In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth[1]
 
 
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)
 
When he created his world in the beginning, he made 8 artworks with his own hands. And he started to tell stories through these works. In the imaginary world that he created, the lowliness and nobleness of everyday life coexist like Heaven and Hell, and men struggle with their own desires that soar endlessly to the sky like the Tower of Babel and continue to multiply themselves while making a constant demand for the blood of Isaac. And this is directly transposed into the reality on which we are standing.
 
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Sprit of his was hovering over the waters. And he said, "Let there be a story," and there was a story. He saw that the story was good. (1:2-4)
 
His studio was manifesting the formless and empty state of the earth. The arms of several excavators were digging the earth making roaring sounds to build a new town that rose high like the Tower of Babel. 바벨탑and 바이러스embody the desires and abnormal fevers of men. Dream Ship 3호is his version of Genesis: in the work, he realizes into a work of spatial art by using cinematic elements an imaginary story in which those who have been estranged from indiscriminate development plans and social wealth set sail in the search for utopia. This work consists mainly of a gray ship with three prows whose name is ‘3,’ which is regarded as the number symbolic of completeness, a boy with three eyes and a mother whale carrying her harpooned calf on her back. They seem to be separate pieces, but they are connected to one another so as to complete a story like three vertexes of a triangle. He visually narrates his story with sculptural works for which he used the method of F.R.P. and real cement to represent the ashen desolateness of a city. This was unfolded in three sequences in the gallery.[2]He weaves and stitches up the texts and visual embodiments very smoothly as if rowing a boat on the calm surface of the water. Another interesting aspect is that this story is not yet completed. According to him, he is thinking about an on-line project in which he will reenact various situations that occurred to the characters in the ship with the help of viewers, and this gives rise to an interactive structure that attaches importance to mutual communication. This artistic intention of Lim to create an open art world through diverse apparatuses for communication is connected to his artistic aspiration that many people take interest in art and thus art can help them to understand each other by calling forth certain responses in their minds.        
 
He formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (2:7)
 
He created a disparate being of a ‘camel’ whose birth is caused by a shameful affair. The camel has three eyes and a hunched back. In his works, the camel and the whale are important elements. The third eye of the camel generates a strong feeling in one’s mind by breaking the perfect symmetry of the camel. The camel child, in which the signifier and the signified are blended, is also a being who is looking with the third eye at the fervent passion of the vast desert at which a camel looked. The life force of this boy lies in his third eye of wisdom, but at the same time the third eye is what makes him to be shunned in a closed society. This has certain similarity to the tragedy that has been constantly repeated in the history of Korea which resembles a huge island pinioned after the tragic war having been divided into South and North. Like the harpooned whale, they will be whirling in history and society. The captured whale, which is to be interpreted as damaged nature or damaged truth, performs the part of a being that terrify people. Those beings that cannot be understood or conquered make one tremble with fear. And fear rationalizes brutal collective egoism and makes human beings to degrade themselves to beasts. Yet the eyes of the two beings that are slaughtered are surprisingly tranquil and clear. Those eyes created by his delicate hands attest to the fact that these beings neither affirm nor negate life. They are nature that exists as it is and is reality as it is.
 
               I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. (9:13)
 
Yet his ship is as beautiful as a flower. When one takes a look at the miniature and sketch through which one can take a bird’s-eye view of Dream Ship, he or she realizes it is as adorable as a tiny petal. Although the completeness of the number 3 is imprisoned in the reality that cannot be changed, the beauty of completeness is also a truth that cannot be denied. Desires multiply like viruses, but his 바이러스looks like a star flitting around in the universe, and this is because of the rainbow in his mind. Although we are in pain having been locked up in the island of a certain Dream Ship, we can have the passion of the remote desert and the hope initiated by the ark. We can talk about the ardent passion and dreams of going on a voyage once again. This is what Lim Seung Chun wants to see it happen in our society.
 
By Kang Soojung / Senior curator of NMCA