Be Living-Live

Her Animus finding ● in 1950, Korea, which was poorer than the poorest country in Africa since devastating war wept over the country, is now regarded as a country with state-of-art digital technologies producing good performance of automobile and home appliances after merely 60 years elapsed. Although this sudden economic growth got rid of situation under which people are threatened due to poverty, severe pain is also left because of abrupt economic growth. Korean's aspiration toward material success to escape from devastating poverty resulted in excessive competitive environments and also made people fear of obsession when they are behind of others. Therefore, when they felt they are behind of others even by small level, they are caught by strong jealousy and this jealousy led to fad of private education, realestate speculation, early abroad studying, obsession with brand name product, luxurious wedding and excessive wedding furnishing.

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Of course, to modern people, who are always brain washed through advertisement which persuades them to purchase products, which would lead to emotional satisfaction, consumption using money is not a strange behavior at all under capitalism. It's because this consumption is a basic frame to support capitalism. However, there is a problem which is an aftereffect named excessive psychology of competition due to rapid economic growth in Korea and this competition expedites consumption for bragging their economic power rather than for their real necessity. Obsession with brand name product or luxurious wedding mentioned earlier is only for showing off my image not for my intrinsic image which nobody can see. Although best value for consumption society is said to be material, especially in Korea, there are quite a many people who say they can't live due to high education cost, employment, wedding cost, price and unsecured age life. Koreans, from the moment when they first face outer society at children's house to the moment when they spend their lost moment in life, always concern over money.

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And this concern becomes more deepened compared to others and this comparison is spreading through Korea's advanced internet environment that transfers information at light speed. In addition to this, well made TVs overuse promises for empty satisfaction filled with materials by several hundreds of advertisement a day. Korean's strong desire toward wealth in the past created a shadow named aftereffect and the shadow is believed to have formed an unique material-centric sense of value in modern Korean society. And this aggregated sense of value in Korea has been specified Korean's social behavior and their mentality. ● A great scholar of psychology, Carl Gustav Jung (1875~1961) expressed external personality of man and women desired by society as persona. According to him, everyone has his or her own ego and they are socialized with outer world through themselves and also observe deep place in their mind though themselves. Me, in other words, although ego seems to be very personal tendency, we came to believe that "We" are among those egos by analyzing consciousness world of ego. Although aggregated opinion and sense of value or behavioral norm named "We" is mixed with self-consciousness, sometimes there are some cases which ego mis-interprets the sense of value and behavioral norms which forced individual to follow by groups as of they are self-motivated. ● these attitude, thinking, behavioral norms and roles required by groups in society are called Persona or external personality by Carl Gustav Jung. According to Lee By Young who observed Korean's mental state based on analytic psychology, I (ego) get used to social groups case by case by taking on and off 'Persona' in social life. Persona is a sort of mask made by ego in order to get used to external world or so as not to provoke problems in connection with outer world. ● Persona which is an external personality in material-centric consumption society, becomes an image of products. Especially, whether or not a person is successful is judged by material-centric sense of value in societies such that whether he or she carries brand bag, they ride foreign luxurious cars, or live in apartments in Gangnam district, or they studied abroad spending money. Advertisement and mass media require Persona to be fitted with this society through repeated recognition of successful human image. Therefore korean's Persona is believe to be formed according to attitude, thinking and behavioral norms toward this materialistic success required by these groups. However, people are supposed to live by adopting themselves not only to external world but also to internal world. We know well that when it comes to 'My mind', it is not always just 'Our mind' external aggregated mind (group consciousness) of Korean society. Further, We know here is unconsciousness that is a deeper mind found in us which we don't know. Inner world indicates just a world of this unconsciousness. Like the case that people establish a relation with outer would by Persona that is a person's external personality, our inner world also creates very contrasting attitude, posture and tendency against external personality. We call it inner personality.

