Her recent work emphasizes time, and change in the structure of space. Jo represents the true nature of objects and existence through time and dual spatial structures. She presents the flow of consciousness and recovery of lost time through tactility, physical expression, and images of nude bodies, flowers, snakes, and Buddha images. The presentation of time here is present time. Her work’s dualism shows the present through past imagery. As an emphatic factor, the parrot associates past with present, reality with non-reality, reviving fleeting memories. Unlike intentional reminiscence, this is a unique expression of aesthetic sensibility. With the diversity of technique and subject matter her work interrupts banality and the mundane considered natural, retrieving lost time.

Unlike apparent visual change in space, the meaning of time cannot be clarified. In the confrontation between a Buddha image and woman, parrots and scribbled signs move beyond the boundaries of past, present, and future. An object has its independent time, according to its location. Each independent form is existential, existing in a different time. This being becomes a thread to voluntary memories, and a link to the past.

Involuntary memories differ from intentional memories or reminiscences. Roland Barthes felt ‘punctum’ meaning ‘sting’ or ‘prick’ when he saw a photograph featuring helmeted soldiers on patrol and nuns in the composition of such figures, but he could not feel ‘punctum’ in an intentional arrangement of nuns and gays in other work. In Jo’s recent work space in a dual structure is obviously intentional, but vagarious images and tints of abstract expression on the background are dependent on unintentional memories. Images in a foreign character are adopted as the thread of unintentional memories in the space of a dual structure, forming ‘punctum’ pricking people.

For Jo, important is to encapsulate a work of art as a representation of the mind. Her printmaking is neither ostentatious technique nor an arrangement of showy images. In her world of Seon thought and contemplation, concealed meaning is more significant than appearance. Through her recent work she explores unintentional memories through objects and their true nature. In her prints the explicit expression of desire and spatiotemporal images brings about a unique atmosphere, conveying a dual meaning.

Her Buddha images, nude women, and upside-down images of objects are intentional. In such intentional renditions, more important than appearance, is the true nature of her work. Her attitude toward work is phenomenological, exploring the essence of nature, man, and object: she pursues the source of being. Her images within every-changing space-time are memories and records of the past, interpreted as retrieved time. Print artist Jo Hyang-sook has the potential as an explorer of beauty to look into our mind through the temporal, spatial expression of unintentional memories.

△유재길(홍익대교수. 미술평론)/Yoo Jae-kil(Hongik University Professor & Art Critic)

◇JO HYANG SOOK

▲Education=PH.D in printmaking, Hongik University, Seoul. MFA in printmaking, Hongik University, Seoul. Studied at the Art Student League of New York. ▲Awards=Awards, National Art Exhibition of Korea (18th,22nd,23rd,25th). Awards, Buddhist Art Exhibition (1st,3rd,8th). Bronze Award, Art College Exhibition.

◇ 조향숙(趙香淑)작가

홍익대학교 대학원 박사과정 미술학과 판화전공 졸업(미술박사) 및 홍익대학교 일반대학원 판화과 졸업(석사)했다 △개인전=2017 유나이티드 갤러리 외 13회.