Statement
<The Identity of Painting and the Importance of Process>
The identity of painting, as I see it, does not come from what it expresses, but from the contemplation of how it is expressed. Therefore, painting is not only visual but also mental.
When thought and sensation are united as one, the process through experience can be faithfully carried out.
The process is accompanied by experience, and the image appears as the result of that process. Then, what kind of experience grants mental value? Success and failure, layering and removal, repetition and change, abundance and emptiness, harmony and opposition, destruction and regeneration, collapse and recovery—these are endless questions when it comes to painting. These questions, in themselves, become an intense process. Like a painting that leaps into the canvas and then jumps out again, it is impossible to determine where the beginning and end are. The exploration of painting is, in essence, the exploration of oneself, and furthermore, a journey of expressing one's own existence. This journey goes through a specific process, during which the purpose is continuously recorded, starting from the blank canvas and capturing various experiences. Actions such as carving, colliding, scratching, throwing, rubbing, scattering, sweeping, piling up, and covering—all the various acts encountered along the journey—become a research that goes beyond mere tasks, exploring the meaning of the moment. In this process, new discoveries are made. This repetitive process prevents the image from remaining just a means of conveying symbolism, and instead, it functions as a device for the exploration and journey of contemporary painting.
The process of thought is like an uncertain place. It is unclear whether there is a delicate path formed by slender curves, or if there are densely packed buildings that create a feeling like looking at a perspective drawing.
In this uncertainty, the dots that jump onto the canvas have no logic or storyline. They simply express existence through the experiment of process. This is an attempt to escape from states such as powerful prejudices, comparisons, laziness, hatred, and arrogance, much like an epidemic.
However, over time, even this process is bound to gather dust. Dust does not remain silent. Dust makes a faint sound. Therefore, what is important in the process of thought is the act of steadily brushing away that dust.
Interested in the form of nature where the traces of human are left behind, the shapes and languages of the neglected, and the big and small daily lives are focused. Detecting, collecting, and expressing forms containing dignity, resistance, and the will to survive.
Desperate forms are found in everyday spaces as well as mainly disappearing redevelopment sites. The reason for paying attention to this form was not limited to the social and productive issues of the time, but rather, if you observe closely from the very trivial and the neglected, you will find the most essential moment. This is to bring together the various pieces selected to shape them and make them earnestly than the essence. To do so, finding ingredients with my own hands, touching the ingredients obtained from nature, and experiencing them directly whether they are rough or warm is the basic posture for me to carry out my work.
The action of sharpening, bumping, and scratching the collected objects is a device of continuously expressing in an unfamiliar way. Collected objects collect images of desperate conditions. Objects with the structure of a house, such as old doors, windows, wallpaper, and floorboards, are used like canvases, crushed rock and fragments of porcelain are dismantled and used, and various other materials given in nature are used.
The collected material is reprocessed several times and layered on a canvas or object. Also, various breaking actions are carried out to find and describe the forms of collisions, cracks, and resistance accumulated therein. this process is my way of existence of painting that pursues repetitive and refined expressions to capture timeliness.
The materials of the artwork are memories and records. The emotions that I felt by writing down the thoughts that came to mind while tracing me memory are left in color, and the moment of the process is left in shape.
Desperate forms are found in everyday spaces as well as mainly disappearing redevelopment sites. The reason for paying attention to this form was not limited to the social and productive issues of the time, but rather, if you observe closely from the very trivial and the neglected, you will find the most essential moment. This is to bring together the various pieces selected to shape them and make them earnestly than the essence. To do so, finding ingredients with my own hands, touching the ingredients obtained from nature, and experiencing them directly whether they are rough or warm is the basic posture for me to carry out my work.
The action of sharpening, bumping, and scratching the collected objects is a device of continuously expressing in an unfamiliar way. Collected objects collect images of desperate conditions. Objects with the structure of a house, such as old doors, windows, wallpaper, and floorboards, are used like canvases, crushed rock and fragments of porcelain are dismantled and used, and various other materials given in nature are used.
The collected material is reprocessed several times and layered on a canvas or object. Also, various breaking actions are carried out to find and describe the forms of collisions, cracks, and resistance accumulated therein. this process is my way of existence of painting that pursues repetitive and refined expressions to capture timeliness.
The materials of the artwork are memories and records. The emotions that I felt by writing down the thoughts that came to mind while tracing me memory are left in color, and the moment of the process is left in shape.
Essays
From the Form of Life to the Life of form
[Noh jae eok : Sharpen, Bump, and Scratch]
Ahn Soyeon
Art Critic
Noh jae eok's Sharpen, Bump, and Scratch (2022) suggest a turning point in his continuous work with what he has been doing. The archive work of the redevelopment area that has been in progress since 2018, has been focused on records of the demolition and temporary ruins faced in the redevelopment process of Uiwang-si, Gyeonggi-do, where Noh lived for about four years. Through Naesonra Housing Redevelopment : Naeson-dong Archive (2018), Naeson-dong Life Dictionary : Digital Archive (2019), Naeson-dong Archive : Naeson-dong Immgration Dictionary (2020), and Memories and Records of Naeson (2021), Noh composed the trio of 'Naeson Archive' collective to focus on observing and recording the location of the ruined redeveloment area ahead of demolition.
소외를 내파(內波)하려는 이와 만나다
김현주
독립큐레이터
구성하는 이
회화에 주력하는 작가 노재억은 타인이 보기에는 수고롭게, 자신에게는 의미롭게, 여러 물성을 화면에 얹어간다. 이번 오픈 스튜디오는 완료된 작품만이 오롯한 전시장이 아니라 그가 작업실에서 쌓으면서 깎고, 또 부딪히고, 긁고 긁히는 회화를 만들고 있음을 직접 보고 들을 기회였다. 호미달 스튜디오를 찾은 관객 그리고 반려 고양이 호미와 미달이가 이날의 목격자였다. 노재억의 작업실 이름은 호미와 미달이의 이름을 따서 호미달 스튜디오다. 그는 오픈 스튜디오에서 인위적인 건 하고 싶지 않다고 선명하게 의사 표현했다. 내 뜻도 다르지 않았다. 가장 그다운 모습으로 관객과 만나게 하고 싶었다. 그는 공간 분할 없는 네모진 작업실 안에 동선 따라 둘러볼 수 있도록 파트를 나누어 오픈 스튜디오를 준비했다. 드로잉 뭉치가 놓인 시작점, 평소 작업이 주로 벌어지는 작업대 주변, 바보 트리가 붙은 벽과 그가 남긴 메모들, 내손동 프로젝트 기록물과 영상이 놓인 파트 등 작업의 흐름을 유연하게 훑을 수 있도록 수고를 기울였다. 〈문자 그대로의 오픈 스튜디오〉가 이번 기획의 제목이었는데, 지난 몇 해를 돌아볼 때 여타 기관 레지던시의 오픈 스튜디오와 가장 흡사한 방식으로 관객을 맞았던 것 같다.