Heonsik Yu   |   Literary Critic, Professor of Philosophy at Dankook University 

The photographs presented by Hyejung Keum in her first solo exhibition, <Messenger – The Secret Light>, predominantly feature indistinct foregrounds that are difficult to define, with backgrounds or centers that emit light or are in bright achromatic tones. The landscapes or objects in between these serve as a conduit connecting the foreground and background. Each photo creates layers of depth that vary depending on the subject, thus the exhibited works are composed of a tripartite structure: here, there, and the pathway. Consequently, the viewer's gaze naturally moves from the blurred foreground through the pathway to the bright background or center. 

In the lower right corner, a black sofa with only its top visible lends a weighty presence, and through the neatly parted curtains, the sea and a diffused sunlight are glimpsed. On the bottom left, there's a smear of grey and a semi-transparent curtain hangs wrinkled, caught in the gap of a window to the right; beyond it, something that resembles a tree glimmers with a rhythmic sparkle. Landscapes featuring the sea or river as backdrops are fronted by serene reeds, rooftops, or trees, and far off, a light-infused sky or an obscured sun finds its place. Elsewhere, a single tree is mirrored in water peeking through melted ice, while the interior of a scrapped vehicle foregrounds the scene with trees appearing ghostly through a shattered car window. 

In addition to the primary black and white photographs, a collection of color photos is also on display, which continues the near-middle-far structural theme. Particularly, the end of a tunnel brims with small circular glows and the dazzling lights cutting through bystanders at the roadside, providing clues along with the black and white works that harbor rectangular bright lights to decipher the humanistic message embedded in this exhibit. 

The soul thrives on light. Light is what allows life to prevail over darkness. It's simply another moniker for hope. The blurry foregrounds in Hyejung Keum's photographs, regardless of their source, hint at the artist’s dark mental imagery, while the distant sea or the central bright light encapsulates the artist's emotional direction. This is exemplified by the white petals emitting light among the blurred trees, the indeterminate boundaries of the sea and sky revealed through tilted curtains, the white letters on structures resembling billboards amidst a black-toned urban landscape, birds flying over a wooden fence by the coast, square lights brightening the surrounding darkness, and especially the massive burst of light in the middle of an asphalt road and the small circular lights emerging in the tunnel. These are all symbols of attempts to overcome darkness and are expressions thereof. 

There is no life untainted by darkness. Therefore, it's not the presence but the quelling of darkness that is crucial. Absolute darkness doesn't exist. As depicted in H. Rousseau's 'The Virgin Forest' series, there is always a secretive life force at play somewhere out of sight. In J. Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness,' it is at the fringe of an inscrutable dark jungle that the protagonist finds Colonel Kurtz, a figure dubbed the 'herald of light.' In Keum's photography, one encounters a comparable kinetic dance of light as she navigates to an 'exit' from a shadowed state of mind. The heart's 'towards ~' implies a fundamental lack, and deficiency seeks satiation. The imagery of light or luminance within Keum's photos serves as a metaphor for this replenishment. While light technically births photography, it is through photography that light can, in a humanistic sense, be reborn. The healing potential of photography is manifest here as well. 

Keum's journey out of shadow towards light does not meander into the sentimental. Capturing a precise equilibrium and harmony among her subjects, her photographic temperament is informed by a cultivated, restrained sense of design, creating a motionless suspense akin to the aesthetics of Neoclassicism, aspiring to the principles of the grave and the pure. Not just within a near-middle-far horizontal layout, but within the careful dialogue of horizontal and vertical lines, and radial constructions directed towards the center, we witness the artist's resolve to impart a heartfelt message with a composed spirit. Just as Th. Mann elaborates in 'Tonio Kröger', an artist must be skilled in placing their feelings on ice. Keum's ardor for light, mediated via a principled awareness of shape, allows her to reach her destinational realm of gentle luminosity, thus provoking a poetical empathy within the beholder.