Unable to discern what he was talking about, I kept my gaze fixed on his sunglasses, or rather, on the reflection in them.
“How’s it going with Choi In-woo?”
Perhaps feeling his question was childish, he chuckled and added another.
“Does he keep contacting you?”
“Sometimes… he asks if I’m eating well… things like that.”
“Choi In-woo? Talking about food?”
As if he couldn’t believe it, like someone waving their hand at the notion of a notorious scoundrel reforming, dismissing such heartwarming tales, he even scoffed. Then, he took off his sunglasses and placed them on the table, tilting his head slightly to the side as he looked across at me.
“Choi In-woo must see you as quite the child, Seo Yeehyeon . Asking if you’re eating well, and things like that.”
I couldn’t understand what he meant. Was the generosity he’d shown, offering advice with something ‘akin to responsibility,’ not something that had fulfilled its mission that night?
Watching him smoke and drink coffee, I resisted the urge to ask, ‘Then why are you curious about the relationship between In-woo hyung and me, Director?’ It felt like it would be a regrettable provocation. No, it wouldn’t even serve as a provocation, but rather become a weakness.
The gallery was closed for the holiday, but the streets of Samcheong-dong were bustling with people on that early summer Saturday. Although the yard was obscured by tall shrubs, the voices of passersby were so close that I could hear them vividly. Every one of them was filled with joyful excitement.
My glass, in which I had barely touched the coffee, remained almost full as the ice melted. The smoke rising from the cigarette in his hand drifted lightly from the shade towards the light. The edge of the parasol, covered with a cheerful blue and white striped awning, fluttered. I suddenly had the urge to try on his sunglasses that were lying on the table. It was just a thought.
Leaning his elbows on the table, he leaned his upper body towards me. He ran his ring finger over his eyebrow as he held the cigarette and said,
“Or… is it that you’re not an Alpha or an Omega, so he’s lost interest?”
“……”
As he said that, with a slight smile, he was, conversely, showing a distorted interest in me because I wasn’t an Omega. That’s all it seemed like to me. Someone who was very angry that I wasn’t an Omega.
But even that distorted interest didn’t last long. His phone, which was on the table, vibrated, and he stubbed out the cigarette, which he had only half-smoked, in the portable ashtray without hesitation, and quickly got up from his seat.
The truck carrying the artwork had arrived.
○
With the ‘body to soul’ series, which is being released to the world about 8 months after the ‘body & soul’ exhibition, which was held amidst enthusiastic responses from visitors, critics, and industry media, Shushu not only solidifies the perfection of his own unique style, but also proves a theme that has deepened once again.
‘Body’ as a means of expressing ‘soul’.
‘Body’ suffering from discord with ‘soul’.
‘Body’ existing physically in a state unrelated to ‘soul’.
In dealing with ‘body’ as the subject of his work, Shushu has already reached a level of skill that is hard to believe given his age and experience.
As if sending a mature jeer at the outdated views of some artists who still do not recognize photography as an area of art and dismiss it as an auxiliary means for recording, he presents an extreme method using only light and shadow, that is, lines and planes, in this ‘body to soul’ series.
The result of the work, which almost abandons the realistic characteristics of photography, is closer to painting in the traditional sense.
As everyone knows, the simpler the style, the more clearly the depth of the foundation is revealed. To use a Korean food analogy, he has prepared a wonderful meal with just a handful of rice and a head of kimchi. A meal that is honestly simple yet does not lose its dignity and individuality.
Only Shushu can show this style, and it does not just stop at style, but also a serious and essential contemplation of life and humanity, and in the face of the weighty sense of subject that he has engraved in his work after strict self-reflection, one cannot help but admire the external and internal world of this young artist.
I always feel anguish in front of his works.
I discover myself in his work that I don’t want to encounter, and I want to turn away, ignore it, and turn my back on it.
And at the same time, if only I could, if only I could muster a little more courage, I also feel an uncharacteristic courage and impulse to face myself in it at least once. Because he, too, must have gone through such a painful process to put his soul into his work.
But I know. It is not an area that anyone can easily step into. I will probably continue to be cowardly in the future.
