Wild in Blue: Something Unseen

Many people have fantasies and curiosity about what is on the other side of the visible, that is, about the invisible. It is the curiosity about what is beyond the horizon, about what kind of world unfolds itself behind the closed door. Through the representation of the blue world on the other side of our visible world, the work of Koh Sangwoo leads us to the 'unseen' world we have not seen before.

Human figures in Koh Sangwoo's works are blue. We are used to saying of 'skin color'. Yet those figures of blue skin mingle well with other objects in the works to create cinema-like, dreamy scenes. Koh Sangwoo is an artist who 'reverses' colors. In other words, various colors including the blue in the photographs are produced by reversing them in the printing process. The blue skin and the red, yellow, and purple colors contrast with each other intensely in his works to make the blue color more intense and surreal. For us, who are only accustomed to the outward appearance seen through our eyes or through the screen, the artist shows images of reversed colors to drive us to look for something under the surface, something behind the appearance.

The works of Koh Sangwoo contain a variety of feminine sentiments and beauty. The women in his works have a subtle smile with their eyes half closed, as if they are dreaming. Butterflies and flowers surrounding them maximize love, dream, and aspiration. The woman, surrounded by flowers holding her hands together and shyly putting them close to her face with her eyes closed, seems to express the ecstasy of falling in love. The work depicting a woman, who shyly holds a bunch of red roses turning her hair backward, transpires the trembling and fluttering of love that has just begun, which makes the audience thrilled in spite of themselves. Meanwhile, in the image of the mother embracing the child, we feel the love and responsibility of the mother for her child. The artist explores the intrinsic story of the model in each of his work and transfers it again to his works to tell the audience the story and share the genuine feelings.

Koh Sangwoo's Boundaries of Senses series consists of self-portraits, in which he expressed his emotions in writing. Over the past few years, self-photographs have been a means for people from all walks of life to express themselves and reveal their individuality. By dividing his emotions into different areas and putting them in writing in his self-portraits, Koh expresses the invisible emotions to share with the audience so that they can have the experience of becoming one with the artist. With their reversed colors, Better Man and Walk With Me are inside-out expressions of the inner state and values of the artist lying deep in his heart. Koh did a double major in photography and performance art at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Perhaps this background explains why he carries out performance art in which he paints colors, writes texts on his face and poses for his self-portraits, and at the same time captures the moments with his photos, allowing him to recreate his self-portrait into a composite medium of art.

At first sight, the intensity of Koh Sangwoo's blue color catches the spectator's eyes and stimulates curiosity. The closer we look into the work, however, the more we feel the blue is neither intense nor cold. Rather, it comes to us as a magically warm color that takes us to the inner stories we have not seen yet.

通常人们对目所能及事物的内在本身，即目所不能及的事物抱有幻想与好奇。地平线的另一端是什么样子？那扇紧闭的门后面会是怎样的存在？高尚佑的作品通过我们目所不能及的内在蓝色世界，将我们带入另一个未曾见过（unseen）的领域。

在高尚佑的作品中，人体是蓝色的。相比之下，我们常说的“皮肤色”都略逊一筹。有着蓝色皮肤的人与其它道具融合在一起，打造出如同电影或是梦境般的情景。高尚佑是一名擅长对色彩进行“反转”的艺术家。在他的作品中，包括蓝色在内的各种色彩，都是在显影过程中利用颜色的反转而形成的。作品中蓝色的肌肤与红、黄、紫形成鲜明的对比，使蓝色显得更加强烈，带给人们一种超越现实之感。而对于习惯通过肉眼或者画面所看到的表面现象来认知事物的我们，在艺术家利用色彩反转技巧而创作的作品中，能够看到与表面相反的另一面，并探知其内部世界。

高尚佑的作品中蕴含了女性的各种情感与美。作品中的女人紧闭双眼，面带淡淡的微笑，好像沉睡在梦中。女人周围所环绕飞舞的蝴蝶和漫天的花朵，将梦想和爱情以及心中的热情表现得淋漓尽致。沉醉在花海里，交错的双手羞涩的贴近脸旁，双眼紧闭所呈现出的是女人坠入爱河后陶醉的神情。手中娇羞地捧着玫瑰花束，用手向后捋动发丝所呈现的是对即将开始的爱情的憧憬与悸动，让站在作品前的观众也不禁为之动容。在怀抱婴儿的母亲这一作品中，使人深切地感受到母亲对孩子的爱和责任。作者对其作品中的每一个人物形象和故事都进行了探知分析，并将其转译到创作中来，通过作品给读者带来叙事和真情流露之感。

高尚佑在其《Boundaries of Senses》自画像系列作品中，将艺术家自身体会到的情感充分地表现出来。近年来，自拍不仅深受年轻一代所喜爱，而且逐渐成为不同年龄层展现自我、表达个性的途径。高尚佑在自画像中将自己的感受用文字表现，与读者们分享自己的情感，使观赏作品的所有观众拥有一种身临其境、并与艺术家融为一体的感受。《Better Man》和《Walk with Me》通过色彩反转，将艺术家内心深处的心理状态和价值观充分体现出来。高尚佑在芝加哥艺术学院取得了摄影和表演艺术专业双学位。这样的学习经历，让艺术家成为在自己脸上涂色、写字、摆造型等表演的主体。同时，他还用相机捕捉了这些瞬间，将他本人的自画像重塑为一种复合艺术媒介。

高尚佑作品中强烈的蓝色，能够瞬间抓住观众们的视线，激发人们的好奇心。随着观众慢慢地深入到作品之中，蓝色也变得不那么强烈和冰冷。它犹如魔法一般变成一股温暖色调，引领我们进入未曾见过的内在世界。