From the White Porcelain series 2005
Excerpt from the "Breath" series 1995
From the Mask series 2002-2003
◎ Chen Wuyue
Exhibition: Wandering For a Long Time - Photography by Ku Benchang (1990-2021)
Duration: 2021.9.4-2021.11.14
Venue: Three Shadows Photography Art Center
Recently, the Samjeongdo Photography Art Center is hosting a solo exhibition of Korean photographic furniture Honchang, "Wandering Long", which showcases the artist's works from nearly 30 years since 1990, including thirteen photographic series such as "Mask", "Breathing" and "White Porcelain". Due to the Japanese roots of its founders, Sanyingdo has been focusing on Japanese photography exhibitions and the promotion of Japanese photographers, and the photo exhibition from Korea should be the first in recent years.
Compared with the cherry blossom season, the Three Shadows Hall in autumn is completely two scenes. The beautiful cherry blossom tree was already leafy and lush, and it was impossible to imagine a tree blooming like a light cloud in the spring. Through the branches and leaves, you can see the huge posters on the performance stage, and the three masked men next to the three big characters of "Wandering For a Long Time" are lined up, wearing traditional Korean costumes, making people feel as if they have traveled back to the era of the Great Changjin.
The scale of this exhibition is not small, it can be said that all the exhibition space of the Three Shadows Hall has been exhausted, in addition to a large number of photographic works, there are also some installations, films, photographers' collections and books. Although the time span of the photographic works is large, the subject matter and forms of expression are different, but from the beautiful white porcelain, ancient masks, old clocks and old limbs, you can appreciate Gu Benchang's concern for time and life. "The uncertainty of fate over life, the decay and disappearance of living and non-living things" has always been the theme of Kumoto's tireless exploration. Another major feature of Ku Benchang's works is his adherence to Korean national culture. The records of "masks", "white porcelain" and "gold" may stem from Ku Benchang's interest in cultural relics, but these photographs also played a crucial role in the search for national cultural identity.
However, although this exhibition is rich in content, I think there are still regrets. Since thirteen series of works are to be exhibited, it is somewhat insufficient to allocate works to each series. There are even some quite important series with only two or three works, which makes people rush into the next series without realizing the essence of this series, which is quite a sense of sloppiness. If you are particularly interested in a series, it is recommended to go through some of the books on display in the exhibition, but unfortunately the text of these books is mainly in Korean.
The joy of photography
"Masks" is one of Kumoto's most important series of works, and his footage captures the ancient, rough masks and the various artists who perform with masks. Ku Benchang said: "Capturing the invisible is the joy of my photography. The enigmatic face behind the mask gave him endless curiosity, prompting him to discover the secrets contained therein.
The love of traditional Korean masks may stem from Ku Ben-chang's childhood experience. At that time, he was only seven or eight years old, and he was next to a scholar who studied traditional masks, and Gu Benchang always went to the scholar's uncle's house to play, and the second floor of his uncle's house was his studio, filled with masks with exaggerated expressions. Later, whenever he recalled this childhood experience, Gu Benchang still felt very excited.
After returning from studying photography in Germany, Ku Benchang set his sights on traditional Korean culture, which reminded him of the masks he learned about as a child. These masks, used in national drama, were handmade by country craftsmen long ago. Later, it was successively used by different artists, breathing in the breath of different people and interpreting different stories to the audience. Over the years, these masks also seem to have a life.
When Ku Benchang had the opportunity to watch the mask dance up close, he felt as if the masks were alive. In this way, the masked artist moves between the real and the imaginary, expressing a powerful life force that the artist has never experienced in the real world. So Ku Benchang was eager to record them, to capture the simple thoughts and free souls under the masks.
Through this series of works by Ku Benchang, people find the root of the sad emotions of modern life. The days of insincerity go on and we gradually lose our original face, the real face that can express all kinds of feelings and emotions.
Silent crying
For the past three decades, Ku Benchang has been fond of photographing the disappearance of living and non-living things. The first time he faced the boundary between life and death was at the moment when his father was dying, and it was from that time that he began shooting the "Breathe" series.
