Choi, Myoung young's <Conditional Plane> implies his whole working process. It tries to reveal the delicate change of material through the simplification of color and the expression of material which connotes the action transcends the shape. In <Conditional Plane>, the image which brings about the symbolic meaning process is ignored and it is different with the Literality of pictorial material which is pursued by the Minimal Art. <Conditional Plane> represents the material characteristic of color on the surface, so at first sight, it seems that the purpose of the artist exists in the material process. It results from the attitude which used to regard the art as a sort of material reality or the attempt to explain the visual situation which reveals itself on the outside of work. After all, it is difficult to escape from the limit of meaning delivery method because of the trap of visual similarity.
In the contemporary art, we can consider the understanding of art as the functional relation between the artist's speculation and the work itself. The work is the substance where the artist's speculation is fixed by the action and combination of material. But the work does not reveal itself just as it is but it is understood by our transcendental knowledge which we already have. The process that we acknowledge an object as a work is the attitude to understand it as an spiritual object beyond our visual immediateness. The viewer's preconception which is made up of our transcendental knowledge interrupts the approach to the artist's intrinsic intention. Habermas put emphasis on the necessity of the power of introspection which can smash this preconception. In other word, the more the artist speculates the more the viewer needs to endeavor to approach the inside of the work.
To comprehend <Conditional Plane> by Choi, Myung young, same kind of speculation is needed. It is not easy to catch that a long period has passed to achieve the series of <Conditional Plane>. Maybe this series is developed from the method that reflects the duplication of the space and plane in his 1977's and 1978's <The Limit>, <Unit Area> and <Development Area>. The various processes are implied such as the effect of the repeated color and the beating on the surface, the effect of the color which gradually frees itself from the limited surface and the whole surface which the color divided regularly into the small pieces.
Through <Conditional Plane> he tries the harmony between the material quality of the color and the action of painting. Therefore it is not the production of the traditional image which represents the shape simply by sticking the color on the surface but it implies the artist's action which overlaps on the surface repeatedly and the effect of the result of action. At this moment, the color can form the sense of quantity and the depth while it spreads out evenly and occupies the surface physically. And it expands the space by the effect that the color is pushed out into the edge. This working process is achieved on a certain surface and the limited frame of vision but it means the cooperation between the space and the color. There is a square as a surface where the effect of color is achieved but beyond it the color is pushed out by the repetition of the action and frees itself from the spatial limit of a square. Like this, the process that the color is pushed out makes the result of action maximized visually. At this moment, the color of the material has the limited meaning. In other word, it becomes monochrome. The artist eliminates the value of the color tone, which restrains the probability of understanding of work by the change of color. We can call it "neutralized color" but at that time, the meaning of color is similar to the "naught".
In <Conditional Plane> after 1986, the color appears. The role of this color which emphasizes the thin brush trace can not help being included into the Monochrome as it doesn't have the image. The color presents the situation which lies before and after the brush trace. The first brush trace comes out of the narrow space between the next brush trace and the regular and repeated action means the inner action which appears continuously from his early work. The role of color in <Conditional Plane> reconstructs the effect on the material as the one before the visual situation while it ascertains the reality of the plane, which harmonize the artist's speculation with the action.
This material situation of color is disclosed as the speculation on the pictorial expression and the former accord of human sensibility and material (Il Lee, Preface of private exhibition, 1986) Because the most role of color is excluded, as a visual phenomenon of monochrome it can possess the immanence of the reason as it is. In other words, the conditional plane of perception like Choi, Myoung Young's work can be easily misunderstand as the Modernist's formalism which displays only the plane and material when we simply approach from the side of pictorial symbol. As long as we understand the work from the visual viewpoint, it is difficult to accept the plane which is speculated as the human sensibility. And also the tendency that the work which has the mutual relation of symbols by the visual continuity is applied only to the single visual condition makes it difficult. At this point, to understand work it is important to lay stress on the artist's continuous interest, and the method must be applied in many ways according to the circumstances.
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