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Here, I am going to introduce artwork that is a main subject of this paper. The artist, Lee ju ree was born after high economic growth Korea, faced our consumption society at all times and lived experiencing never-ending competitive mentality of success which is striving continuously. And she has detected sense of loss more acutely existing in the back of forced Persona by groups. The artist says following. "One day, I wondered what is my viewing to live and proceed. What are people in the world viewing to live? In a world where right answer and wrong answer are disappearing, they argue this is a trend and tendency. Likewise, am I drifting away in crowd? Did I neglect to view myself only with eyes to see world? Although there are many ways to live in the world, am I just watching how to live ignoring my real eyes into myself?" ● The artist, who fell fatigue from those external world not following the flow of groups, intended to view her own world in herself defying those tendency of groups. The artworks of Lee Ju Ree show naked men with intrinsic bodies without any external decorative objects. Although their bodies are described realistically as if they expose real essence of human appearance, their faces are ambiguous enough not to recognized who they are. Men who do not show their correct faces usually show their back appearance and are floating in no-gravity of space as if it is a space of dream.

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Lee Ju Ree – Live ● Even though it's very difficult to identify real essence of unconsciousness that is inner world of human as it is positioned in the deepest part of human mind, the only path to experience the process of those unconsciousness is dream. We usually attempt to recognize what we experienced in dream, it's impossible to logically connect parts of dream as they are appearing parts by parts. In addition, although we are able to recall that what clothes people in dream wore or what they gripped, their overall appearances become ambiguous when we attempt to recall their faces. Lee's artworks insinuate a world of unconsciousness in teams of fact that men in the artworks have invisible faces and their heavy bodies are floating as if they are playing in space. In addition, a world of unconsciousness in Lee Ju Ree, men positioned in inner world can't be recognized for their identity since they are all naked. They are not appearances which are projected by material- centric images pursued by Korean's Persona. This means that they took off decorated appearances which are identified by people in consumption society in Korea. However, there is one question here. When a female artist, Lee faced the most intrinsic aspect of ego in a world where she took off Persona, why did she face image of several men instead of a single woman? If I add explanation of Carl Gustav Jung spending time a little more, inner personality, unlike Persona that is external personality, is very much like a stepping-stone connecting ego to inner world and is a meditator connecting deeper layer between myself (ego) and unconsciousness. Inner personality might be replaced with Seele and Seele is a psychological essence of unconsciousness that stimulates consciousness, and it is said that very feminine woman has virile Seele while very virile man has very feminine Seele by Carl Gustav Jung. According to explanation of Lee Bu Young, a man and woman is biologically identified. Man and woman showed psychologically different concerns and features against each other and have been required to carry out different roles socially. While they have been fitting their roles with social requirement, another inner personality in unconsciousness of man and woman is realized against Persona of man and women. Therefore, a woman's personality is positioned in man's unconsciousness while a man's personality is positioned in woman's unconsciousness. Carl Gustav Jung called man's feminine Seele Anima while he called woman's masculine Seele Animus. This Anima and Animus is not created only by something suppressed by consciousness of man and woman. These indicate what existed as it is by human primitive aspect. For instance, this primitive condition is biologically proved by the fact that a man also has woman's hormone and woman also has man's hormone. Therefore, men in Lee's artworks are images of Animus that is her men's Seele. If so, why does Animus appear by groups in her artwork? To explain this, Jung describes as following: Although major concern in biological phase from a woman is to grab a man continuously, that of a man is to conquer a woman.

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However, a man is not just limited to one conquering due to his intrinsic characteristics. This characteristic sometimes rejects all personal matters as consciousness of a man is extended beyond a woman while that of a woman is limited to a single man. But under unconsciousness, those are likely to be reversed. It is proved by the fact that Anima in unconsciousness of a man shows relatively clear contour while Animus in unconsciousness of a woman is unclear showing multiple personalities. The artist, Lee said "Alienated human beings are losing their faces being drifting away from mass under environment where materialism governs mentality with advancement of mechanical civilization and uniformed communication" and "in this environment in Korea's modern society where essence is being lost, we hope to recover our own characteristics through doubt and contemplation for our identities" And the artist came to view her inner world first like her hope and accordingly she faced Animus that is her inner personality. This process to find her Animus will make it possible to find the voice of Seele which is intentionally ignored as we follow Persona. Moreover, this is believed to gradually fill emptiness of life Which has been creaking due to mismatch between outer personality and inner personality. ■ Lee Hyun Kyeong

Vol.20131027e | 이주리展 / LEEJUREE / 李周里 / painting