To Lim Young-Kyun, the use of digital image is not a violation of agreement on the front view of a portrait photo but only an expanded opinion on the various changes of what he has always done for the portrait photo. He is interested in neither the traditional portraits nor the photography that blurs the differences of what is the question of the public, the private or the individual, what suggests a group or a nation, what should be the priority and what is the distance made by emotional satisfaction. The paradox of distance in connection with Lim’s portraits is an important notional achievement, and it is within the area of post-modern photography. His work clarifies a certain cultural standard with the abstract tone of black and white which is comparable with the temptation of color images. Lim’s intention is not to tempt but give an image to the career of portraits. He intends to establish a concept on portraits which are facing a crisis between subjective perception and objective expression.
In Face of Time (2000), Lim shows a woman at first, and then one who is videotaped in black and white. He manipulates tapes so that there can be beginning and end functions. We see her by dividing her rather than keeping on watching an object. Therefore, her movement and the speech of silence remind us of epilepsy, stammering, physical cooperation and lack of adjustment. The function of arbitrating with the camera even has its own view about observing a male speaker. In both cases, there is a confused and an uncomfortable meaning in looking at the two young men acting in connection with the camera lens. Lim’s point is that the manipulation of time through the camera’s arbitrated function plays an important part in manipulating reality. In this way, it implies the role of media that distorts information coming through dramatic political implication and form in affecting the agreement of belief.
(From Young Kyun Lim : The Ambiguous Portrait by Robert C. Morgan)
Face of Time, 2000. video projection. 350 × 230 × 360 cm. Courtesy of the artist
