beomsik won's imagined architectural scenarios defy gravity and reality

beomsik won’s imagined structural scenarios defy gravity and reality
(above) ‘dimension finder 011’
all images courtesy of beomsik won

beomsik won regards architecture as a language, one that can be expanded upon, manipulated added to. through a series of digital investigations on the theme, the korean artist creates imagined structural scenarios where building fragments are suspended mid-air and exterior façades are collapsed into different dimensions. his three most recent series — ‘archisculpture antigravity’, ‘archisculpture collage’ and ‘dimension finder’ see the photographic montage of various structural sites and selected city fragments from disperate styles, geographical locations and time periods. in their finality, the works express a tension between a structural fascination in the genre of sculpture and a rejection of common trends in a stereotypical society.

‘dimension finder 022’

for dimension finder, won references ‘tractatus logico-philosophicus’ by ludwig wittgenstein who stated ‘the limit of my language means the limit of my world.’ ‘it means that our ability of conception stays under the linguistic limitation.’ the artist continues. ‘for example, a person who is thinking with 100 words is hard to understand the wide thinking scope of someone who is thinking with a thousand words. the person with 1,000 words lives in a different world from the person with a hundred words. it means that the range of understanding the knowledge and world depends on his language. a person who does not know ‘love’, ‘overflowing’, and ‘the world’ will never understand ‘the world of overflowing love’ even though the world is overflowing with love. because there is no such a concept in his mind. in a word, his world is confined and dark like in a well.’

‘knowing a language deeply and widely appears in a different type in the photo series of dimension finder and it is ‘seeing the world that can not be seen’. it is to give the enhancement of thinking to the viewers. it is a ‘drawing the limit in the distance’ as wittgenstein said and in other words, enlargement of conception range. the enhanced conception does not stop there but rather enlarges its range continuously. the driving force is ‘curiosity’. knowing is connected to another knowing. the development of thinking continues without stopping as long as it is started.’

‘dimension finder 005’

‘dimension finder 017’

‘dimension finder 012’

of the series ‘archisculpture: antigravity’, won says ‘the trend of deconstructive architecture based on french philosopher jacques derrida’s theory dismantles the basis of architecture, having doubts about the ideological completeness of modernism, and it rejects underlying principles, such as gravity and structures in the centrism of architecture and expresses a relative diversity through antigravity and other methods. the antigravity in archisculpture artworks assists to express a tension which is one of the structural fascinations in the genre of sculpture and it also means being awakened from the big common trends in the stereotypical society.’

‘archisculpture antigravity 021’

from the series ‘archisculpture antigravity’

‘archisculpture antigravity 022’

in ‘archisculpture: collage’ won describes ‘the purpose of the ‘archisculpture’ photo project is to create architectural sculptures by collaging photographs of diverse architectural works from various architects. in this way, ‘archisculpture’ photos are both similar and different to the organic romanticism of old cities built through the works of myriad architects, for they represent the artist’s subjective interpretation and decisions regarding various architects’ numerous designs.’

‘archisculpture collage 017’