‘We’, Inside and Outside of Us

In by American pastor Bob Moorehead, there is a passage that reads: “Buildings have grown taller, but character has grown smaller; highways have widened, but vision has narrowed; consumption has increased, but we have grown poorer; we buy more things, but joy has diminished.” “We have learned how to earn a living, but we have forgotten how to live. The time we live has increased, but we have lost the way to imbue that time with the meaning of life.” Although published in 1995, the content of the text still points to reality. Nowadays, while life has become more convenient due to advanced technological civilization, the ‘humanity’ felt in humans is becoming fainter. Above all, the Earth’s environment—which can be called the habitat of all living things, including humans—is becoming more desolate as humanity’s high-tech industries develop. The ecological crisis caused by climate change and environmental destruction, which we encounter in domestic and international news, is no longer merely an objective fact but has become a matter of life and survival, remaining the most urgent task to be resolved among the numerous problems and paradoxes facing our era. In such times, one is compelled to ask where an artist’s gaze should be directed, and this exhibition can be seen as an unfolding of a segment of the artist’s own thoughts regarding that question.

In planning this solo exhibition and composing the works, the artist chose the title <‘We’, Inside and Outside of Us>, placing emphasis on the word ‘we.’ This is because the background for planning this exhibition was a contemplation of nature and non-human life forms, reflecting on the interconnectedness inherent in the word ‘we’ as we commonly use it today, as well as the exclusion of other living beings that do not belong to ‘we.’ In a human community, ‘we’ signifies, above all, the connection between humans and the relationships between them. Anything other than humans cannot belong to ‘we’ due to a binary logic and becomes the ‘other.’ Violence is inherent in this. Ignorance and disregard for what is outside of “us”—that is, for the “other”—give birth to violence and carry the potential to degenerate into objects of exploitation. Indeed, this has been the case for humans against natural life forms in the past, and it will continue to be so in the future. However, the boomerang of violence and exploitation thrown by humans at nature has returned as climate disasters, threatening human life. Even now, massive loss of life is occurring in some parts of the globe due to heatwaves and earthquakes, and we, too, are already living through climate disasters. Observing this reality, we realize that we must now recognize the non-human beings of the natural world whom we have excluded as members of our global community and actively seek a path of mutual coexistence. The natural ecosystem is composed of a system where no single entity can monopolize dominance; everyone can only survive when balance and harmony are achieved. Just as the Buddhist concept of “Indra’s Net” suggests that all beings are interconnected and that the movement of one affects everyone, not only are connections between humans closely linked, but all living beings in the natural ecosystem are intimately connected to “we” both inside and outside of us, supporting one another like a finely woven net. The theme and main content of this exhibition is to view the meaning of “we” from a broader perspective, dreaming of reconnection with non-human beings and speaking of a renewed recognition of the preciousness of life. If humans have historically viewed nature as an object to be overcome and conquered, exploiting and destroying “life” from it while observing it from the standpoint of the “other,” now is the time when the Eastern insight of the unity of self and nature is needed to rectify this. The philosophy of Haewol Choi Si-hyung, who said, “Do not harm even a single blade of grass or a single tree innocently. He who does not cherish all things is like one who does not respect people,” can serve as a valuable lesson regarding the climate disasters we face. Therefore, this exhibition is structured to re-examine the relationship between nature and humanity, grounded in the Eastern philosophy of respect for life and an alternative view of nature that emphasizes harmony between nature and humans.

As quoted from Reverend Bob Moorehead’s in the introduction, humanity today has become more convenient, possesses more, and is faster, yet we live in a reality where our inner selves are more empty, more melancholic, and more anxious. Furthermore, the emergence of AI has made the future of humanity uncertain, and the prospect that physical AI and humanoid robots will rapidly replace humans is further amplifying human anxiety. In such an era, dreaming of unity with nature and speaking of the principle of non-action is not anachronistic or a call for a return to the past. Just as human life apart from nature is impossible, speaking of the preciousness of nature and preserving it is tantamount to preserving human life; therefore, this stems from the urgent conviction that it must take precedence over everything else. The artist hopes that nature and humans will become a single “we” rather than two separate entities, speaking of the preciousness and value of all beings in his works. Through this exhibition, the artist hopes to provide a space for the audience to dream of a reconnection between nature and humanity and to reflect on directions for humans and non-human life forms to coexist and thrive together.