Korean photographer Bae Bien-U returns to his roots at Axel Vervoordt Gallery Hong Kong from May 19 to July 16 in “PART:MEET,” a show devoted to photographs of the artist’s beloved pine trees.“PART:MEET” features haunting black-and-white images shot at a pine forest near Gyeongju, South Korea, that Bae has been photographing for three decades. Bae has called this forest his “sacred wood,” a phrase chosen for the title of a 2009 book collection of his work.A press release from Axel Vervoordt describes Bae’s photographs as “openings” that invite the viewer “to step into them, wander through the forest and encounter the equilibrium of nature in boundless transformation.”Like Bae’s early pine forest photographs, the images on display at Axel Vervoordt were shot on six-inch square-format film. The use of this type of film represents a return for Bae, who had moved away from square format and toward panoramic film.The gallery explains the artist’s choice to use square-format film as inspired by the deeper meaning of its dimensions, which are in a ratio of 1:1. This ratio “symbolizes a mystic experience, an opening in life to holiness,” the gallery says. “In many different cultures this ratio is a symbol of (en)light(ment).”Bae has twice shown at Axel Vervoordt’s branch in Antwerp. “PART:MEET” is his first show at the gallery’s Hong Kong space.“Bae Bien U: PART:MEET” runs May 19-July 16 at Axel Vervoordt Gallery in Hong Kong.
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