Inkyu Park
Munich based artist Inkyu Park.
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/q1919191919/
Inkyu Park works on the relation of humans, the city, nature and architecture. The artist states that the way humans live today is against nature, not with it. Inkyu sais we live in a world in which material is worshipped. “What is called capitalism today is in fact not capitalism but materialism in the guise of capitalism. The essence of materialism is that everything is material. Materialism is atheism. The union of human and materialism to become religion is a characteristic of the modern world”, the artist says. He sees cities as a stadium where consumption takes place.
He takes advertisement flyers, paper with the information on this consumption, and creates sculptures modeled after architecture, which is significant for the city. But he doesn’t copy the architecture. He works in his feelings of discomfort on these issues and thoughts.
er modelling. He doesn’t recreate them 1:1, but creates sceneries of non-existent cities. He uses his knowledge from being a tour guide and the research he did on symbolic buildings of various cities for this work.
He also studied the skyline of cities by drawing. With these drawings he set himself two rules: to draw with a single line and not to look at the paper.
Inkyu Parks geometrical “Apples” are built from juice and milk boxes. The package, the waste of the consumption with all the information on the nutritional value on it, poses as a product itself. “Information on manmade products is contained in advertisements designed for consumption. When selecting a product to consume, we actually receive information on products and are mistakenly led to believe that we freely chose the product from the beginning. As an example, information on organic apples is shown to induce consumption, and consumers make the judgement that they are healthier than other apples, leading to consumption”, says the artist. Apples are sold through the image of an apple.
Inkyu Park has never seen Rodins “The Thinker” in real life. He made his sculpture through the image of the famous sculpture “The Thinker” and formed it after pictures of he found on the internet. “One can think about what originality really is”, the artist says.The used paper cartons are obtained from an actual life of consumption with images and descriptions of the products they contained. In regards of forming his sculpture after “The Thinker” Inkyu was mainly interested in its features and symbolism. “The tension running through the body of the man in torment makes me wonder who I am and why I live here. The question that this tension raises is connected to the desolate mood I felt when observing the relationship between cities and humans. The question is why I feel this unheimlich(desolate) feeling when there is an object that inspires fear, but it is not visible to the eye. What am I? Why do I exist here? These questions continue to be asked because humans are not able to know for themselves who they are.”
