Photo Journal Monday: Seunggu Kim
JINGYEONG SANSU
East Asia is traditionally based on "zen" in terms of cultivating the mind and enlightening the truth in harmony with nature, and in this regard, mountains with spiritual energy are called "noted mountains".
The recent trend in Korean housing culture is to copy the most famous part of the mountain and artificially recreate mountain in the middle of the apartment complex. It increases the value of the apartment, and at the same time, residents have some psychological satisfaction since there is a traditional belief that the holy mountain gives luck, health, and fortune.
Through these oddly beautiful mountains, the artist wanted to describe a new form of the "zen" which lost its traditional value to adjusted to the industrialized society. The artist has been taking all the mountains in different seasons and different times of the day since there is a traditional Korean philosophy to observe the object frequently, not only to find different details but also recognize the new perception of the object. Now we can face the collective unconsciousness that has arisen in the long history.
* “JINGYEONG SANSU” is a Korean traditional aesthetic term which means continuous observation of nature and harmony with nature and is also the official name of the new residential-style shown in these photographs.
You can find more of Seunggu’s work here.