And through his work, I will briefly remind myself of my own cowardice, and live on with the shallow comfort that I have secured at least a minimum of humanity. No matter what anyone says, that is the meaning of art to me. So no matter what anyone says, he is an artist beyond words to me.
As a dealer, collector, and ardent fan of his work, I await the works he will show in the future with excitement and anguish.
○
The pamphlet was successfully printed. The color separation was not wrong, page 14 did not follow page 3, and it was not bound crookedly. By packing it in advance today and sending it to customers tomorrow, it could proceed safely as planned.
While printing the addresses to be affixed to the envelopes on stickers, I sat at the conference table and picked up one of the 500 or so pamphlets that were piled up and examined it.
The critic’s preface, which followed the artist’s history without a single photo of his face, was, frankly, predictably pedantic and old-fashioned for an article about an exhibition hosted by Phantom. Because giving meaning to the paintings with plausible technical terms, even mentioning ontology and existential thought, would be a necessary packaging job for ‘sales’.
But even to me, who had never encountered a proper critique, the introduction written by Phantom’s CEO, Liu Weikun, which was printed after that, was quite unconventional.
According to my Noona and Hyung, it is extremely rare for an introduction written by a person related to the gallery to be included in the exhibition pamphlet of an affiliated artist, in addition to the art critic’s preface, but the content was even more surprising.
His writing seemed to have lost a considerable amount of objectivity, and it felt as if he himself was aware of this point but had no intention of correcting it. He did not hesitate at all in expressing his affection for the artist and his extremely personal feelings.
Very personal and ardent confessions about the artist’s delicate yet strong soul, and the original works born from that soul…. It was like a letter of courtship.
‘I always feel anguish in front of his works.’
A work that draws out the anguish of facing oneself from him, who seems to brush off even words about the important elements that make up his life like jokes, and who seems to never reveal his true feelings to anyone. And, the person who creates such works….
“Those crazy bastards, they’re at it again.”
At Juhan hyung’s rough curse, I took my eyes off the pamphlet and looked up. With his eyes fixed on his phone, hyung quickly explained.
“I did a search for Shushu’s exhibition this time. Do you know what the blog post title is? ‘Artworks of Alphas and Omegas, is creation in a hallucinatory state really any different?’ They’re saying shit like that.”
In the post that hyung resentfully sent me the link to, they were subtly undermining the value of their works with the implication that the creations of Alphas and Omegas, who have a special cycle called heat, are no different from works created in a hallucinatory state after drug use.
In particular, they showed more blatant animosity, saying who knows if Golden Alphas and Golden Omegas, who can put themselves in a state of strong sexual arousal if they want to, received help with their creativity while exposed to pheromones.
“What are these bastards? Are they suffering from a Beta complex? Or are they related to another gallery, so they’re criticizing regardless of whether it makes sense or not? No, what does being sexually aroused have to do with creativity? Does he want to draw and compose when he’s aroused? Even if that’s the case. What can creations that come from sexual arousal be other than obscene? Ignorance is bliss, they say. They really have nothing better to do.”
At the signal that the sticker printing was complete, Hyung got up from his seat. The sound of him pushing the chair back was rough, reflecting his disheveled mind.
It was true that there were many people who had succeeded in various fields among Alphas and Omegas, not just Golden Alphas and Golden Omegas. However, that was only because the proportion of successful people among Alphas and Omegas was high, and in reality, the vast majority of people who had achieved a certain level of success in their positions were Betas. This was a natural result, as Alphas and Omegas were an extremely small minority in terms of population composition.
There are various theories about the origin and history of Alphas and Omegas, and there is no officially recognized and adopted orthodox theory, but the most likely theory is that the proportion of Alphas and Omegas, who were highly fertile, was much higher in pre-civilization times when mortality rates were high, and that the proportion of Betas gradually increased after the start of agricultural society and humans were able to settle down stably.
In medieval Europe, they were treated as cursed mutants, and there were movements to exterminate them in some countries and regions, while on the other hand, in ancient China, Alphas and Omegas were regarded as children of God, and there were dynasties that did not recognize Betas as emperors or even royalty.
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