor Fati becomes clear when it comes down to this particular work. From a distance, the elastic lines with a touch of ink appear to be moving, but upon closer inspection, it is a series of blood vessels inside a leg. From a distance, what looks like an abstract painting with many dots is actually a series of pathways contained within a living cell. The movement of blood within the blood vessels, the shape of the muscle, and the shape of the bones reveal to us the condition of anonymous patient’s health. Within any living cell, the molecules of DNA, RNA, and protein are interacting together. This interaction correlates to the way we view eating and stimulation, movement, development, and proliferation, and reveals to us how this wonderful system works. The fact that all life eventually results in death is set forth as a premise. Once we realize this fundamental principle of life, is this, or is this not, a means by which we can finally accept ourselves and overcome destiny? Is this, or is this not, a way for us to witness the moment of the birth of a ‘wise death’

Shin-Eui Park / Art Critic, Professor at Kyunghee University
http://hisour.com/artist/ki-chang-han/