Archisculpture Collage 036, 2017. archival pigment print, 100x70cm, Ed. 2/2
Tag Archives: collage
CONTEMPORARY KOREAN PHOTOGRAPHY + ARCHISCULPTURE
ARCHISCULPTURE was featured in the book [CONTEMPORARY KOREAN PHOTOGRAPHY].
Article about the ARCHISCULPTURE & BEOMSIK WON from the book
[CONTEMPORARY KOREAN PHOTOGRAPHY]
by ILWOO Foundation and HATJE CANTZ
Beomsik WON takes photographs of urban buildings from different times and spaces, breaks them down into segments using digital techniques, and constructs collages to create familiar-looking, yet imaginary buildings. To make these “Archisculptures” as it is called, he carefully combines the segments taking into consideration the architectural size, space, and formative elements; he then places them against simple backgrounds, and lastly adds people or birds for the viewers to guess the size of the building. Although these strange buildings are products of the artist’s imagination, they show various styles of architectures throughout history.
In the Archisculpture series, WON collaged the images of politically or socially important buildings in order to present a new interpretation of a city that operates like an enormous organism. He shows not only the history of the city but also the history of its people by revealing the surface of buildings that have been damaged due to natural weathering or historical incidents and then subsequently repaired. The Archisculpture, essentially a collage of history and people, is how the artist collects, classifies, and preserves the collective memory.
Beomsik WON studied metalwork and jewelry at Kookmin University (B.F.A., 1998), photography at Hongik University (M.F.A., 2008), and fine art media at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL University (M.F.A., 2012). He has been awarded The AOP Student Award (The Association of Photographers, 2012), the Gallery Lux Emerging Artists Award (Gallery Lux, 2013), the American Aperture Award (AX3, 2013), and the ILWOO Photography Prize (ILWOO Foundation, 2013).
ATCHISCULPTURE and YATZER
Eric David
Attempt to label Korean artist Beomsik Won and you’ll be baffled. He photographs but he’s not a photographer, he designs buildings but he’s not an architect, he constructs three-dimensional collages but he’s not a sculptor. As baffling are the images from his Archisculpture Photo Project, which are digitally manipulated photographs of non-existent, fantastical buildings that appear to be real. This surreal sensation stems from two conditions seen in the work: the use of photos of existing buildings as source material—taken from Won’s vast collection which he has single-handedly compiled with his camera walking around London where he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and on his trips around the world—and their conceptually astute and graphically immaculate execution.
Won’s process is one of deconstruction and reconstruction. Divided into two chapters, Collage and Antigravity—the latter depicting composites of precarious balance and structural incongruities—and placed in isolation on fields or parks with a low-lying horizon, his architectural constructs are monumental edifices that encapsulate the entirety of the city, era or style its components are drawn from. But more than that, they are a visionary take on the way we live now and a testament to the artist’s unbridled imagination. Yatzer talked to the artist about his photo project, his artistic vision and his interest in philosophy.