source: thisiscolossal

Korean sculptor Young-Deok Seo has been busy since first appearing here back in 2011. The artist has continued working almost exclusively with welded chains reclaimed from bicycles and elsewhere. Seo most recently exhibited at SODA Gallery in Istanbul. A statement from that show:

Seo Young Deok’s work aims to reflect the disease-like contamination we experience caused by materials in our society, he hopes to reveal the amount of suffering it places on the modern-day human. To express this, he utilized metal chains to create the modern man. Chains were made by our civilization and created through mass production, yet it is also just one accessory, one part in a massive piece of machinery. He considered each part of the chain a human cell and used the chains to create a human figure. Thus, this being’s form has been created in contamination by materials in our current world.
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source: mz-mznet

صور: فنان كوري يصنع وجوه ضخمة من سلاسل الدراجات الهوائية

الفنان الشاب الكوري “Young-Deok” يتمكن من صناعة وجوه ضخمة مختلفة بإستخدم السلاسل الحديدية للدرجات الهوائية، ويستغرق منه هذا العمل الفني الرائع وقتاً طويلاً من الزمن حتى يشكل هذه الوجوه بطريقة متقنة.
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source: ck101

Young-Deok Seo是一個南韓藝術家，他幾乎只和各種各樣翻新的鏈條打交道。他最近的一件作品「沉思」是一系列巨大的人臉，每一副面孔都是陷入深深的沉思狀態。

我們從最近他在伊斯坦布爾展出上的陳述得知，Seo從事的是再生金屬材料的工作，他為的是「揭露在現代人類的這片土地上的各種苦難…鏈條是由我們的文明和大規模的生產造出來的，到現在它也只是附屬品和大型機器的某個部件。」這個藝術家真正做到了這一點，因為在這個複雜的雕塑上，痛苦的表達是那麼清晰。而當你湊近的時候，當你和它只有一步之遙的時候，你就會看到一個有驚人表現力的人臉表情。你扭頭看別處的那幾秒，彷彿就是你錯過的它眨眼睛的時刻。
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source: youngdeok

TALENTED artist Seo Young Deok put together this huge sculpture using more than a mile of old bicycle chains.

The 7ft 6in head took over a year to build from bought or discarded chains, and cost more than £25,000.

But it is just one of an extraordinary collection that have been welded together by the Korean artist. Others include a human torso which took over two months to complete, and an entire human body, which took twice as long. Deok, who lives in Seoul, South Korea, said he fo nd inspiration for the head sculpture on a construction site. He explained: “When nothing crosses my mind I go out with my camera to a crowded place like a market, subway or bus station.

“The sculpture of the head came from a photograph of a manual labourer working at a construction site.
“The muscle above his upper lip was a great detail and I used it in my work.”

He added: “Inspiration also comes from Buddhist sculptures and paintings which I have admired since I was very young.
“I like Asian beauty. So most features of my work seem to take on an Asiatic pose.

“I try to express an attitude which is humble and enduring. The Asian spirit is bearing and forbearing, overcoming agony as opposed to escaping from it.”

Until now Deok’s work has been bought by private collectors, museums, or art foundations.