오영숙, 내면의 균형과 조화를 추구하는 화가
서영희 (홍익대학교 미술대학 교수)
회화가 감성의 시각화임을 부인할 수는 없다. 하지만 오영숙의 회화에서는 감성에 치우치기보다 이성과 감성이 매번 절묘하게 균형을 이루면서 나타난다. 그리고 그로부터 화가는 관객에게 영혼의 조화로운 상태를 상징적 화법으로 전달한다. 정신적, 심리적 균형에 대해, 이처럼 표현할 수 있는 사례는 흔치 않다. 더더군다나 지금은 21세기 포스트모더니티의 사회가 아닌가? 필자가 여기서 예술의 역사적 분류를 언급할 의도는 없지만, 균형과 조화의 문제는 본래 고대로부터 근대에 이르기까지 이상화된 사실주의 내지는 고전적 사실주의 미술에 의해 궁극적 목표로 간주돼왔던 것이다. 이후 낭만주의 미술에서 최근 미술 경향들에 이르면, 균형과 조화보다 불균형과 부조화, 이성보다 감성, 객관보다 주관, 하나의 통일성, 진정성(authenticity)보다 다양성, 시뮬라크르가 더 선호되고 있는 상황이다. 그런데 오영숙 작가는 과거의 이상주의 미술가들처럼 균형과 조화의 문제를 화두로 삼고 있다. 그러면서도 그의 감수성은 동시대 미술가들의 그것에 견주어 전혀 시대착오적이라 할 수 없어 보인다.
어찌된 일인가? 필자가 결국 얻게 된 사실은 첫째, 그의 균형과 조화를 지향하는 차원이 시각적 재현 형식-완벽한 비례나 기하학적 원근법, 등-이라는 외형적 차원에 있지 않고, 바로 내면적 필연의 영역인 정신과 영혼의 차원에 있다는 사실이다. 둘째는 그와 같은 균형의 내면적 차원, 즉 설명할 수 없고 볼 수도 없으며 확정지을 수 없는 내용이 추동하는 선험적 차원을 작가는 색과 선의 상징적 반추상이라는 경험적 회화 언어로 실현해내고 있다는 점이다. 그러니까 그에게 있어 균형과 조화는 자신의 삶을 이끄는 영혼의 좌표와 관련된 문제이지 캔버스 위에서 다루고 표현하는 형식과 양식의 문제는 결코 아니라는 것이다. 그는 이 절대적인 이슈를 위해 가장 합당하면서도 예리한 감성의 형식요소들을 단련해내며, 작품마다 절실한 심정으로 내면의 외침들을 이성과 감성의 조화 상태로 배열해내고 있는 것이다. 또한 이와 같은 실천 단계에서 내면의 영혼이란 중심부와 외면인 표현된 그림들이란 주변부 사이에는 쌍방향적 소통이 이루어지며, 이들 대립적 양자 사이에 최적의 소통이랄까 합치가 달성되면, 작가는 자신의 창작에서 최대치의 주이상스(jouissance)를 획득하게 될 것이다.
그런데 작가가 자기 영혼의 떨림을 바깥으로 즉 캔버스 위에 항상 완전하게 표출해낼 수 있을까? 결코 그럴 수 없을 것이다. 내면적 필연의 욕동(pulsion)을 매번 완전히 포착해내는 일은 누구에게나 가능하지 않다. 줄리아 크리스테바가 정신분석학의 틀에서 ‘코라’(chōra)라고 설명했던 내면의 깊은 공간은 심리적 분열과 접합, 구조화와 탈구조화가 발생하는 역동적인 장소이다. 크리스테바는 예술의 의미화 과정이 이 불균형하고 분절이 늘 일어나는 코라, 규정지을 수 없는 분열적 코라로부터 발생한다고 하였다. 그녀가 제시했던 코라의 개념에 따르면, 예술은 이 불안한 심리적 환경에서 출발하는 것, 그래서 흔히 예술작품들은 작가자신에게나 관객의 자아에 대해 오히려 낯익은 것이 아닌 기묘하고 이질적인 것이 될 수밖에 없는 것이다. 코라는 예술의 기원이며, 분출하고 순환하는 내면 에너지의 저장소이다. 심지어 예술가가 아닌 우리도 일상생활에서 여러 가지 이유로 자기 정신 특히 자아의 불균형과 이성의 궤도이탈을 자주 경험하곤 한다. 따라서 추호의 논리적 비약 없이 말하자면, 이것이 보통 인간의 조건이다.
