Hang-Sup Shin (Art Critic)

Time and space have no meaning in artists’ imagination. They try to

create original images which have never existed in the world. But

artists cannot transcend nature at all no matter how creative they

are. It is why all artistic images have been originated from their

archetype of nature. Human life from birth to death is filled with

direct and indirect experiences which have inseparable relation to

nature. In this context, nature means everything unartistical

including human beings.

The sculptures of Na Young Han are also closely bound up with

nature. She has been inspired by nature. She has perceived the

perfect beauty of nature with her artistic sense. She has created

artistic beauty by falling in with natural beauty. Her observation on

nature is not limited to things with concrete forms but to natural

phenomena such as rainbows. She has approached to nature

practically rather than rationally.

The titles of ‘Chat’, ‘Nest’, ‘Woman’s Mind’, ‘Dialogue’, ‘Child’s

Mind’, ‘Love’, ‘Eagle’, ’Direction’, ‘Life’ reveal the artist’s deep

interest in human life and nature. Her sculptures interlink nature and

human beings who have feelings of joy, anger, sadness, and

happiness. Especially, she has been more concerned about

invisible emotions than visible appearances. She has admired

human beings with innate pure hearts as one of natural beauty.

Dynamic living things in nature such as human beings and birds have

caught her eyes. Especially, she has given unusual heed to not

only the natural figures of human beings but also the heartstrings of

human life, which became the themes of her works. Therefore, the

natural figures of human beings with their own feelings and

thoughts answer for form and content of her sculptures at the

same time.
Na Young did not copy human figure as they were. She has made

effort to describe both the external shapes and the internal mind of

human beings living in their daily life. It seems that she emphasized

on the irrational part of human beings rather than their rational one

. It seems that her works craved for warm-hearted gazing rather

cool-headed reasoning. The artist has alleviated people’s tough

emotions with friendly-looking human figurations

She continuously interpreted and reinterpreted the natural figures

of human beings. As a result, she could make new images which

were completely different from the original one. She replaced

concreteness with abstractness. For example, she omitted,

intimated and symbolized the natural figure of a human being. She

simplified it at most by excluding eyes, noses, limbs, etc.

Sometimes her sculptures only with brief lines and bald volume fai

l to remind us the characteristic figures of human beings.

A wider view would help us to more easily find out human figuration

in her abstract works of art. In contrast with her concrete pieces

which simplified the animal objects like birds or hens, the abstract

ones dismantled and then reconstructed the human objects. In this

wake, Han successfully condensed and intensified the natural

beauty of human beings.

In other words, Na Young Han has portrayed the simple and clear

images of human beings with minimum lines and volumes. The

unique shape of a volume produces elegantly-curved lines and

surfaces. In addition, the sculpturer has showed a preference to

the asymmetrical structure. Nonetheless her artistic works have

also acquired a sense of security under tactful balance control. We

can find out different images in the front and in the rear of her

works. They are indeed like sculptures in the round.

Na Young has challenged the stereotyped scheme of human

sculptures. She dexterously and artistically represented two

ges iiman one sculpture. Therefore, the natural figures of

human being in her works ironically looked more like those of seeds

ornsects. Amazingly, these abstract works are not artificial at all

because did not distort the natural beauty. Rather, they

contributed to restoration of natural purity.