I stood on the canvas when I was performing. That process is a kind of making a painting. And continuously, painted the black and white paint on my body, and used mirror effect to show my ideas as duality and dichotomy when I edited. In a simply saying, wanted to show the chaos, confusion between two contradictory concepts which are good and evil. I looked at something can be used my work. Such are Prometheus, Jesus Christ, and Guy Fawkes. I thought they are the symbol of resistance, surely, they are a bit different and have different stories, but they are revolutionists, I think. And, I mixed these symbolic images into the video work.
References
Square – In Hun Choi,
P. 97 (Korean novel)
‘They were like a twins’ picture.’
Christianity
|
Stalinism
|
1.
Eden era
2.
Corruption
3.
Humanity in the midst of sin
4.
The history of many nations in the Old Testament period
5.
Manifestation of Jesus Christ
6.
Cross
7.
Penance
8.
Pope
9.
Vatican
10.
Millennial Kingdom
|
1.
Primitive communist society
2.
The occurrence of private property system
3.
Humanity in the class-divided society
4.
The history of the slave • feudal • capitalist society
5.
Manifestation of Karl Marx
6.
Hammer and sickle
7.
Self-criticism system
8.
Stalin
9.
Kremlin
10.
Civilized communism
|
V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta is a 2006 dystopian thriller film
directed by James McTeigue and
produced by Joel Silver and the Wachowski
brothers, who also wrote the screenplay. It is an adaptation of
the V for Vendetta
comic book by Alan Moore and David
Lloyd. Set in London in a
near-future dystopian society, Natalie
Portman stars as Evey, a working-class girl who must determine
if her hero has become the very menace he is fighting against. Hugo
Weaving plays V—a bold, charismatic freedom fighter driven to
exact revenge on those who disfigured him. Stephen Rea portrays
the detective leading a desperate quest to capture V before he ignites a
revolution.
The film had been
seen by many political groups as an allegory of oppression by government; libertarians and anarchists have used
it to promote their beliefs. Activists belonging to the group Anonymous use the
same Guy Fawkes mask
popularized by the film when they appear in public at numerous high-profile
events, emulating one of its key scenes. These masks have been seen at Occupy
movement events. Famous artist David Lloyd is quoted saying:
"The Guy Fawkes mask has now become a common brand and a convenient
placard to use in protest against tyranny – and I'm happy with people using it,
it seems quite unique, an icon of popular culture being used this way."
Dystopia
A
dystopia is the idea of a
society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian. Examples
of dystopias are characterized in books such as Brave New World, Nineteen Eighty-Four, and The Handmaid's Tale. The Iron Heel was described by Erich
Fromm as "the earliest of the modern Dystopian. Dystopian
societies feature different kinds of repressive social control systems, and
various forms of active and passive coercion. Ideas and works about dystopian
societies often explore the concept of humans abusing technology and humans
individually and collectively coping, or not being able to properly cope with
technology that has progressed far more rapidly than humanity's spiritual
evolution. Dystopian societies are often imagined as police states, with
unlimited power over the citizens. The word derives from Ancient
Greek: δυσ-, "bad, hard", and Ancient
Greek: τόπος, "place, landscape. It can
alternatively be called cacotopia,
or anti-utopia. (from
wiki)
Prometheus and Christ
I
found that many characters in Greek literature are often paralleled in
Christianity. One of the most noticeable, yet under-acknowledged characters is
Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to man and who also
gave man hope. Prometheus has many similarities to Jesus Christ, the Son of
God. It is my belief that Prometheus, like many of the other gods, has
characteristics which were used in the origination of God and Christ.
Prometheus and Christ
(From Thomas Merton's "Raids on the Unspeakable")
The
small gods men have made for themselves are jealous fathers, only a little
greater than their sons, only a little stronger, only a little wiser. Immortal
fathers, afraid of their mortal children, they are unjustly protected by a too
fortunate immortality. To fight with them requires at once heroism and despair.
The man who does not know the Living God is condemned by his own gods, to this
despair: because, knowing that he has made his own gods, he cannot help hoping
that he will be able to overthrow them. Alas, he realizes too late that he has
made them immortal. They must eventually devour him.
The Promethean instinct is as deep as man’s weakness: that is to say, it is
almost infinite. Promethean despair is the cry that rises out of the abyss of
man’s nothingness—the inarticulate terror man cannot face, the terror of having
to be someone, of having to be himself.
The fire Prometheus thought he had to steal from the gods is his own identity
in God, the affirmation and vindication of his own being as a sanctified creature
in the image of God. The fire Prometheus had to steal was his own spiritual
freedom. In his own eyes therefore, to be himself was to be guilty. Guilt was
the precious gift of the false gods to him.
Not knowing that fire was his for the asking, a gift of the true God, the
Living God, not knowing that fire was something God did not need for Himself
(since he had made it expressly for man), Prometheus felt he was obliged to
steal what he could not do without. Why? Because he knew no god that would be
willing to give it to him for nothing. He could conceive of no such god.
No one was ever less like Prometheus than Christ on his cross. For Prometheus
thought he had to ascend into heaven to steal what God had already decreed to
give him. But Christ, who had in Himself all the riches of God and all the
poverty of Prometheus, came down with the fire Prometheus needed, hidden in His
Heart. And He had Himself put to death in order to show him that in reality God
cannot seek to keep anything good to Himself alone.
Far from killing the man who seeks the divine fire, the Living God will Himself
pass through death in order that man may have what is destined for Him. If
Christ has died and risen from the dead for us, why do we continue to see
ourselves defeated and in despair? Because we think our life is important to
ourselves alone, and do not know that our life is more important to the Living
God than it is to our own selves.
Because we think our happiness is for ourselves alone, and do not realize that
is also His happiness. Because we think our sorrows are for ourselves alone,
and do not believe that they are much more than that: they are His sorrows. There
is nothing we can steal from God at all, because before we even think of
stealing it, it has already been given.
All copyrights reserved by Seokkyu Kim
