Sociology of family, its taste and interest

Choi Bonglim (critic)

Family is a tied-by-blood biological community and a social group sharing similar characters acquired by living in the same environment and taking in the same food. It shows similarity uncomparable to any other group as it is connected by love and blood, with joint interest in almost all matters. The love of family created by physical union and blood-ties is part of the instinctive domain related to preservation and expansion of self. Thus family is considered a basic and spontaneous social unit. Direct, lasting solidarity of family members and sentiment of family's fundamental love were the starting point of Lee Sunmin's 'Twins' project. Physical similarity observed from mother and daughter, or father and son, and their resemblance of acquired characters coming from the same living environment, the emotion of being united derived from such proximity were all that triggered 'Twins'. The artist speaks. “I wished to load the bicycle onto the car, camp and make bonfire in the snowy mountain with my child, and together gaze upon the night sky dotted with countless stars. That is how the Twins project began.”

Yet the sociological intellect of the artist was unsatisfied with mere representation of the family, only revealing the blood intimacy. Wife of a man and mother to her children, Lee Sunmin dreamt of fundamental love and instinctual attachment between parents and children romantically coming together at a beautiful natural environment, but she was captivated by sociology of taste and interest shared by the family. 'Twins' certainly presents natural homogeneity such as physical resemblance of family members as well as bondage of love. Still, through impartial camera work, delicate adjustment of the pose, and even giving advises on selection of clothes the artist stresses mother and daughter, father and son are artificial twins. Photo-psychologist Shin Sujin has already pointed it out before. “Similarity of all the devices surrounding the casts of the photograph are careful selection following the artist's intention to make them look as postnatal twins.” In the end, the desire to represent housewife Lee Sunmin's love of family was mostly suppressed by artist Lee Sunmin's sociological insight. This suppression has decisively contributed to the originality of 'Twins' and gave birth to a sociology of family on taste and interest.

For this sociology of family on taste and interest, the artist has staged a condition with effective defamiliarization. Rather than hiding the artificial process of taking a family photo with model's 'natural' posture, the artist somewhat destructs the naturalness and intimacy of the pose and brings forward the artificiality. Models stare at front with almost blank faces. They either stage a typical posture of the hobby, dressed in a typical outfit at a typical location, or unclose their living spaces and their typical clothes revealing their aesthetic taste. They stop their daily gestures and daily activities and only act the archetype of their taste and interest. Because of this archetype where mundane and miscellaneous daily life are eliminated the viewers feel isolated from the models' taste and interest. In this space of unfamiliar taste and interest, the viewers recognize not only the physical genetic trait existing among parents and children, but also the homogeneity of taste and interest from the delicately created photographic frame. Thus this acquired traits are sociologically studied in relation to the current status of Korean society. The artist's neutral and objective view through the lens results in synchronic search for sociological characteristics regarding passing down of taste and interest. Due to 'defamiliarization' intended by the artist, the viewers can prevent themselves from becoming assimilated with their interest and taste, maintain an objective distance and deduct sociological significance of taste and interest.

In fact passing down of taste and interest is a type of cultural coercion caused by order of rank in the family and economic and symbolic power of the parents. Humans are not satisfied with solely reproducing their physical looks. They wish to go beyond the physical resemblance and demand their children to take after the parent's taste and interest, and inherit social status. To borrow her words, it is aspiring the children to become his or her 'another self'. Furthermore, they hope that their children will not only inherit his or her present life, but also to accomplish the dream and desire unmet. They wish to see the 'self' jump further and fly higher from the point they have reached. They hope this 'other self' will complete the incomplete I.

More than anything it is the economic asset that makes human being instigate his or her children replicate or renew his or her own social status, and stimulate them to succeed suitable hobby and aesthetic taste. Yet the artist has minimized the role economic asset plays on formation of interest and taste. Captions of 'Twins' do not specify location of their residence that may provide hints on their vocation or economic status which in turn are linked to the social status of the models. Instead only names of the models are written on them. The artist had clearly wanted to regard aesthetic taste and hobby interest as an act of love among family members. Despite so, she has made full use of objectiveness and concreteness of the photography media and showed sociology of family on interest and taste related to economic asset and symbolic authority better than any sociologist can.

'Twins' somewhat betrays Lee Sunmin's intention to regard hobby and interest as an expression on pure love of family, voluntary and free choice of individuals, then expose them through a photographic language proving they are a result of economic condition of the household and symbolic authority of the parent. The artist always mobilizes strict camera work and detailed lighting technic and vividly discloses the sociological meaning hidden behind taste and interest.