1.

 Epiphany means abrupt appearance of the eternal and precious thing that we experience in a moment of daily life. This term meaning a holiday that God reveals its being in Christianity, is being used as an important aesthetic technique in art today. Epiphany often called in original language, has nestled as one of aesthetic techniques for our pitiable lives to raise up through art.

Epiphany approaches to us as awareness awakening deluded spirits, becomes self-awareness moment of our inherent divinity, and sometimes reveals as sublime feeling discovering the greater and dignified Being/Dasein. No matter what the appearance is, Epiphany helps small and anxious human beings open themselves to the deeper, higher, and greater world, and we fill up full of life energy through the opening of this Being.

The impression and end we get from Tae-soo Kim's figurative world come as a moment of this Epiphany. Those who are invited here surely experience a certain Epiphany. These moments brood the energy of unseen life and provide the time of discovering sense of cosmic life sense inherent in ourselves. In the world which can be labeled the figurative Epiphany of vitality filling up nature and universe, we come to get shocked by strong life energy. This aesthetic experience which could be called shudder can be surge of vitality coming as the feeling of body and leap toward life. Inquiring the intensity and feelings of the epicenter could be the password explaining Tae-soo Kim's figurative world.

 

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2.

 An artist is a kind of vitality communicator that communes and communicates with the energy of life flowing through nature and universe. As if an animal communicator communes and communicates with unspeakable animals, an artist interprets the living energy of nature into her own figurative language. In reality, the artist has left town, set up her place in the foot of a mountain and the riverside of Bukhangang, Gapyung, and take flowers and wind, river and trees, soil and cloud as catalysts as well as home of thinking. Even though the artist lives in nature to find motifs of her works from nature, she stays away from working style taking natural phenomena as materials and subjects and immersing herself into praising for nature.

Unlike the ways of exploring the revealing phenomena of nature, Tae-soo Kim focuses on figurative senses in expressing the energy of lives cast in the hidden side of the phenomena. She grasps the greater order cast in the unseen and hidden side of revealed nature and carves the full energy of life in universe into figurative language. From the ｢Eco Flow｣ series launching in 2009, the artist has intensively spurted her competence as a vitality messenger. Hereupon, in order to find out how the artist has grasped the vitality of nature and universe and delivered them, I have inquired her aesthetic methods focusing on main image especially emphasizing in the present exhibition. The results of inquiry are as follows.

 

 

3.

 In this exhibition called ｢Nature’s Secret｣, the figurative language giving shape cosmic vitality in this exhibition is very interesting for focusing on verbal images such as 'brood', 'soar up', and 'flow'. The natural symbols of bud, flower, wave, and wind which expressed ecological sense in previous exhibitions are repeated and variated in this exhibition. However, an attempt to reveal vitality in a straight line by simplifying and abstracting them attracts our attention in this exhibition. Here a characteristic aspect is that the image expressing a full of energy is to be sensed verbs of brooding, surging, and flowing rather than nouns of bud, flower, water, or wind. Imagination of verbs, this is also a key word showing that how the artist connects with life energy inherent in all things in the universe.

For example, let’s follow the aesthetic experience we come to possess in front of a work, ｢Calm and Passion｣. As you peer into the work that impress like water drops hanging from the window at a sight, you would join with an imagination as if seeds buried in the ground are about to sprout out. This imagination brings us standing in front of the work to the time of innocent children who wait for sprouting. In this process, a certain vitality begins to surge in our bodies.

Not only in front of ｢Breeze in the Forest｣ and ｢Sweet Whispering｣, but also ｢Spring Letter｣ and ｢Perfect Rhythm｣ strengthened more than the former ones, we come to experience opening and shuddering of the same imagination. The artist’s attention grasping life energy hid in this exhibition comes to be expressed as soft vitality containing sweet whispering, be spurred as dynamic vitality containing vibrant cheering, and sometimes be drawn silent vitality containing rain fallen in the desert. Though those features show a little differences among them, the concentration on verbal image representing life energy is equally revealed. The image of brooding cosmic life energy and of surging this energy is revealed, become an important aesthetic ways of which Tae-soo Kim’s figurative world grasps and delivers vitality by variating from seeds to buds and flowers.

In addition, the verbal image that is important predicates in the artist’s figurative language could be ‘flow’ and this image helps express the sense of change. The object of figuring ‘flowing’ is not confined to wind, and the ‘flowing’ becomes the original cast sound. Wind comes as the figure of flowing water, and gushing buds churn and surge like flowing water toward the earth. Such a horizontal image of flexible flowing found in brooding and surging vertical image quietly tells where the world the artist ultimately directs.

