Park,
Young-Taek (Professor at Kyunggi Univ, Art Critic)
Surrounded
by animal figures is the artist, Noh Jun. These animal figures are not meant to
be exact representations of actual animals but rather to be abstract,
anthropogenic images. His work studio is crowded with animal figures, cartoon
images, and adorable characters. He is the master of the Kingdom of characters;
to approach him must you pass his animal creations. I find anew the similar presence with Noh in
his creations. These fancy, endearing animal sculptures are quite man-like,
standing straight and looking straight ahead. Difficult to avoid their eyes, I
thought. These pleasant and lovable things are gladly come in my hands. Noh is
the creator and the master of the Kingdom
of Characters; he is also
their parents and the primary subject of admiration. He gave adequate forms,
expressions and colors to these animal icons. Noh broods these products of his
creative imagination and dreams. Working on his artworks to Noh is, thus, like
a process from conceiving, delivering and nurturing his creations. Also
exhibiting his artworks is an occasion of showing and sending them away to
others. He diligently trims wood, faces a stone smoothly and processes the
metals to make the hoped-for images and characters; then he paints them in
bright and vivid colors. A fictional image is carved out of a natural material
and painted in synthetic colors; yet, such oddities make a reversal bringing us
rather familiar and accessible characters.
His
sculptures are modeled animal dolls and animation characters against the common
practice of established sculpture art. Awkward combination of icons,
techniques, images and materials here bring along unfamiliarity. Cute animal
characters that people usually own are generally made of smooth cloths, or
viewed as illusory images or two dimensional flat images. However, it is
somewhat impressive that these animal characters made of hard materials and
lacquered in bright colors are tangible in real. (Such a method has rather
commonly used by Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, Nara Yoshitomo and such.) Noh Jun
made animal figures out of materials like wood, stone and stainless steel; he
colored the figures and made them stand upright. While dolls and animation
characters are fairly common around us, Noh’s figures that were modeled in
solid sculptural materials and went through painterly process.
Dolls and
animation characters, which have been common around us, appear impressive in
our lives as they are sculpted in hard sculptural and gone through painterly
process. He often uses teak and suwar wood from Bali,
sandstone, stainless steel, and sometimes bronze. He basically takes
traditional sculptural materials such as wood, stone and metal. Polyurethane
paint—for its excellent performance characteristics such as vibrant tinting
effect and highly durable coating—is applied to color and finish the surface.
He shuttles back and forth his work studios in Bali, China
and Korea;
he works with materials he can find on the spot. He chips wood, carves a rock,
processes metal and bronze in order to give birth to his character statues. His
work is a process that he brings out his favorite, beloved things out to the
real world.
It is
interesting that two-dimensional animal characters from films or comic books
are recreated by Noh Jun as physical and touchable figures that are standing
straight. The sense of kitsch, which has become widely spread and common in our
contemporary society, is apparently brought into his sculptures. It is not
unusual that many of us, if not most of us, have been a patronage of such ‘sweet
kitsch-ness’ like animal characters, dolls and various objets. As
probably known, people tend to embrace almost everything with adorable
characters; in other words, we are generally very used to kitsch-experience and
kitsch-attitudes. Since the moment we are born to the world, we are surrounded
by certain play-things and pet images. They are various kinds of animal-shaped
stuffed dolls and things. These animals are wild beasts dragged into everyday
life and domesticated. And they are demanded to be safe and obedient to their
makers—humans; they are personified, anthropomorphic animals as well as
illusory animal images. The charming animal figures become meaningful not only
in the aesthetic sense but also in the emotional context. The fact that we can
hold and enjoy them as much as we want makes us want them even more. Hence, the
object is not just modeling an animal; it is rather acting as a person.
Likewise, our first or early encounter with animals is often in the form of
kitsch. It is not new in this contemporary world that kitsch taste that
provides instant satisfaction and comfort has become common sentiment and
generally accepted esthetic sense. However, would it not cast a shadow over?
The images
produced by Noh are imaginary characters. The characters are analogous life
form non-existent in real life similar to those animals in manga and anime. The
difference between them is Noh’s characters are made out of his unique
imagination. In other words, Noh did not depend on or reproduced existing character
images or icons; Noh put intense labor and efforts to carve, chisel and refine
his sculpture works. He does not repeat or borrow the already-made. Noh
produces things similar to existing images but with tenuous distinctions. Noh
makes a crack in usual familiarity and friendliness; he plants his creative
icons in the crack. Noh’s sculptures resemble animal playthings; while he works
on his sculptures, he fully appreciates the genuine meaning and joy of making.
Noh creates characters to let others play. He is exuberant to achieve his
aspiration of making his works as someone’s playmate. He also takes pleasure in
sharing time with his toy / character figures. The foremost pastime to the
artist is certainly appreciated during the process of production; he intends to
return such experience to viewers. Noh did not merely reproduce kitsch animal
toys or treats with sculptural materials: it implies that his creative works do
not end up as unrealistic existence shutting off from the reality; it instead
brings back the object stirring up the very first curiosity and imagination
from the back of the time so that one can generate/ re-generate long-lost or
forgotten memories. His animal figures enable people to recollect memories of
the youth, telling stories of animal toys and playthings from the past and
reading the old-time favorite fairy tales. Noh Jun’s character, thus, acts as
an agent to deliver such stories and visions. The adorable animal characters
possess common sentiments throughout the mankind that evokes sympathy of
viewers. The objective of making the animal characters is to bring back the
long-forgotten hopes and dreams, to recollect memories of childhood play, and
to inspire instinctive aesthetic sentiment. Hence, the exhibition is dedicated
to ‘Hopes For Those Who Have Forget Their Hopes.’