shashasha

In his work, an artist may feel that he has seen the essence of the world. But that is not the essence of the world but merely the essence of his reaction to that essence. – Ernst H. Gombrich

Hein-khun Oh has zoomed in on the feverish anxiety and absurdity of Korean society through portrait photography in previous works Ajumma(1999), Girl’s Act(2005), and Cosmetic Girls(2009). With his latest work Middlemen, he depicts the group mentality of military life as a giant absurdist play. For the artist this viewpoint of being a man stuck in the middle comes with an enormous amount of anxiety. Where does this anxiety come from? As Gombrich says, it is most likely a psychological expression from within.