In front of this image, it reminds us of the image of water that Lao-tzu said that it is close to tao in ｢Tao Te Ching｣. However, difference is shown in that whereas the image of water in ｢Tao Te Ching｣ is an image of quiet adaptation toward letting nature be, the image of flowing the artist, Tae-soo Kim grasps as a vitality messenger expresses more dynamic change. In this sense, the artist’s sensitiveness of cosmic vitality seems to go further back to the ancient times than Lao-tzu’s world. It is known that the viewpoint to read the image of being as change was originated from ｢Zhouyi｣ which is called a classic of classics in the Orient.

The reason why we come to meet trace of wind or vestige of wave in the artists’ works might be because the artist take the ‘change’ having been recognized as the cosmic root order from ｢Zhouyi｣ as the place of thinking. However, vitality and change coexist as contents and forms of a whole world including human beings and nature, and life energy consisting of the unseen order of the universe flow on the basis of change.

Thus, Tae-soo Kim’s figurative language, ‘brood’ and ‘surge’ can be also said to give shape the image based on the flowing of vitality so called ‘flow’. Like this, the impressive epicenter Tae-soo Kim's figurative world produces can be said to be found in verbal image of ‘flow’. Especially, this verbal image of flowing ventilates the real image of the deeper original beings in that it expresses motility which is original quality of material itself.

According to quantum physics which is main stream of modern physics, the material we see is particles as well as waves. It is easily understandable that material is particle, but is rather shocking that material is also wave. If material is wave even though material can not be verified with human being’s eyes, all beings could be considered as possessing rhythmical motility internally. If you magnify this motility coming from atom dimension to apply to cosmic dimension, you could imagine a kind of cosmic rhythm.

One of image we can experience this motility is just wind. Wind has been perceived as a symbol comparing to the order hidden side of revealed order in that it can not be seen or grasped but reveals its distinct existence. Wind and water are not grasped as standstill and disconnection, but often the image of flowing and stream. This image of wind has become a resource of an aesthetic sense that the artist’s figurative language produced in this exhibition.

The fact that the image of flowing symbolized as wind resembles original rhythm of life originated from wave inherent in materials becomes a clue to explain why the artist’s figurative world has concentrated on the verbal image of flowing for the past 20 years. The artist's work has focused on grasping the dynamic wave of life inherent in material originated from atom unit as vital energy. The grains of gently curved form remind of the trace of wind heaving wave on the surface as well as the surface of water. The soft motility connects with the internal motility the life in general possesses, and dare to attempt the leap of life toward the infinite universe.

 

 

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4.

 As I saw the wing coming out of Hermes's heel in Greek mythology, I have felt doubtful once. It's because I had a feeling why it's from the heel of all occasion. A philosopher of imaginative power, Gaston Bachelard said that imaginative power is needed for the isolated human beings to expand himself or herself to the unlimited world. He managed to read how basic materials such as water, fire, air, and soil are transformed to spread wings of imagination in our consciousness through innumerable works of art.

In one of his main works, ｢Air and Dream｣ he talks about the main character of soaring dream and proclaims that the power we need to soar up is not located in wings but in our feet. This words were enough to solve the question that I had when I saw the image of wing coming out of Hermes's heel. He saying that Hermes's wings in mythology is drawn very small in the heel, lets us know that our imagination is not soaring up with wings but through leap.

Though surely Hermes went around putting on a hat with wing, Bachelard discovers the soaring leap and image in the power of leap. ｢Sound of Life｣ series, ｢Eco Flow｣ series of its deepened works, and motility showing in this ｢Nature’ Secret｣ that is an extension of these series Tae-soo Kim shows are connected with this leap. Through the natural symbols that brood seeds, shoot out buds, and express the flow of wind, the artist grasps the moment of leap by doing Epiphany cosmic vitality.

This leap and wings of soaring up would be the gift that the life the artist has walked and never be simple produced. Is that the why? We stop to think if the artist, Tae-soo Kim would be the person hiding her wings somewhere in her heel. In this context, we might to be invited to the time and space of being able to realize how a human being who has managed to live through on feet has made her own wings. (Therefore, if a chance to see the artist comes to you, I wish you look for the wings coming out of her feet.)

As the natural philosophers or vital curers do, under the wings the wonder and modesty joining this world would be hided as a component of enormous universe. Though the wings leading this leap is a mystery that nature itself broods, on the other hand, it is also a mystery of Tae-soo Kim's figurative world possesses.