Something is constantly changing the shape of the moon, and clouds are actually floating bundles of wool in the sky. Readers, have you ever imagined such ridiculous, impossible products of the imagination? Almost everyone has experienced examples like these in their dreams or in quiet moments in their daily lives. There is a unique Swedish modern artist who transforms such impossible ideas that anyone can have into possible sceneries in his photographs with his own delicate convertion technique. His name is Erik Johansson, and he is a photographer and a retouching expert who was born in 1985 in Gothenburg, Sweden. He expresses his imaginary world by changing it into dreamlike artworks. His works will be exhibited at the Hangaram Art Museum in the Seoul Arts Center for the first time in Asia until September 15. The Pharos went to this special exhibition sponsored by the Swedish Embassy in South Korea.

  On entering the exhibition, Erik Johansson’s brief introduction and the following impactful phrase welcome people. “The only thing that limits us is our imagination.” He says he wanted to show people with great imagination that he could create something. In fact, the works are composed of photos and computer images that are so vivid that they make people wonder what is a picture and what is synthesis. Also, if you appreciate the work while holding in mind the concept referred to in the title, you may be surprised about the infinity of imagination and the extent of the artist’s genius. That's why people have a lot of admiration when they see each piece of work. An example of, this is Cumulus & Thunder , clouds made from shaving off wool and sending it up. Everyone must have thought of clouds as lumps of wool or cotton candy when they were young. However, Erik never stopped imagining this scene and made it into a work of art. He edited a photo of grassland with a background of blue sky and included an image of a sheep and shearer to make it look like the wool of the sheep was becoming a real cloud. The next piece that was shocking was Set Them Free . An image that appears to send the ships in the picture frame to a real sea seems to free the ships from the frame, as can be inferred from the title of the work.

  Once you throw a stone in a stream, its wavelength spread out. Erik began to doubt and imagine things that are so natural for people. His interest in all the things that people typically think nothing about stimulated his imagination one after another. He looked at the shapes and colors of the moon every night and imagined that someone was constantly changing the moon. This resulted in Full Moon Service . It was refreshing to imagine taking the moon and changing it into a different one every day. Futhermore, in Daybreaker, the change of day into night is seen as a change of day and night in person at a particular time. It is not exceptional for most people that night comes when the sun goes down, and after night ends the sun rises, but for Erik it was. His fascination with obvious things and the idea of a man changing day into night manually shocked people.

  In addition to the preceding memorable works, there are artworks that seemed to contain many meanings as well. There is a huge clock on an ocean with harsh waves, and a man standing on the minute hand pointing to the space between 3 and 4. It seems that a wave might swallow the man at anytime. The title of this work is Lifetime . It seems to mean that this man might die soon. And Go Your Own Road shows a man going his own way by pulling a road. This makes us think that he can go in any direction he wants to go, and metaphorically the image represents his own foot-steps.

  While viewing the artworks, we kept wondering how he could have even imagined things like that. The most surprising thing was the imagination of the artist compared with other features like his photographing skills or the artwork itself. It was impressive that the subject would have been ordinary parts of daily life to most people, but to Erik they were exceptional, and they became an actualized product of the imagination in his hands. It was also a unique fact that we found a combination of art and technology in this exhibition, unlike the many typical exhibitions that consists of only photographs. If you are bored with run-of-the mill exhibitions or want to be shocked or get inspired by creative works, the Pharos recommends you go there for a real experience.

Management Editor CHOI SOYEON clara3003@naver.com
73rd Cub Reporter KIM YOONSEONG bosoonge00@gmail.com