THE PARK

The Park is a series of black and white infrared ray photographs anchored to the Buddhist philosophical concept, “Form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form.” (色即是空，空即是色) Light in infinity is formless, that is, emptiness. Form is in this emptiness. The nature of form is thus emptiness. 

Photography is a copy of reality reflected through light. The landscape of my work is a representation of reality, but is an unrealistic representation. My work is perceived as ‘unreality’ because is not recognized through the visible rays deep rooted in our fixed notions. Although we do not perceive this with our eyes, this is a representation of a reflection of the light that comes down from the sun to the realistic world. 

Infrared light extending from the nominal red edge of the visible spectrum and ultraviolet light extending from the nominal violet edge of the visible spectrum are invisible to the human eye but ever present. 

The landscapes of my works are both the ‘discriminative’ scenes of landscaped parks and the ‘indiscriminate’ scenes cultured by nature itself. My work displays similar scenes of parks with the strength of the rays invisible to human eyes. Everyday realistic scenes look unfamiliar as other worldly landscapes, but we cannot realize that the landscapes are another reality hidden under the realistic scenes. 

Philosophically, seeing refers to recognizing. Our capability of seeing, feeling sensuously, and expressing is God’s blessing. However, our senses tend to believe that the invisible is nonexistent due to our obsession over visible things. We depend only on the visible without realizing the true nature of things. After all, we come to believe that only a visible phenomenon is the truth.

If we can see objects with the eye to grasp the world’s diversity, not simply relying on our impulsive temporary senses, and with the eye of the mind as Little Prince does, we can embrace objects as the things of coexistence, not possession, and not as landscapes where realistic light collides with unrealistic light.