This 2022 summer, Savina Museum of Contemporary Art presents Koh Sang Woo’s special exhibition, Forever Free-The Animal That Therefore I Am, to re-examine the value of coexistence and symbiosis which brings balance to the ecosystem interlocked with webs of life, and to search for sustain- able solutions through art. The subtitle of the exhibition “The Animal That Therefore I Am” has been taken from the book, The Autobiographical Animal, a compilation of speeches which Jacques Derrida delivered at the Cérisy Conference in 1997. Quoting German philosopher Fried- rich Nietzsche, Derrida refers to humans as ‘the promising animal.’ Derrida points out the speciesism within human society; anthropocentric mindset within human society recognizes humans as solemn beings, who are allowed to treat animals without respect or rule over other beings with sensitivity.
Philosophical debates on animal rights by philosophers such as René Descartes, Immanuel Kant, Martin Heidegger, Jacques Lacan, Emmanuel Levinas are questionable. Coined as a term by British psychologist Richard Ryder in 1970, speciesism refers to the mistreatment – such as abuse and exploitation – Homo Sapiens performs towards other species in the belief that the human race is superior to other species. The term itself is a response to the need for termination of discrimination and prejudice between species which has its basis on speciesism. Derrida criticizes the prevalent domination and violence within everyday animal abuse and exploitation tolerated by the human society, such as hunting of wild animals, factory farming, animal testing, and exhibiting animals in zoos. Disagreeing with the idea of animal rights presented on a superficial level, which does not explore its meaning in depth nor its definition, Derrida goes beyond the actions of having mere sympathy for animals. He presents a new humanism which recognizes the animals as independent beings and expands human rights to be equally applied to other species.
Through his practice, Koh Sang Woo shows how he values “harmonious coexistence with biodiverse species.” In 2019, the exhibition We Are Each Other’s Destiny – An Artistic Embrace of Endangered Animals at the Savina Museum discussed how the diversity within species and ecosystem is an important asset for humanity and delivered the message of coexistence and symbiosis that “all life is equally valuable.” As a participating artist in the exhibition, Koh Sang Woo worked with subjects of endangered animals, and actively explored the expandability of the horizontal and transversal relationship be- tween humans and animals. Furthermore, Koh proposed ways to achieve sustainability, ways to realize a community where various species coexist and urged people to participate in anti-speciesism as a social action towards achieving species equality.
In this solo exhibition, Koh presents his works on endangered animals which dominated his practice for the last three years. Works including animal portrait series, a compilation of digital drawings of more than twenty different endangered animals, #KOHEXIST series, 200 pencil drawings delivered through Koh’s passionate research, and Algorithms project with Artificial Intelligence Karlo commemorating the Global Tiger Day which is celebrated every year on July 29th to raise awareness on the importance of protecting tigers and its habitat, all display Koh’s multidisciplinary and experimental takes on the subject.
The most notable works in this exhibition are the digital paintings of endangered species such as tiger, bear, hippopotamus, owl, rabbit, etc., which borrowed the form of a frontal portrait in traditional art. Characteristics of frontal portraits include frontal posture in which a figure gazes straight at the audience from the center of the screen, vertical composition that gives a sense of static stability and unity, bilateral symmetry with the center of the head as the central axis, and immobility. In East- ern and Western art, the frontal portrait style was used to grant sanctity and authority to the subject depicted, and the gaze or expression of a figure was a powerful and direct device in conveying char- acter, personality, thoughts and emotions. For example, Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi (c.1500), which became the most expensive painting in the world, embodies divinity, eternity, and idealization in the style of a frontal portrait. Self-Portrait in a Fur Coat (c. 1500) by Germany’s national painter Al- brecht Dürer uses the style to present his own pride as an artist alongside his devotion to the gods.
Koh took the often-underestimated animal portraits and presented them as equally important to the human portraits to achieve the equality of species. In other words, his practice embeds the artistic message equivalent to a declaration of animal rights, recognizing wild animals to have individuality and emotions just like humans, and as beings who should be respected as members of the community of multi-species. In his works, animals have been given personality, which is evident through their gaze which reaches out towards the audience. Strong and confident, their eyes break the anthropo- centric worldview where humans are recognized to be superior, and animals are regarded as inferior.
For example, the left eye of an African leopard LEO has been depicted as a diamond, which is one of the most sought-after jewels within human society. The African leopard is such a beautiful animal that it was chosen as a symbol of a famous jewelry brand. Also, what triggered the French Revolution was the Affair of the Diamond Necklace. As reflected in the term blood diamond or war diamonds, diamond is a symbol of human desire and obsession towards love, power, and wealth. Leopard’s diamond eyes are a warning sign of the status quo of human greed leading to excessive mining, which severely damages and destroys animal habitats. Diamond mining is the main culprit of environmental destruction, as 256 tons of rock mining is required in finding a single carat diamond ore.
