The sculpture of Chung Hyun starts from interest in the configuration of a human. From ancient times, the human body has been an important subject matter. In particular, in classical art, the configuration of a human was often treated as a subject implying ideal beauty and was recognizable 'tabloid edition of the universe.' However, the human body expressed by Chung Hyun is starkly different from such traditional sculptures.
The form of his work is rugged, the methods employed intense and sometimes even violent. This 'untamed intensity' is an important factor which adds to the reality not only of the materials but also the existence of humankind. Firstly, the reality of materials is the characteristics discovered in his works where physical attributes of materials, such as plaster, railroad ties and asphalt concrete, are wholly exposed. Plaster works are created by hitting and digging a mass of earth with high plasticity by using the tools such as bars and shovels.
These works hold solid shapes because of such violent processes. Although the form certainly is of a human body or face, it is difficult to find specific shapes from it. By going against the traditional method of delicately depicting and reproducing external forms of the body by using the traditional shoehorn, the artist is escaping from the solidified tradition of reproduction, in other words, the academism. The sculptures of human figures created by using railroad ties, which had been thrown away after long years of supporting heavy trains, or asphalt concrete, the symbol of modern city, are also violent, rough and expressionistic.
The works to display surface textures created by sawing and cutting railroad ties or asphalt concrete with powerful tools of electric saws or grinders are presented with the physical reality of materials extremely accentuated. Through these works, we can experience not only the minimum of human forms, but also the reality of materials themselves. What we must take note of here is the fact that the artist's thought for sculpture, his action to put it into practice and the form as the result of such action are untied together to form a harmonious whole.
The fierceness in his working processes similar to almost violent maltreatment of the materials, however, represents the suggestive characteristic to unite with the materials in certain aspects, rather than aggressive attack towards achieving 'victory' to remove the physical characteristics of the materials. Chung expresses this course of labor as 'playing with materials'. Maybe, it is a type or extension of possession by spirit where the artist's emotions, thoughts and ideologies unite with the vivid properties of materials.
Therefore, the forms created by the artist may well be the totem of an age where god existed. However maltreating he may be to the materials, the artist does not throw away the materials which had been thrown away before. Railroad ties and asphalt concrete stand in their positions as the main elements of his works without their own properties and characteristics destroyed. 'Playing with materials' does not mean he rules over the materials.
It represents the artist's intention to become untied with them. The human forms created by the artist do not let or instruct us to remember specific targets. However, as the emotional sensation stirred up by railroad ties or asphalt concrete is of the accumulated time, the time of endurance over difficulties and the time of silence spent with perseverance to fulfill the individual purposes, etc., we must remember that his human forms represent the reality of being because they let us think about the universal values of human who, although worn out through 'maturation of time', still maintains dignity.