<Three Eyes I do have> explores the world through the eyes of artists who see the world differently from ordinary people, or see more and deeper than ordinary people.
Since the Renaissance, as the fortress of objectivity in the visual arts, human eyes have been privileged over other sensory organs. The concept of representation in the aspect of Renaissance which describes the visual world as it is, was made possible when the inside separated from the outside, that is, the transparent inner space that can objectively reflect the outer world was introduced. However, the development of camera showed the distinction between the human eye and the mechanical eye, and the modern philosophy no longer sought the truth from the outer world, but rather from within: a subject. Eyes are now come across to be a subjective device to connect subject and object, and sight to be a manner or posture to view the world through the eyes. The Modernism art emerged after the mid nineteenth century can be interpreted as a reconsideration on the sight or a reconstruction of the sight.
The title of the exhibition is from Choi Wook-kyung(1940-85)'s work made in 1966, and the exhibition is designed to search the multi-layered world in the eyes of artists. The figure in her painting is in an unrealistic form with three eyes. With the naked eye, the mind's eye, and the spiritual eye, it seems to represent the artist's endless desire to see through the structure, essence, beauty, and mystery of the visual and non-visual worlds. The exhibition focuses on the world made of multiple layers, that is rediscovered by the eyes of artists who study phenomena and something beyond phenomena rather than the general idea about artists, or artists' romantic aspects, such as genius, melancholy, madness, and solitude. Artists, even when they seem to withdraw into their inner selves, they tend not to lose the connection to the world through sight. And the range of the sight gradually expands from an ordinary life to a society, the root of human existence and unknown possibility.
1. Beauty of Ordinary Life
In the first part of the exhibition, visitors face various interpretation on the reconstructed subject by one's own view and the world beyond visual recognition. Artists find beauty in ordinary circumstances that surround them and they represent it in unique and formative languages. The process begins with the collective experience of taking interest on objects and observing them, then bringing out various senses, memories, and imaginations around that experience of the sight.
2. Eyes of an Era
In a society where it's unable to recognize its illness, artists belong to a small group of people who actually recognize the illness. The second part of the exhibition views artists who maintain the relationship with the society along with their artworks that face and criticize the irrational reality. In the center of modern and contemporary history of Korea that is smudged with the colonization, war, national division, and political conflict, these artists don't just stop at becoming the 'eye' of a community, but suggest a community to 'do' something than just to 'look'.
3. A Research of Existence
With more sensitivity and intelligence than ordinary people, artists move further than recognizing the reality and endlessly ask questions like "who am I", and "what is life". They face the abyss of life that is impossible to see through the naked eyes. And at the end they find the contingency of being, nothingness, and death that is, the existence that precedes the essence. Realizing the human condition that is never free from the death can be a terrifying experience. A way to break from this tragedy is either through religion or self-aid of arts. In the works of artists that face urgent problems of life, one can sense the physical and mental struggle they had to go through.
4. Vision of Freedom
Progressive artists are aware of the unknown possibility that hides in the backside of life and they seek to escape from the restrictions. To reach the state of freedom, one should start from recognizing he or she is not free. Artists who try to see the eternity by waking the sleeping consciousness, resist mechanical customs or traditional boundaries such as self and other, eternity and moment, nature and art, order and disorder, language and experience, and etc. They deliver intense yet contemplative vision of freedom that is earned by not distinguishing the world as their will and symbol.