오영숙 작가 역시 이러한 내면적 상황을 누구보다 예민하게 직관하고 있다. 그리고 그는 작품의 제작과정에서 발생하는 예술의 의미화 즉 상징화 단계에 대해, 정신적 균형과 조화를 언급하며 자신이 어떻게 내적 필연의 충동-코라 상태-을 시각적 기호들의 질서로 해석해내는지를 필자에게 설득력 있게 설명하였다. 사실 화가들이 자신의 작품이 이루어지는 과정을 최초의 심리적 상태로부터 마지막 작품 완성까지 논리적으로 설명해내는 경우는 매우드물다
● ArtistYoung-Sook Oh, who purses balance and harmony of the inner
★Young-heeSeo(Art professor in Hong-Ik University)
We cannot deny the fact that paintings are visualized emotions. However,in paintings of artist Young-sook Oh, rationality and emotion always makeexquisite harmony rather than being biased. Through this aspect, the painterconveys the harmonious state of our spirit to the audience by using symbolicdrawing technique. The examples which can make such expression about thebalance in our mental and mind are rare, as we are living in 21st centurysociety of post modernity. The issue of balance and harmony have beenregarded as ultimate goal by ideal realism (which is also known as classicrealism) since the ancient time up to modern society, even though thereis no intention to mention about the historical classification of art.Considering artistic trend from the time of romanticism to today, imbalanceand incongruity rather than balance and harmony, sensibility rather thanreason, subjectivity rather than objectivity, diversity and simulacrerather than unity and authenticity are being preferred nowadays. We haveto notice that artist Young-sook Oh is mattering about balancing and makingharmony as artists from the past who pursued ideal realism. Her sensitivitynever seems to be anachronistic when compared to contemporary artists,though.
What happened? First, we can find out that her dimension of pursuing balanceand harmony is in our mental-spiritual world, not in the external levelwhich includes the form of visual reproduction, such as perfect proportion,geometric perspective, and etc. Second, we can also find out that thepainter is materializing her inner level of balance(transcendental dimension,which cannot be seen or explained as well as leaded by contents that areuncertain) as experiential drawing language like symbolic semi-abstractionof color and line. In other words, to her, it is spiritual stuff thatmatters in balance and harmony, not the form. She is carving the mostreasonable and sharpened-sensibility, and organizing inner cries as astate of reason and sensibility making balance for this absolute issue.In this kind of performing stage, the painter can get the maximum levelof jouissance when he or she makes a perfect harmony between the coreand surroundings which respectively represents the inner and technicalform of drawing.
But do you think that a painter can always express his or her spiritualvibration perfectly on the canvas? No way. Nobody can always fully capturethe inner pulsion which is inevitable. One’s deep inner space, which wasexplained once as chōraby Julia Kristeva in her explanation about the frame of Freudianism, isan active place where mental division and connect, structuralization andunstructuralization occur. Kristeva said that the process of giving arta meaning takes place from this unbalanced, disruptive chōrawhich cannot be defined. According to the meaning of chōrathat Kristeva suggested, art starts off from this unstable state of mind,so commonly the pieces cannot help being exotic to artists themselvesas well as audiences themselves ego. Chōrais the origin of art, and also it is the storage of inner energy whichvents and circulates. Even we, non-artists, experience in our daily lifethe unbalance of our ego and orbital deviation of our reason due to variousreasons. Therefore, to avoid the non-logical state, this is a conditionof most human being.
