Yeong-Deok Seo creates these incredible figurative sculptures from industrial or bike chains, welded together tightly. The material seems familiar, but in a mass, it looks more like a writhing body of worms. I really love and admire the industrial chain link ones, but I think the bike chain is a more exciting material. I mean, to use chains as a metaphor for the human condition seems a little blah, but to use bicycle chains? That’s way more interesting when you consider 1bn people a day ride bicycles somewhere - it’s a cheap, common form of transport found all over the world. A bike chain is more than a way of illustrating our trapped souls, it’s also a way of expressing movement, maybe even the desire to escape.
Click through on the image for a link to a large collection of Seo’s work (Korean).
