In this exhibition, artist Yoo Hyung Joo’s explores the human face. Here, we encounter Yoo’s canvas screens and the myriad of his three-dimensional “faces”. In this instance of facial emphasis, how are we to understand and differentiate the human expression and face? The face is used to identify a person and compositionally allows for external recognition and access to the inner mind. Facial parts such as the eyes and nose are key markers of distinguishing people (and so their identities)-their totality creating for facial expressions. As such, expressions are often understood as separate from the face,  as features change according to expressions that ultimately come from within. Facial expressions, then, effectively articulate our emotions and actively contort our monotonous faces.

 

However, akin to facial features, expressions are ultimately functions that are formed by the inner. Whether guided by an innate compass or ruled by the external forces of societal roles and pressures, we express in accordance with our emotions. From this perspective, what is painted in his work are not expressions because facial expressions are visual processes of emotions-whether negative or positive. Yet, it is difficult to assume Yoo’s “faces” as mere ordinary portraits as they lack both identifiable physical traits and discernible emotive expressions. Like unidentified masses of land, they are devoid of arrangement necessary for human expression.

 

As such, it is difficult to connect the various faces to identifiable expressions in Yoo’s works despite his use of emotively suggestive labels such a as “heart”, “angry”, and “smile”. Yoo’s rejection of even the basic arrangement required of portraits denotes further rejection of natural expressions and their roles in his works. In this state of unspecified mass and chaos, Yoo-rather than transcending the calm superficiality of portraits or the inner whirl of emotive expressions-attitudinally roots to his own self by unfettering from the chain of societal roles and customs. When engaging with Yoo’s art, people will undoubtedly find it difficult to discern sembalances of expression and the underlying emotions of these figures precisely due to this formless nature of his faces.

 

These faces do not characterize specific individuals or persons, nor reveal any of their feelings. In this perspective, their inner psychologies and minds are not fully apparent. As viewers are challenged in projecting and empathizing with the paintings, it offers proof that identifiable and distinguishable features in faces and consequently the “inner” are crucial in our everyday discernment of both fictional and real persons. Therefore, despite the fictionality of the works, it is problematic to establish an oppositional discussion of “seeing” and discerning Yoo’s faces as if they were real. This results from our tendency to judge what is externally revealed-whether real or fictional.

 

“A human face” is inherently different from “a person’s face”. Despite the artists’ intentions, what we as viewers ultimately encounter in the exhibition halls are “human” faces. Here, what we see are faces not indicative of certain individual and their emotions, but rather faces reflective of how we as humans live: his colors depict the materialization of artificiality and its reenactment and the unbridled, chance expressions that paint our essence-not only between the lines of the concrete and abstract, but between the sway of capricious inner whims and the carefully arranged physical features and expressions. In short, what we encounter are human faces that are neither emotional nor rational. Yoo’s pieces break down the seemingly traditional commonality of the human condition in portrait that are bounded by rational order and influenced by emotions and expressions. In their refusal to deviate from simple emotions and society factors, Yoo’s faces continue their human existence as beings wrought from their own sense of depth.

Portrait of a “Human Face”:

Existence without Expression

사람들이 유형주의 작업을 볼 때 그 표정을 그 얼굴에서 읽어내려고 해도, 설령 제목을 잘 보고 이해하려고 해도 작품 속 인물의 마음을 알기 힘든 이유가 여기에, 그러니까 관리되거나 우러나오는 표정을 짓지 않는 얼굴에 있다.그 얼굴은 어떤 인물이라는 구체성을, 다시 말해 인물임을 특징짓는 얼굴을 하지 않았고, 그의 어떤 마음을 드러내지 않았다. 그렇게 생각해볼 때, 이들의 마음 곧 내면 심리는 겉으로 완벽하게 드러나지 않는다. 동시에 그림에 대한 보는 사람의 인격 투사나 감정이입마저도 어렵게 하는데, 이 말은 곧 보는 사람이 우리―그림 속의 인물과 실제 사람—을 보고 판단할 때 식별 가능한 정보로서, 얼굴이라는 특징이나 내면을 '본다'는 반증이다.

 

따라서 작품이라는 허구인데도 불구하고 사람을 실제로 보듯이 그의 작품을 논한다는 반대 의견은 성립되기 어렵다—우리는 작품이건 실제 인물이건 드러난 것을 두고 판단하기 십상이기 때문이다.'인간의 얼굴이라 함은 '한 사람의 얼굴과 다르다. 설령 작가가 그때마다 머릿속에 (실재하건 아니건) 어떤/한 사람의 표정을 그렸다고 할지언정, 우리가 전시장에서 마주 보는 것은 '인간의' 얼굴이다. 그 말은 어느 사람의 얼굴이나 아는 누구의 표정이 아니라 우리가 인간으로서 산다는 것, 물감을 가지고 실현한 재현이라는 인위와 통제되지 않은 우연적인 표현─소위 말하는 구상과 추상 사이는 물론, 내면의 변덕이나 속마음과 정돈된 신체 부위의 배치나 관리된 표정―이른바 감정/감정적인 것과 이성/이성적인 것을 따르지 않는 인간을 그린다.

 

작품은 인간 일반에 요구된 조건─이성적이고 정돈된, 초상으로서의 모습과 감정에 따라 움직이고 휘둘리는 모습―을 무너뜨린다. 그리고 다시 이들은 인간 일반으로서, 다시 말해 내면에서 우러나오는 감정도 사회적인 것도 따르지 않은, 깊이를 계속 지닌 존재로서 있게 한다.