Ice photographed by Ethiopian “photo patternist” Bereket Alemayehu / Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu
By Jon Dunbar
A new art exhibition at downtown Seoul’s Eulji Space takes visitors into the winter wonderland inside the mind of Ethiopian “photo patternist” Bereket Alemayehu.
Alemayehu fled his tropical homeland a decade ago and arrived in Korea, where he experienced winter for the first time.
It was not easy at first, and he says nowadays that he doesn’t like winter, but his early encounters with sub-zero weather gave him a whimsical fancy for water freezing into ice. He not only photographed naturally forming ice, but also conducted his own experiments in freezing, creating his own ice forms.
“In my pursuit of a dream of artistic photography, Korea proved to be a turning point in my creative development by providing me with unlimited opportunities to the wonders of its natural beauty,” he said in an artist’s statement. “One of the wonders that captivate my imagination most is the sharp contrasts of the four seasons in the country. For a person like me who has grown up in a tropical country in Africa, the cold in winter and the icy snow covering the ground are a source of awe and a unique experience life has offered in exile.”
He had plenty of time and solitude to explore this subject matter in the winter of 2016-17, while living at a dog sanctuary housed at a closed military facility located in the remote mountain neighborhood of Byeokje-dong in Goyang, northwestern Gyeonggi Province. He stayed there from June 2016 to April 2017, sometimes going up to 10 days without seeing another human being.
“Such an amazing place with the nearby mountains imposing their majestic silence and magnifying the beautiful forest and small streams in the area in contrast with the abandoned army building which were all combined to have provided the constant inspiration to take hundreds of pictures almost every day while being there,” he said. “The winter was a great inspiration to make an experimental photograph focusing on ice, snow and frozen crystals as a way to express inner feelings and natural wonderment. I was lucky to be there in those days, as a firsthand witness to observe, that winter has been playing with light, air, water, trees and earth in varieties!”
Light passes through a piece of ice, as captured by Ethiopian “photo patternist” Bereket Alemayehu. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu
Alemayehu’s photos on display for this upcoming exhibit constitute closeups of ice formations, eschewing perspective realism and taking the viewer into his world, which is both beautiful and harsh.
“Any available object that could hold water gave rise to icy crystals with perplexing shapes and patterns, so I kept taking photos in different contrasts, angles, shades, and light early in the morning, midday and at dusk,” he said.
Ethiopian “photo patternist” Bereket Alemayehu experiments with colored ice forms in Seoul in winter 2022. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu
After his 10 months at the secluded animal shelter ended, he displayed his first solo exhibition, titled “Exile Pattern,” at Haja Center Seoul.
“His work is an alibi that proves that he is brave enough to start the art that he had never done before, even in a remote country,” art critic Shin Hyun-jin wrote in an exhibition review. “In addition, he is a person with a love for human beings to act as a human rights activist. Is it possible to love without equality? Then he may not want to learn the grammars of the existing ruling class to belong to the bottom of their hierarchy … If we add to this the fact that he is ignorant of the way the existing artistic system works, he is in a better position than anyone to create a democratic and coming aesthetic that modernist aesthetics has not achieved.”
“Korea’s winter, which is both abstract and real, is abstracted from ice crystals from the perspective of a man born and raised in tropical Ethiopia,” said art critic Kim Jae-yeon in another review. “Korea’s cold and gloomy winter is ‘exile’ and ‘familiar’ in the pattern of ice crystals by Bereket Alemayehu. Of course, the winter ice that he captures often includes things that are not ice derived from natural contingencies. His ice is also the result of his experiments, but that doesn’t mean it’s not Korean winter. In the narrative of the time of ice in the water, the close-ups of Bereket Alemayehu are stationary, but Korea’s winter is liberated with infinite potential.”
“For Alemayehu, photography is a tool to visualize metonymically the complex and multilayered emotions of living in exile,” Jeehey Kim wrote in the book “Photography and Korea.” “His icicles do not aim to inform viewers about the hardships of his life. Rather, he visualizes the imaginary of Korea that native South Koreans rarely attempt to envision: the banal and the everyday things that engage his attention. Creating sensations peculiar to those who have come from afar to make a new home on the peninsula.”
Ethiopian “photo patternist” Bereket Alemayehu photographs colored ice in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, in the winter of 2017. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu
In the winter of 2017, Alemayehu moved to Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, where he would spend another winter in a place that he could transform into his own personal studio.
“Working at a place that is surrounded by small hills and farmlands, I had amazing moments in such a natural environment, an open field studio,” he said. “It was an extra new environment and opportunity to continue the experiment with a new perspective adding colors to ice objects, and setting my excitement high. As an emerging foreign photo artist who rediscovered solace in photography, I have dreams of working more in creative and experimental art photos with various topics and issues.”
Alemayehu has continued to exhibit his photographic abstract art in various galleries across the country.
Ethiopian “photo patternist” Bereket Alemayehu poses with one of his pieces at the closing party for “The Dreaming Tree” group exhibition in Eulji Space, May 11. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar
“Beredo Tales” will open on May 25 and run until June 8 at The Attic, the top-floor art gallery of Eulji Space in downtown Seoul. An opening party will be held on May 26, featuring a pop-up kitchen that is expected to serve vegan fusion Ethiopian and Korean food.
After experiencing a decade of winters, Alemayehu admits that he has no love for the cold of winter.
“I hate cold weather, and winter is probably a terrifying season of the year,” he said. “However, it never ceases to amaze me as well. The winter months weren’t only filled with extreme cold or gloomy days, but light and colorful touches were around. If you look around, during winter, you can find patterns, unique textures, and quite impressive attractions. That gives a mental warmth!”
Follow @eulji.saga on Instagram for more information about the show.
A poster for Ethiopian “photo patternist” Bereket Alemayehu’s solo exhibition “Beredo-Tales,” running from May 25 to June 8 at Eulji Space / Courtesy of Eulji Saga