Installation artist muses on art rooted in nature through interactive ‘Dancing Garden’

The layered themes of nature, humanity and technology have come together in harmony in installation artist Shim Young-churl’s interactive celebratory garden.

“Dancing Garden,” mounted as the artist’s 52nd solo exhibition at Sun Gallery in central Seoul, is the latest iteration of her garden-themed series, followed by “Electronic Garden” in 1993, “Monumental Garden” in 2002, “Secret Garden” in 2009, “Matrix Garden” in 2010 and “Blissful Garden” in 2014.

What connects all of these projects is flowers, an aesthetic component that is both a sign of nature and a symbol of vitality. And in “Dancing Garden,” the cherry blossom has risen to be her main sculptural language.

“To me, the cherry blossom is an element that boasts splendid beauty, while reminding us of the greatness of life at the same time,” Shim, who also serves as a professor of arts and sculpture at the University of Suwon in Gyeonggi Province, told The Korea Times in a recent email interview.

“My latest show attempts to portray the complex emotions that I felt in the past when I watched these flowers flutter in the wind.”

Accordingly, the exhibition, which spans the four stories of Sun Gallery, begins with the room “Flower-Rain Garden” on the first floor.

Here, the dreamlike images of cherry blossoms falling like rain are projected onto the walls in all directions. Together with flowers made from mother-of-pearl hanging from the ceiling and the mirrored floor in the shape of blossoms, the interactive space immerses the audience in the floral garden of infinity.

As the viewers travel upward, they continue to encounter rooms musing on the relationship between nature and humans in varied ways.

“Soil Garden” reinterprets Korea’s artistic tradition, which has been inspired by Mother Nature via two eye-catching installations.

A 10-meter-wide canvas relief painting, “Shadow Sansu,” puts a spin on the country’s traditional ink-and-wash landscape paintings by incorporating the shadows of multiple stainless steel balls in lieu of a brush. At the center of the room stands “Ceramics of Light,” which takes the shape of a 918-1392 Goryeo-era celadon with cherry blossom patterns and produces a mysterious glow from its body.

The same room also contains a VR archive that offers a comprehensive look into the artist’s oeuvre spanning nearly four decades.

“Water Garden” on the third floor visualizes water as “a sacred source of life,” Shim said. Through three stainless steel flowers positioned like lotuses in a big tank filled with black water, the hall provides a brief moment of meditation.

Toward the end of the show, viewers ascend to the space of “Sky Garden.” Suspended in mid-air, as if descending from heaven, is the stainless steel sculpture of a couple embracing and kissing each other.

Reminiscent of Adam and Eve from the Bible or the East Asian folktale of the Cowherd (Gyeonu) and Weaver Girl (Jiknyeo), the piece ponders the meanings of human love against the much larger, celestial context.

“Dancing Garden” runs from March 31 to April 29 at Sun Gallery.