Nature Boy (Oh Brother), 2018 [Link]
Single channel video.
5’00”
The “Oh Brother Series” consists of artworks that center around a virtual space inspired by the traditional Korean landscape painting titled “Sun and Moon and Five Peaks.” This painting, historically positioned behind the king to represent his sovereign authority, serves as the foundation for a virtual world that the artworks bring to life. However, inside this virtual space, the characters that inhabit it are not autonomous beings with sovereignty, but rather partial subjects or objects devoid of agency.
One such character, the “Nature Boy,” perpetually strives to annihilate his own subjecthood by camouflaging to become one with the environment. This act of camouflage resonates with Lacan’s notion of mimicry, where the subject adopts the guise of the Other, thereby losing distinctiveness. According to Lacan, mimicry is not merely a physical act but a psychological one, reflecting the subject’s desire to dissolve the boundaries between self and environment, effectively disappearing into the surroundings.
The series as a them reflects on the nature of identity, subjectivity, and complexly intertwined power dynamics involved in claiming sovereign agency.
