Pongnang a-re Pang: The Making

퐁낭 아래 팡 [Pongnang a-re Pang] : The Making from J. Yoohyun Lee on Vimeo.




[Subtitle]


This work is about enshrining the cherry tree that used to be in the middle of Gasi three-way intersection, the busiest part of Gasi-ri.

I remember wandering around when I first came to Gasi-ri.

But then I saw this tree and the three-way intersection, and thought ‘this must be the entrance to the village’.

To me, this is the first image that comes to mind when thinking of Gasi-ri.

I had never lived in countryside before. Gasi-ri is quite rural.

When a stranger comes to a small village, everyone notices that person right away.

I was certain I would do well simply working and residing in this given place- residency- for 3 months. But if I just stayed in such bubble, I would only get to meet so many people.

No matter how much time I spend in the village, it was likely I wouldn’t get to know the villagers and Gasi-ri as a whole. So I wanted to go up to them and say “Hi, my name is Yoohyun. I’m living here at the moment. It’s lovely to meet you”.


5-Day Morning Coffee

“It would be nice if you just come have coffee every time. Thanks!”

“I live right over there. By the way, do you know anything about this tree here?”
“Not really.”
“Not even how old it is?”
“Something like 30 years old.”

“The man who planted this tree is the father of the old man of Gasi bistro.”

“Thornbush. They planted thornbush around the tree because kids would pick and harm it. The old man would run swinging a stick to shoo them away.”

“This tree is in a bad shape.”
“Was it originally planted in the middle of the intersection?”
“Yes. It was in the center at first”.


I wanted to make a work that cherishes the existence of that tree, or the fact that the tree was there.

But I didn’t want it to be like a monument. Monument is too authoritative.

I have a keen interest in shadows.

Shadow is composed of light, object and surface.

Their relationships, in what angles they are positioned, or textures of the surfaces would engender different shadows.

Had the tree been not at the intersection but somewhere else, a different shadow would have appeared.

And if it was at a different time, the shadow would differ, again.

So I traced the shadow appeared around 2:30pm with chalk,

and then made the mat of that very shape:

the shadow of the cherry tree of Gasi three-way intersection at 2:30pm.


Pongnang a-re Pang: The Event

“You know the tree at the three-way intersection?”
“Yeah.”
“And do you know it is a different tree now?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s the shape of the old tree’s shadow.”


I prepared Pongnang a-re Pang postcards, which had the outline of the shadow printed on, for the people who gathered on the mat.

Some people simply colored the shape, some drew, some wrote poetry, some wrote stories… whatever they wanted to share.

Each and every one who participated in the story sharing later received a postcard of someone else.

I scanned the gathered postcards and made a book like this.

This is a piece of the cherry tree I brought on the day it was uprooted.

The tree fell down a lot quicker than I thought.

Ah, the book is finished.


This thought was in my head the whole time.

‘Wouldn’t have that tree seen everything and heard everything?

Everything that happened around Gasi three-way intersection and the stories of Gasi-ri from 1957 to 2013…

Wouldn’t have the tree known?’