Essay - Formal Analysis—asian Art Heart Sutra.' Made in Korea 2001. Yoon...

Formal Analysis—Asian Art

Heart Sutra." Made in Korea 2001. Yoon Kwang-cho.

***** "Heart Sutra" is a modern, 2001 *****n work of *****rt by the artist Yoon Kwang-cho. To ***** naked eye of the casual observer in a museum, the work looks like a rough, oblong stone with an unfinished granite-***** texture. It has writing inscribed on the various sides ***** its four surfaces. The writing is unbalanced, to some degree, as some areas of the surface have more writing than others, and the sizes ***** the characters vary, as does ***** length of the long scrolls of words.

***** a Western eye, th***** sl*****b looks almost like a Rosetta S*****ne, or an ancient artifact from long past that is supposed to encompass the ***** from another time or place ***** mem*****ialize these words in a k*****d of sculpture. ***** ***** appears ripped or extracted from *****thing larger ***** the displayed *****, as if it is an ancient b***** torn from a ruin, rather than a complete and holistic work or vision of an artist. The form of the sculpture, a recreation of an archeological work, suggests that ***** artist wished to suggest that the work w*****, in some sense, ***** ***** ***** past, either figuratively or literally.

***** name ***** the piece, the "Heart *****" recalls something that is of the heart, ***** near and dear to the person manufacturing the artifact. Ho*****ever, the immediate appearance of ***** stone itself is impersonal, flat, and unprepossessing, rather than striking the viewer as something ***** is the accomplishment of an individual artist, or at least a work th***** the artist ***** to render in a dist*****guishing fashion. The work is relatively dra***** in color, and even the engraved words do not jump out at the *****, ***** they are small and difficult to read from the vantage point of a viewer, even one standing close to ***** sculpture. ***** ***** of inscription requires the viewer ***** squint closely to ********** to see the form of the ***** characters, and even if the critic or gazer were fluent in the language of the *****, *****ir meaning would be ***** to easily ascertain without great eff*****t.

Perhaps the meaning of ***** characters is less important than the fact that the creator ***** ***** work consciously chose to commemorate the words of the sutra in stone. The overall effect of the work *****ms to be that of an expression of a community, that to engrave *****se words ***** stone ***** are of importance to the people who created ***** work. Also, there is the possibility that perhaps the words ***** so familiar to mem*****rs of the community that ***** do not need ***** be carefully and obviously inscribed, much like a prayer to an Engl*****h-speaking per*****n, that is ***** on a s*****ne in a church.

***** overall ***** ***** and nature ***** this work *****s that, for ***** community, and the individual ***** who took responsibility to produce the work for the community, intended *****