In his artist note, Koh explained the reasons behind emphasizing frontal postures in his animal portraits. “While I resided in New York, I often visited the Bronx Zoo in the Bronx district. There I would wait for hours until I made eye-contact with an animal, to take a single photograph. For me, frontality is a way to communicate with animals. We can only make true conversations when we come to an eye-to-eye level with the animals and such actions come from longing for a society where animals and humans coexist.”
All endangered animals within the animal portrait series have been painted blue. In the artist’s note, Koh wrote the reasons for choosing to work with blue. It is as follows; “In 2019, when I received an invitation from Savina Museum to participate in a special exhibition on the subject of endangered animals, the animals that first came to my mind were tigers and lions. My practice involves using negative techniques, where I reverse the color and shades of photographs. When I reverse colors, black turns into white, white turns into black, and yellow turns into green. Amongst the colors, I like the color blue the most. During my time in New York, I came across how the skin of Asian people appeared blue on negatives while working in the darkroom, and have frequently used the color blue ever since. At the time, I was drawn to the grotesque and gloomy blue.”
It is written in his artist note that the awareness and recognition of hybrid identity was the motive for his interest in blue. Studying in the United States, Koh came across conflicts between race, racism, human rights violations, prejudice and contempt, and mental alienation. He also learned the dichotomy between the West and East categorized the Westerners as superior races, and Asians as inferior races. Franz Fanon, an Algerian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, wrote in Black Skin, White Masks (Peau noire, masques blancs), which is considered a classic of postcolonial criticism, “People of color try to avoid their individuality and neutralize their existence. Whenever a person of color protests, there is alienation. Whenever a person of color negates, there is alienation.” Koh’s confusion of identity and self-awareness as the other became the basis for his practice, where photography, performance and happenings were combined, where he, as an Asian male artist, dressed up as a blonde white woman, and walked down the street. The initial interest he had towards racism has now expanded to various social issues such as generation conflict, sexism, terrorism, violence and animal rights, and his works contemplate and reflect on the varying conflicts and confrontational structures. After participating in the exhibition at Savina Museum in 2019, Koh sets sail on exploring the structure of how discrimination and domination of animals as others work within a human-centered society, and focuses on breaking down the barriers of speciesism.
The heart, the icon of love, is also a sign and symbol of Koh’s philosophy in art. The eyes and mouths of endangered animals in his works are decorated with pink heart patterns. For example, in Black Star, there is a heart pattern engraved on the right eye of a Siberian tiger, which is standing in front of DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) barbed wire fence on a snowy day. By decorating only one of the tiger’s eyes, the work implies the conflicting composition of different value systems, such as South and North, good and evil, love and hate, peace and violence. Other messages are also embedded in the heart. The DMZ, where civilian access has been strictly controlled for decades, is recognized as the treasure trove of ecosystems with a natural environment that is rare to find anywhere else in the world. It is a paradise for plants and animals with over 101 endangered species and 5,929 species of wildlife inhabiting the area, and a home to life. Pink hearts reflect Koh’s wish that after reunification of North and South Korea, DMZ will not go through development but continue to be preserved as the land of peace and life. In his project Algorithms, Koh collaborates with AI Karlo in putting together 1,000 images of tigers to make gigantic heart shaped digital work. In this work, the heart has been used as a tool for communication to bring out emotional empathy and responses from the viewer.
Through his series of endangered species, Koh Sang Woo proposes a way back to the source of life. Empathizing with the pain of others, and working towards lessening that pain is the utmost challenge facing humans. Through the relationship one holds with the other, one can reflect on the reason and value for one’s existence. In Winter Hours, a book of prose and poems by Mary Oliver, one of America’s favorite poets, she writes;
The most notable works in this exhibition are the digital paintings of endangered species such as tiger, bear, hippopotamus, owl, rabbit, etc., which borrowed the form of a frontal portrait in traditional art. Characteristics of frontal portraits include frontal posture in which a figure gazes straight at the audience from the center of the screen, vertical composition that gives a sense of static stability and unity, bilateral symmetry with the center of the head as the central axis, and immobility. In Eastern and Western art, the frontal portrait style was used to grant sanctity and authority to the subject depicted, and the gaze or expression of a figure was a powerful and direct device in conveying character, personality, thoughts and emotions.