The Peculiarity of Human Being

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Triptych, pencil lead on paper, 40 x 50 cm

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In the south korean's mountains, a young boy strides across the forests, discovering nature. His road bumps into the one of a fish, a frog and a snake, to whom he ties a rock at the end of a string. Seeing the animal's struggle to move amuses him a lot and his laugh resounds loudly.

 

His master, perched nearby, observes him each time and shakes his head.

 

During night, he ties a rock on the his young pupil's back, who cries and complains about this new weight which burdens him. His master asks him if the fish, the frog and the snake suffered as much as him. The child gives each time a positive answer and his master announces him that he will free him of his weight from the moment he will retrieve every animals he abused and free them of their rocks. He also warns him that, if one of them died before he could rescue them, he will bedoomed to carry this weight for ever inside his heart.

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(stroy taken from the movie Spring, summer, fall, winter... And spring, by Kim Ki-duk).

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Based on this image of a young child who painfully finds out the existential burden of death in the spring of his life, The Peculiarity of Human Being is a triptych developping three ways to comprehend the ontological weight, between crushing, endurance or attempt to lighten it.