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jojo(@jojo_centralart) • Instagram 사진 및 동영상
Essay: Apology to the sea
You must crawl on the sand, like a dog. The two of us crawling on the sand wearing reusable raincoats looked like doggies out for a walk just in time.
Look for small pieces of plastic about 5 millimeters in size. What is mainly found are large and small Styrofoam lumps spilled from fish farms, sand toys, cigarette butts, and eye drops thrown away by tourists. Occasionally, plastic fillets from distant seas from Jeju flow in. It looks like white frog eggs. It is said that the main culprit is that the fish think they are food and then swallow them and cause them to die.
Small pieces of plastic filtered through an iron colander are placed in a separate small container like jewels. It’s definitely a handful. To the artist Eun-hye Jung, they become valuable materials for her second year of “Plastic Mandala” art project.
-Are you doing as much as you can today?
I asked.
“No, even that goal is difficult to reach for. I only do one handful a day. If I overdo it, it will be spoiled. I have a lot to do. I have to do this work little by little every day.”
She explained.
Oversized garbage is poured into the sack. Unfilled sacks are also loaded into the rear trunk of her car. So the artist’s small car is all covered in sand.
Without any self-introduction, I rushed into the sand.
“I should help with this work,” I overwhelmed. The artist laughed.
“You couldn’t help anything. If you think like that way, finally you can fight against something. But, against what? Are you going to fight the sea? Are you going to fight the sand? Neither, you can’t. I can’t be of any help in this situation neither. I can’t do anything. I already know it. This work is just checking what I know-Nobody can’t do anything.” She continued.
“Oh, of course there are people who want to solve this problem. But Plastic Mandala is not like that. It’s a job to say, “I was wrong, and pray.””
Yes, it was absolutely a ritual of praying. A praying for the sea with crawling like dogs.
Something went wrong. Honestly, I have always been a fighter. I have always been a change maker. This time, I was happy in my heart that I chose a non-fighting topic, non-arguable job, but my personality drove me to fight against the sea and sand again. It is, a mission impossible.
“So, what’s your major?”
Now it’s her turn to ask.
-Just this and that nowadays. Solving social problems with artistic imagination, something like that.”
“In English?”
-Applied Imagination…
“Sounds cool.”
Then I murmured. It’s not like Art History teaches something “solid” that’s already exist, but it’s difficult and confusing because I have to find and learn topics and even research methods on my own.
She said she never heard my school before-the fabulous Central Saint Martins. What kind of arrogance of mine was it to think that all art people in the world would know the name. My face turned red. I’m really pissed off today.
“We’ll take it slow, take it slow. We met for the first time today, just two hours ago.”
After finishing the work, she was a little curious about who I am and what I am doing, so I was explaining about myself in a condensed way, but I am stuck again by her word.
-I don’t know what to say.
Rather confessed, I decided.
Then she taught me.
“The people who met each other for the first time, can say; ‘Ah, the weather is nice!’ or ‘Ah, the sea is beautiful!’ That’s what I’m talking about.”
Suddenly, I looked up and the fantastic coral sky was falling. Ah, I’m pissed off several times today.
“Anyway, I want to jump into the sea. I’ll change my swimsuit and come back!”
-Uh, isn’t the sea closed already?
I asked like a dumb.
“Oh, doing it secretly. Swimming in the sea at sunset is really fantastic!”
-That’s the difference between you and me? An artist and a normal person?
“Maybe!”
She replies giggly and then disappeared. I set aside rainbow plastic shards and stare blankly at the “Fanta” orange flavoured sky and sea.
She quickly ran over and jumped in. She went pretty far. I took several pictures of her, but will keep it secretly. I’ve educated a useful word by her.
Soon the sunset was over. Without realising it.
-It’s short…
I sighed.
She repeated my sigh.
“Yes, It’s too short. So, what you’re doing now doesn’t matter, then. You just have to jump in, uh, and it’s all over.”
That’s right, what the heck. My life was going to end with just like arthritis. I never know what the sunset is or what the sea is. Couldn’t jump into anything.
On my way to home, I called my sister-like friend, who was resting due to an unexpected car accident while trying to be together today’s event.
-Sister, I was hit in the bone hard today!
As I conveyed today’s feelings, she told me softly what people like us look like to the other people.
“Hey, we the people who are quick-tempered, quick-headed, and need an immediate response from everything, Jojo, if we don’t explain step by step like that, it will look rushed, jumpy, and distracting.”
I originally wondered if this Plastic Mandala project could have some common place with my ageing research as a kind of retreat. It doesn’t 100% fit, but I just vaguely imagined if I could reflect on the various bad things I’ve done to the earth, dragging my body that is becoming also garbage.
Sister exclaimed resolutely!
“Oh my, not me!”
-Huh?
“I don’t agree with being trash myself.”
-Not yet? Are you still going on?
“Huh! There are still 50 more years left, and I will enjoy it even more!”
I am playing with these wonderful “unnies”, whoops. So, too early to be useless?
It’s not a job to make something, but a job that doesn’t make it, so the artist don’t attach the plastic mandala with glue. The small pieces of plastic stay for a while in the shape of a mandala, and then go back into the sack, leaving only photos and videos.
For those who will enjoy their eternal life on Earth even after all people disappear, the time of the mandala is probably fleeting to the plastic shards.
I went and got water in my bathtub and soaked my body for a while. My body, which I couldn’t even immerse myself in the sea, was belatedly revived. It reminded me of the rainy sea breeze. I think too much about the future.
We decided to do it together next weekend. A late thank you to the person who introduced me. I omit the tag for fear of who it might be. But her eyes are always precious to find someone.
(The end)