Art frees poet from himself
November 14, 1995
Four weeks ago, Bryon Kim gave a side/talk presentation. Those who attended were art/design undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty. It was at, SIUC, Oct. 16, Browne Auditorium. As a fine artist, Kim is confident, working, and poetic. His paintings describe himself and his attitude on living. He paints condensed, concentrated, and solid like a poem, which is also reduced, without many words, and dense in it’s meaning.
Poems are powerful statements about life, normally of a literature art form; although – poems can be visual. To us, this is unconventional in it’s idea. To Bryon Kim, it is unintentional and intuitive. Thus, he became a painter to free himself as a poet.
Some may say who knows, almost all of his canvases have only blank color. Though, he paints analogies about exteriors and interior, the outer and inner surfaces such as, skin of people, wood on houses, and steel and fake leather of automobiles.
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He paints about them by painting their color. He uses the painting’s surface and color to bring our attention and focus to these outsides and insides of thing and people. With color, shape and texture he makes similarities to them. The color is matched to whatever he is describing, with visual means, whether it is about skin, cars, a childhood house, or someone else’s skin or car. Literally, the shape being the edge of the painting and the texture being the painting’s surface.
The means of the visual arts are form, subject, and content. Visual things need at least one or some for the purpose of communication.
In the painting’s elements, color dominates the basic shape of the two-dimensional-like form:texture subordinates with it’s rough, shiny, dull, or smooth surface. Work that is without illusion, he literally makes form to be flat. He uses a painted canvas surface with a shallow third- dimension, and poses it as sculptural form He does more direct sculptural pieces with wire and wood, and bloated looking, little goat-like bellies. Plus, a hairy armpit that borders direct/indirect sculptural form.
He uses the elements and principles in unusual ways. He stretches the limits and perimeters making wide boundary lines. He does paint what he wants. Some of you may have heard your art/ design professors say that there are no rules in art and design, and to take liberties in use of artistic license. (That is, with their permission or, within the societies limitations in which you are responsible as with everything you do or fail to do there are consequences of action. Though we do have freedom of speech to suggest unpleasant consequences for statements, audibly or visually publicly or privately and it is necessary to learning.) Artistic license is to use freedom of expression, to reveal private interpretation, and allowance of exaggeration to make a point for communication purposes.
So, in case there are rules bend them! This is what he does; it is acceptable and recognized with favorable credits. What he does looks easy, but it is complex in its formal concept. To make something look easy is the essence of simplicity and beauty and oneness. These too are the kinds of things that are written about in poetry.
Besides being based on communication abilities, the Arts and English have little in common. His education is founded in his work. He works in society with other artists. They discuss their work, it’s cause and effect, and whether their work communicates it’s purpose for them. They work like a group, but for individual reasons, unlike institutional schools or any of the academic schools in general. It is a kind of school in the professional world for the individual artist. Without a school of open communication none can learn improvement. Constructive criticisms with positive/negative aspects most often give an understanding for improvement. People do this by working together towards the same means in their work, personal accomplishments of goals, and with increasing degrees of achievement in the desired end of their goals. The only problem is that in a matter of time people usually disperse, just like any other kind of group.
Successful communications are difficult connections to find in society, even in the conventional schools. It is people working together, even without similar means in their work. There may be status in position or authority, but throughout there is mutual respect for individualism and learning. So then, everyone learns with different means to achieve goals. To be all the same would be static, confining, and unfree the opposite of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Each field of study is unique, as well as those who participate in them. This way of thinking exercises the democracy in this country.
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It is for those who desire to be free in spirit, to be liked or disliked for reason of what you do or fail to do according to other people’s standards. Standards being people’s judgments on art quality. Artist’s who exhibit visual art have this reality of being liked and/or disliked by society. In Bryon Kim’s art, we see more than this, we can see freedom, boldness and himself.
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