Artificial Garden, Exhibition, Nam Seoul Museum of Art (SEMA), Seoul, 2012.12

Garden is a poetic space escaped from reality. In architecture and landscape, garden was an aesthetic ideal which was known for ‘picturesque’ garden in 18C. It was ‘visual’ garden to admire and appreciate. In the meantime, Garden is a protected space for collection of various species of plants. Frequently, it had been defined as a framed space which is separated from outside world. This spatial occlusion had been used for ‘experiential’ purposes like research and education, and tourism.

The given site was two neighboring rooms in a historic building. The existing space transformed into new space by constructing new boundaries with three spheres and characterizing them as artificial gardens. The first room shows poetic garden with the outside space of frame. The parts of frames are faking the whole sphere with reflection. In each view, it shows ‘visual’ garden which has the ideal size and location of objects to have perfect sceneries. Meanwhile, the second room represents the inside space of floating garden which is isolated from the outside. The inside defined by a part of sphere in the second room is expanded to a full sphere space with multiple reflections. It is ‘experiential’ garden of occlusion and floating, and spatial amplification.

The geometry came from projection of grid to spheres, and the assemblage module was created by using material properties of corrugated cardboard. In order to construct, everything had to be temporary to avoid any damages the existing rooms at historic building. Thus, all pieces were assembled on site and fitted on slits of reflective acrylics and MDF boards which were placed on top of the existing floor without any fixed joints.

가든은 현실을 벗어난 이상을 담는 은유의 공간이다. 이는 전통적으로 그림 같은 낭만적 풍경 바라보는 시각적 은유의 공간이기도 하고, 모더니즘 이후 실질적 가치가 중요시되면서 부각되는 체험적 은유의 공간이기도 하다. 현실의 공간은 이러한 은유를 통해 가든으로 변모한다.

기존 두 개의 방은 가든의 의미를 담아내는 프레임을 통해 새로이 경계 지어 지고 특징 지어지며, 서로 다시 연결된다. 첫 번째 공간은 프레임의 외부공간을 통해 시각적 은유의 공간을 표현한다. 부분으로서의 프레임은 외부 바닥 면에 투사되어 전체로서 완성된 객체를 보여준다. 이를 통해 기존의 방은, 마치 수면 위에 부유하는 듯한 객체를 바라보고 감상하는 낭만적 가든이 된다. 두 번째 공간은 체험적 은유의 공간을 담는다. 프레임 내부로 들어가서 경험하는 이 비좁은 공간은, 내부 바닥 면과 벽에 반사되면서 전체로서 완성된 공간을 드러낸다. 이는 수면 위에 부유하는 내부 공간을 통해 경험하는 체험적 가든이 된다.

Commissioned by Seoul Museum of Art

Curated by Regina Shin

All Images © Hyoung-gul Kook