Ji Yongho graduated from Hongik University’s Department of Sculpture (2005) and obtained a Master’s degree in Fine Art from New York University Graduate School (2008). He made his debut on the art scene using unfamiliar material, tires.
This
exhibition aims to introduce general art lovers to various interpretations of
modern art focused on monsters, the fantastic creatures made by artists’ wild
imagination.
Artists
have continued to exploit their wild imagination since very long ago to create
monsters that can stimulate the imagination of their viewers. Then and now,
they preferred using monster metaphors to represent in their work the discord
from the conflict between the current world and the value of individual people,
refusal or violation of the existing order and systems, and the disharmony
between the one’s original self and the self imposed by society.
It is
generally agreed that one of the most significant hidden codes to help read the
diverse trends of today’s art world that keeps on changing at an alarming speed
is “dissonance,” which appears as a monster of our time. That is why the works
by 21 artists collected for this exhibition under the title, Dissonant Visions,
can be united by a single common denominator.
The
word “monster” came from two Lain words, “monstrare” (literally meaning “to
show”) and ‘monere’ (literally “to warn”). The origin of the word reveals that
monster had referred, at least before the 19th century, to a human being who
should be a warning for all through revelation of his vice, madness, unreason,
violation, or other spiritual or moral deviation rather than something visually
ugly or fearful.
A monster was not something created naturally but by modern
knowledge based on human culture and art which is also a creature represented
as the other in the historical context of the time. Monstrousness has gradually
been expressed by the image of mankind who lost control over the world, as it
becomes more and more difficult for modern people to know what is good and what
is bad and hence what should be expressed as a monster.
Today
we face increasing instability of human existence, disastrous reality of the
modern society, and uncertainty about the future while traditional rational
order and value continue to suffer a state of confusion in this “hybrid” world.
The exhibition is expected to offer an opportunity to reflect upon the inhumane
brutality which exists in the depth of modern people through the shapes of
monsters that appear before us in a greater variety in modern painting.
