Paik Seungmin

This series embodies the image of a textually depicted virtual nation which exists within individual conception of creator. The main motif is sourced from overall systems, detailed stories, and national design surrounding the DIVERLAND, a virtual state which is nonexistent in the actual reality, and all the works organically converge on a bigger story. Textual contents herein are mainly expressed into metaphorical and symbolic images.

As an imaginary nation, the DIVERLAND refers to a combination of ‘Divertimento’ and ‘land’ under the collision of fictional images. Overall, this series represents a new type of organism or mechanical equipment by combining individual images extracted from natural objects. Here, dissected body parts function as a material with emotional exclusion provided that beautiful animals and plants act as an element to enable sensory perception. But, this series is no more than a nonexistence despite its detailed description of nation. From the perspective of observer, creator reflects relational absurdities between the society and humans in the third world of nonexistence, thereby disclosing the problems within the real society in an indirect usage of language.

In this series, violent coercion of order, principle, and rule is manifested in expression beyond moral tolerance of the real society and a symmetrical structure expressed in a coercive way, and a society herein exists as a spot for reproduction of taboos in the real society. Such virtual society implies a vehement denial of the real society as well as a mirror for reflection of loss of elements worthy of the real society like humanity or norm.

This series requires creator to endure strong resistance as a reproducer of human taboos and appreciators, inclusive of creator, to become courageous and stand the resultant pains against the force which confines an individual existence to the self-defined boundary such as human desires for sinking into human limitations due to unknown fear.

This series takes the form of exaggerated use and collision of colors to arouse frightened and uncomfortable feelings through extreme gorgeousness. Moreover, it expresses a contradictory conception mirrored in the textual contents through a contradictory figurative method based upon shallow space idea and plane cubic delineation.

This series largely entails the following three stages. The first stage involves writing on an imaginary nation, while the second stage indicates the imaging process where textual contents are embodied into images in the form of drawing. All detailed plans and ideas become concrete and refined at the second stage, which plays the most pivotal role in the whole process of works. The third stage is to give shape to all the plans via visual medium based upon drawing. A final documentation occurs after these three stages, and then it moves on to the next episode.