Artist Young-sook Oh is being intuitive than any others about this kindof inner situation. And she explained persuasively how she interpretsthe state of chōrato an order of visual symbols on the symbolization stage that occurs duringthe process of making a piece by mentioning the mental balance and collaboration.In fact, the case of painters logically explaining the full process oftheir creation is rare. However, artist Young-sook Oh analyzed her ownprocess of making pieces which are exhibited in her private exhibitionin detail, including the mental aspects that are based on her Christianityand material producing aspects. She was such an outstanding artist whohad a remarkable ability on her rational thinking. It may be late to introducethe painter now, but she majored Christianity art in Baeksuk Universityand has a work experience of writing a master’s thesis She is taking avery active part now, and really passionate to make a lot of pieces. Shesaid in her master’s thesis that she tried to make harmony of mental intellectand emotion based on the effect of works(<Religious Affections>,<The Nature of True Virtue>) by Jonathan Edwards, who was a theologianin the 18th century. It is so impressive that she did her best in theframe of faith to express the inner impulsion of creativity as a harmonyin which reason and mind make a perfect balance, even though recent trendof art easily falls into disorder of pluralism.
To artists, reason and sensibility, thinking and emotion are complementaryenergies rather than being contrastive. It is considered that it was sucha luck to her as a painter that she found out the view which is free fromthe mysticism by combining spiritual dimension of faith and human intellectthrough J.Edwards who was baptized by Enlightenment in Enlightenment Countrires.Though invisible, we can empirically observe a will to make a harmonyof one ego’s intellect and emotion based on the God’s aim in her pieces.However, as mentioned, an ego cannot always make perfect balance. As egomeans divided ego, it tends to shake and escape from the good will, andalso proceeds to unbalance. So she chose to make an unbalanced ego toa balanced one by using the scientific concept ‘self-differentiation’ (by Murray Bowen, psychoanalyst) in the process of expressing the faithfulemotion. Bowen thought that symbiosis relationship among families yieldsthe fusion of mental and emotion so that individuals become both sociallyand morally imperfect, so he insisted that through the process of self-differentiationwhich separates the reason and emotion, a human being can develop bothside, and moreover can become a mature, independent, and balanced one.Artist Young-sook Oh connected these psychological analyzation with herdrawing, and made it possible to express emotional coloring and rationalcomposition of picture devices. In reality, this operates as an effectiveway to express in her drawing.
Let us talk about the image of a chair which is being used as an essentialmotive by painter Young-sook Oh to her drawing since 2010 up until now.Chair is an object that always keeps its absolute balance by standingwith its four legs. It is more stable than we humans as we have only twolegs which can make us fall down easily, and has immovable balance. Theartist just lets the chair to be alone in the empty space without anyhint or description about the shape of human figure. However, the feelingof loneliness is not big enough because one or two more chair(s) appear(s)around it. Moreover, as the chair is located in a sky space where thereis full of God’s good will, its making a connection with each other seemsas existential aspects to audiences that are living together in a faithfulworld. In other words, the chairs that she keeps drawing are we individuals,and it can be the symbol of inner ego when considering the psychologicalterm. It would be nice to think that it is the painter herself first,and also you and I. The painter is drawing the chair in disparate forms,watching it from various angles. The various form of the chair from differentangles almost reappears as a semi-abstract image on the picture, neverbeing normal.
Her pictorial emotion explosively vents in this right chair’s variableimage from different angles and in the color arrangement which are connectedto simple forms. But be careful not to equalize the minimal simplificationof form with the 1960’s minimalism, as minimalism intended to return theoriginal image to daily life, and as it was realized by the will to strengthenthe phenomenological experience of recognition. There may exist many intentionin simplifying the forms. It seems that in case of the painter, she intendedto symbolize the inner inevitable impulsion as a way of fulfilling balancebetween reason and emotion, and moreover, to symbolize the faithful emotionof herself as a feature which lies down in God’s virtue. To see from thedimension of drawing expression, developmental trials of the painter isnotable. Especially, significant emotional wave, chair-shaped line flowing,and the contrastive expression of material shows the excellent intuitiveemotion. The factor that makes the audience feel artistically impressivelies on the ability of an artist composing colors and lines on a picture,beyond the faithful attitude. Hope to see her trial that are improvedand interesting. At last, the pursue of perfect reason(study) and emotion(art)is going to reach a holy extremity. Plotinus’s theological mention stillremains with us. ⓒ