Ui-Jung Han

(Aesthetics,
Chungbuk National University)

The first art piece from Jin, Ik-Song that I laid my eyes upon was a piece from his “Timeless Door” series. Impressed by the clock objects that tightly filled the frame, I initiated the conversation, “Professor, when you were working on your clock series...” Jin then immediately corrected me by saying, “My work is not themed on clocks but on doors” and continued the conversation. Jin always identified himself as an artist working with ‘doors’. It is not an exaggeration to say that nearly all of his works are related to doors.

In religion, mythology, and art, doors have often functioned as a path to travel from one world to another, symbolizing transition or movement. Jin started to actively name his works as “doors” starting 1997, attached various related instruments such as doorknobs, handles, keys, and latches. Many of Jin’s works during this time such as A Certian Door (2005) seek to encapsulate our desire to transition; The Will be opened (1997) captures our hope for at least one doorknob to open up the closed door, In Loving Memory of Innocence (1997) embodies our yearning for what we left behind the door, and Mysterious Door (1999) typifies our endless attempts of trying different keys and locks, and so on.

Doors are not only limited to spatial movement in allowing transition and change. According to French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, our bodies cannot separately experience pure time and pure space as Descartes believed. When we experience a certain space, we are not merely perceiving an object’s absolute position, but the situation of which time is a part of - because our bodies exist simultaneously in both space and time. Jin expresses such, ‘a spatiality of a situation’ in his series Timeless Door.

The world that lies beyond our existence, time, and space is the world we enter after our death. As Jesus said, “I am the door” in the Gospel of John, the door means Jesus Christ in Christian history and thus signifies salvation and atonement. In Christian art, the more overt usage of doors is seen with the East Gate (aka. “Gate of Heaven”) and Rodin’s The Gates of Hell, serving as entrances to the other world. In his 2020 hologram work, Jin conveys “one eye” that sees all on top of a Clorox bottle, within a box situated outside, and one that floats Clorox-An Eye (2020), One Gallon (2020), An eye on the door (2019). The singular eye that sees all clearly reflects the ‘eyes of God.’ In An eye of some one baby (2021), the ‘eyes of God’ convey observance and protection by being placed in a peephole on the wooden door that acts as a cradle for the baby doll to sleep on. In this way, Jin did not fear the powerful world of light that lied beyond his door. But just like the words of Hans Rookmaaker whom he used to quote, Jin believed that, “art is ultimately an anonymous job” and that, “an artist merely contributes little to the world that God has entrusted us to culture and beautify.” After successfully fulfilling this calling, unlike the man in Kafka’s story, Jin jumped beyond the door and entered the world of light. Though this transition was too abrupt and left a deep yearning for those staying on this side of the door, I am certain that he has made another hole from the other side of the door to observe us, Four eyes of some one baby (2021). He would be intently observing us to see whether we are holding fast to the “Deferred Hopes”, as we faithfully beautify this world little by little.