Apricot Blossoms
and Human Greed

Fusion Artist Kim expresses love of nature in his artwork using wires, hoses, chips
Apricot blossoms bloom with snow regardless of how cold it is. Their clearness and haute statuses appear to be out of this world sometimes. They bloom at the earliest in the season beating other flowers, which is why they are called sometimes the eldest brother.
The art pieces displayed at the first and second solo exhibitions were old trees. Fusion artist Kim Yong-soo said he wanted to show the fusion of agape- like love that trees show to humans and human greed. He said he got the idea from a low-slung old tree at Sunwoon Temple, which impressed him much.
On the way to Sunwoon Temple, many people climb up and take photos under the famous tree. When he was a child, he said, he too, climbed up the tree and had his photo taken and he was full of smiles moved by the tree. When he became a young man, he tried to climb the tree so happy at the sight of the tree greeting the people at the same spot all the time. Tracks left by humans on the tree became scars and rotten with deep wounds inside it and people filled them with cement and silicon to sustain it, which appeared to him like the last attempt by men to keep the tree alive, although already dead because of its wounds.
Although its bottom part is dead, the tree kept its upper side green to provide fresh air to people like mother's love, the artist said. Men live by greed and nature greet them with half smile and half pain and the sad music generated between nature and men impressed him enough to start his artwork.
All of the material for his art pieces make up those either dead or retrieved from garbage depots. He said he takes dilapidated electronic appliances apart and use chips and tree skins to express them as skins of trees and electric wires, hoses and copper pieces are used to make veins.
"Human creations revive nature and satisfy the fulfillment of greed and nature gives gladly although feels pain,"a supposition with somewhat negative views and "despite that"a positive hope were mixed together and revived with a visible interest.
As described in the preface, apricot flowers suffer from storms and strong winds and they have twisted stems and flowers seem slack. Body is old and twisted as if it went through lot of sufferings and stems both large and small have gotten twisted and yet flowers beautiful, the fusion artist said.
Memories for trees that he experienced and the expression method for apricot trees formed a vein and aroused in him a desire to express the scent of apricot flowers. Such flower language as chastity, and an old style and mix their images with modern material and recollect human greed and deep love for nature with loving eyes and let people listen to the music that he heard from trees at Sunwoon Temple he hopes. nw


Fusion artist Kim Yong-soo

Prelude to fusion; 80 cm x 260; 2006.