At that time, Gu Benchang waited by his father's side every day, observing his difficult breathing and watching his father's energy flow, like a dying plant gradually losing its moisture. Gu Benchang suddenly realized that death is actually a law of nature, and before death, the human body will evaporate all the water, and the soul will gradually withdraw from the body. When Gu Benchang saw the helplessness of his father's death, the word "breath" suddenly came to his mind. Breathing is the last breath of life at the critical point of death, a state between life and death. From then on he began to deliberately photograph this state, focusing on all sorts of things that were on the borders of death.
Ku Benchang close-ups photograph the parched lips of old people, dying birds, and dry branches on abandoned iron frames, which are usually overlooked. Ku Benchang said: "I hope that when you watch the work, you can hear the voice I hear - a quiet cry." ”
Always have to be a little windy
Things that disappear or gradually diminish will always attract the attention of Ku Benchang. There are many such things, but this time he focused the camera on something so mundane that people overlooked it:soap. He photographed used soaps of various colors and shapes. People's hands and bodies, as well as dust and running water, will leave the mark of time on soap, and when these soaps are dried, these used marks will transform into unexpected colors and patterns.
Following the principles of "less is more" and "simplicity is beauty", Ku Benchang did not photograph any other objects, but only photographed the used soap itself in a simple background. The artist wants to use these simple and quiet photos to quietly remind us that time is passing, and that each fading piece of soap contains many memories.
Take a portrait of white porcelain
The "White Porcelain" series can be said to be the most influential works of Gu Benchang. In 1989, when Ku Benchang was flipping through a magazine, he saw a photo of an old Western woman dressed in white, sitting in front of a huge white porcelain vase, and the background of the photo was also white. The old woman and the white porcelain are engraved with the traces of age, and the color and sense of age make the two look like a harmonious sense of balance. This photo allows Ku Ben-chang, who was in a foreign country at the time, to re-examine the value of traditional Korean white porcelain. At that time, he saw that the cultural relics belonging to Korea were in the hands of a foreign collector, and there was even a trace of sadness.
Fifteen years later, in Kyoto, also in a foreign country, Kumoto saw a photograph of white porcelain in a Japanese magazine. Encountering white porcelain twice in foreign periodicals, a national self-confidence made Ku Benchang determined to record and re-express the beauty of white porcelain in his own artistic way.
Each piece of white porcelain contains the soul of the artist who created it at the time, and it is not a simple task to realistically photograph their delicate materials and elegant lines. Ku Benchang decided to try to capture the inner beauty of white porcelain, showing their humble, profound and beautiful inner souls.
So Ku Benchang began to visit museums around the world, looking for traces of white porcelain and taking pictures of them. Ku Benchang enjoyed the process of photographing white porcelain and was touched by their solemnity and simplicity. White porcelain from the past now blooms its beauty in countries around the world, and although it cannot be brought back to Korea, Ku Benchang is no longer as sad as he was many years ago. He felt white porcelain right next to him because he had recorded them all in the photographs.
Fortunately, because of the white porcelain shooting, Gu Benchang found the lady in the photo of that year, a ceramic artist, and the beautiful white porcelain in the photo is now displayed in the British Museum.
Look closely at the white porcelain taken by Gu Benchang, there is no shadow in each photo, and the white porcelain seems to float in the picture. Gu Benchang felt that if there was a shadow, the photo would have a contrast, and the white porcelain would appear real and concrete. And he didn't want to make the white porcelain so realistic, so he let them float there, as if injecting spirit and soul into the white porcelain. Ku Benchang said: "I don't want to take the kind of photos in the museum profile, I want to take portraits of white porcelain, like the kind taken for people." ”
Ku Benchang is keen to collect and photograph things with a sense of age, every scar, every crack... Every thing is full of its history. What's even more interesting, however, is that you'll never know what kind of face is behind the mask, who has used this soap, what was once in the white porcelain, and these enigmatic details make people feel the presence of time even more. When people are young, you may be able to hear them whispering.
Courtesy photo/Three Shadows Photography Art Center