Occasions in the limited situation Junghwa Ryu (Curator, Gallery HYUNDAI) Junebum Park’s early works, with their strong visual impact, still reminds him as a video artist with hand performance. In early works such as 1 Parking and 3 Crossing, Park recorded untouchable objects as if he was holding and moving them in his hand at a certain angle. Hands covering half of the screen next to small human figure or other objects seem to be those of the Almighty. However, looking more closely, viewer will easily figure out that the taped objects are belonged to totally different world from his hands, only existing as subjects. His hands are constantly moving in order to chase objects in the screen. Objects are not moved by the hands but by the parking line, flow of the traffic and road signs which directs them to park, cross the street or dig the ground in certain ways. Park’s reversed thinking leaves room for deliberation. Omnipotent but fictitious power represented by the hands reveals the meaningless social structure that directs individual’s everyday behavior. Junebum Park boldly interferes with reality in the Works such as Making an Apartment or The Occupation compared to his early works with hand performance. The objects appearing in the work are shifted from the untouchable metaphors on the screen to the photograph of the objects printed on the paper, cut and glued to the photograph of the scene. This handicraft enables artist to change the environment, even if it is only a manufactured mock up, rather than introducing fictional objects such as hands. Social norms governing the distinction between living and commercial area are transformed and intervened through Park’s private process of handcraft. After this, artist moves even further from revealing existing social norm or structure in order to decompose them, to construct a new norm entirely through a series of work Puzzle. He sets condition and mission and creates a board game played by people. Participants can discuss with one another and move their bodies to solve the problem, and it ends with cheers of the performers who finally accomplish the mission. Now in this series, direct intervention from the artist disappears and only the eye of the camera remains observing the entire process of accomplishing the mission. Park does not necessarily intervene the movement of objects or chase them, he rather simply give mission and stare at them. Viewer will share this perspective with the artist, looking down at the game as a director, not as a player. From this series narrative has been established, such as mission offered and accomplished, and theatrical direction is actively suggested which creates artificial space. Communication among participants starts to play an important role within the work, and it is participants’ job to line up and put things in order and to vacant the space when someone moves. Artist now gives freedom to the people that he looks down. So far, the relationship between artist and the object has been concisely presented.. Such relationships changed and diversified in the recent works shown in this exhibition. Park’s new work Leaf Spring is filled with steady movement, or a shiver, one might say. Unknown moving equipment is slowly closed up, introducing a group of half-naked man as the origin of this movement, who are pushing the police bus. They push the side of the bus together but the bus persistently does not fall. They may as well be playing with the bus, shaking it. After a short while, camera turns to the front side to show that the bus is stuck on the spring equipment and the pushing movement of men has absolutely no power on it. It shows the source of the movement was actually a heavy ball, transferring the center of gravity with the motor power. Circular movement of the ball and the shifting of the spring equipment, moving equally to up/down and right/left, continues without leaning to any one side until the camera slowly rises to show the entire equipment as if concluding the whole situation. The camera fades away from the object by rising to take a bird eye view when the source of the power is revealed so that one can explain how the power actually looks like in reality. The situation from Hostage Drama is also interesting. Unlike other works, human figures appear in the center of the screen and narrative becomes stronger. Two characters are confronting each other and suddenly the situation resolves itself when one of the characters hides the knife behind his back. However in the original situation one of the characters rounded up is the hostage of the other. In other words, Park ‘rewinds’ the situation –hostage versus hostage taker- reversed to confrontation mode when the hostage takes out a hidden knife. It is fascinating to see the opposite situation can be illustrated depending on weather the character is holding the knife or not. Parks tells us how to find balance within situational elements such as power and position, and how to lose it afterwards. It shows how a balance is kept and upset among elements like power and position. As the above work, which closed up a situation, that two persons are standing face to face in a screen without background, Junebum Park’s work poses as a moment that is happening in a certain space and limited conditions. For the artist, limited situation can be a certain space or time which the circumstance of the artist, or his inner system of concept. Strong Piety is a scene taken by a high-speed film, which shows a situation that he was creating images of a newly established church with appliances of exhibition space while he was staying in Liverpool. Transforming images of a place to another has been tried in a series of The Occupation, and Hypermarket. At these works, he obstinately ignored sizes or heights of buildings, and hanged windows, signs and other marks without practical limitation. The difference of Strong Piety with those works is that his performance reveals overall. He makes a space by drawing a line at the exhibition space, and completes an image of church with a cross, platform, and lined chairs. Then, he put all the things back where they were. It seems that he is reviving characters of his early works, which were moving constantly in certain places. They park and cross the roads, and they seem that they are doing or have to do something with assiduity.