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As it is said that discovery is the mission of intuition and memory is the mission of the body, the meaning of disappearance of memory in Zong-de An’s artwork is the disappearance of substance and time. To him, remaining traces are time and creation of new memory.
- Zong-de An's Essay
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About Artist
Zong-de An's work shows the transformation of materials. Color and form change where many layers of paper are overlapped and left over a period of time. In such physical transformation, An expresses the relationship between time and material. This is like finding the form of the material that responds to the flow of time, and reminds us of archetypal questions about the existence of the self. The changes that occur by placing the same thing in one place for a long time expresses how the self, placed in a foreign space, gradually adapts and transforms, becoming all that remains. When memories fade away, what is left? Nothing. Everything has disappeared and nothing is left. Memory is nothing but fabric weaved with time and space. Without this weaving, time cannot exist. The thing that we call "I"is just the same. A fading longing is the only real and actual existence. Isn't a pattern that fades because of exposure to time the pattern of life? In the end, there is nothing, not even the body. Zong-de An's work aims questions at the object, the world, and at the artist himself.
Countless marks are shown on the cotton cloth. The random lines, the traces of the nails that used to be, and the traces of rust and mold together form the surface. In the work where the four pieces with nail marks are connected as one, we can see circles, squares, and triangles in gold foil, watermarks, and the traces of mold and nail marks. These traces are revealed as colors, suggestions, and forms. These are no longer traces; they are statements of self-expression. And among these, we discover a pencil-marked grid in the background. In this, we encounter the moment in time, or the moment when the continuing traces are left on the body, and the moment when traces are revealed. This is when this object is seen as a work of art. Being abandoned, it is placed in the natural continuum, and the continuum makes the traces of time into the body of the object.
Likewise, the solid steel of the nail becomes malleable, and demonstrates how something solid can become pliable and belong to the world of time. Through rusting, steel becomes supple, andultimately turns into a trace of a rust stain. The paper with the smeared rust forms the interior. Solidity turns to rust, the rust is smeared on paper, and suddenly a flat surface becomes the interior of a solid nail. In the acceptance of the flow of time, the interior of the three-dimensional object leaves it's three-dimensionality on a two-dimensional surface.
The glue, applied when papers are added, enhances the texture and color. The glue marks becomes a kind of expression. All the acts of the artistare recorded as traces; these traces remain on the material where time is accumulated. The paper hanging like laundry on a clothesline moves in time. In this moving structure, of hanging and overlapping papers, both new and old coexist. The papers that hanging from a tight rope show the limitation of freedom, tied movement, and the time that has permeated the top of its fading surface. Through its movement, the flow of time is simplified, the moment becomes the present, and the continuation and discontinuation are seen through visual images.
The layers of colored paper are overlapped to create a space in between. Layers of flat paper create a volume of space. Moving between 2-D and 3-D, there is a subtle movement as small as the small space. This work shows the displacement of time, space, and movement through the fading of the colors, and the overlapping and hanging of the colored paper. This is the creation of relatedness to where the object is. Through the longing that is created through layered space and worn time, lyrical depth is found.
The colored paper is very thin, almost transparent. Thin as it is, the color fades, and the opaque color of the original paper washes away into translucent color. The opaque colors erode with the sensitivity of the fragile paper. This reflects a gaze towards the world that is sensitive and easily wounded. It is a gaze expressed through both time and body.
The pliability of the paper loses its flexibility after a long time of being abandoned, becoming brittle as the color fades. However, the paper placed underneath fades less. At the edge where the paper is pressed down, the original color remains, protecting itself inside the multiple layers of pressure. In this paradox, we see the double-edged quality of an object thatis placed in the flow of time. By focusing on this, or rather by gazing at this, the artist confronts the world. It is like asking what the subject is between states of change and continuation. In the faded memories and unshared landscape, he searches for new memories.
When we look at his work, we focus on the many strategies used by the artist, such as attaching and hanging on the wall, placing on the ground, and thrusting into the surface. We also pay attention to the subtle color differences in the colored paper bundle, and the creation of new spatial relations depending on the positioning and its relationship to its surroundings.
The changing of color gives the axis of time an object, thus showing the progress of how an object responds to the flow of time. Through the suspension of this time the movement or the continuation of consciousness is created.
The various colors of the exposed paper are pressed with stones, bones, iron, wood, and ceramic, looking similar to prayer flags. Viewing this work islike revealing the interior of both time and object, entering into the interior of a situation, or experiencing time that now has a body. This is an extreme experience where the interior self is perceived only when it is placed in a landscape without time or history.
- Sun-hack Kang (Art Critic)
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Biography
Zong-de AN(1957-)
Lives and works in Paris and Seoul
Born in Seoul, Korea
Education
Graduated from l'Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2007 Gallery Dorfmann, Paris, France
2006 Gallery Dorfmann, Paris, France
2005 Gallery Freihausgasse, France
Gallery der stadt Villach, Austria
2003 Gallery Dorfmann, Paris, France
2000 Gana Art Gallery - Insa, Seoul, Korea
1999 Gallery Ville de pantin, France
1998 Gallery Dorfmann, Paris, France
1995 Gana Art Gallery - Insa, Seoul, Korea
1994 Gallery Dorfmann, Paris, France
1992 Gallery Dorfmann, Paris, France
1991 Gallery Dorfmann, Paris, France
Gallery Arch.i.de, Paris, France
1988 Gallery Usine Ephemere, Paris, France
1986 Gallery Busan-ilbo, Busan, Korea
1982 Gallery Dongduk, Seoul, Korea
1981 Gallery Grorichi, Seoul, Korea
Selected Group Exhibitions
2005 Gallery Alain Gaillard, Paris, France
Gallery Freihausgasse, France
Gallery der stadt Villach, Austria
2004 FIAC, Paris, France
2003 FIAC, Paris, France
Gallery Georges de Bartha, Geneva, Switzerland
2000 Cite des Sciences et de l'industrie de la Villette, Paris, France
1999 Gallery Kammunale, Berlin, Germany
Museum Pierre Noel, St. Die-des-Vosges
L'Espace Malraux, Tours, France
Gallery Ville de pantin, France
1998 'Asian Avant-Garde', Christie's, London, U.K.
'Art dans le monde', Passage de Retz, Paris, France
'FIAC', Paris, France
1995 Gana Art Gallery - Insa, Seoul, Korea
1994 Gallery Dorfmann, Paris, France
1993 Foire de Bale, Switzerland
1990 Gallery YU-I, Brussel, Belgium
Foire 'Decouvertes', Grand Palis, Paris, France
Museum of Kwok-On, Paris, France
Korean Cultural Sevice, New York, U.S.
1988 'Art Jonction International', Nice, France
Gallery Usine Ephemere, Paris, France
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