ARTIST STATEMENT
As a child, I grew up in a remote forest. With no playgrounds or peers around, observing and imagining became my greatest pleasures. Our house was what you might call the 'main family house,' where we performed ancestral rites twelve times a year. We raised several deer, and on days when we cut their antlers, we would invite all the villagers for a feast and share their blood. On weekends, we often went to church to sing hymns. These diverse ritual elements, transcending both Eastern and Western traditions, have greatly influenced my work.
Experiences can be reconstructed. If life is a script, it means we can arrive at different endings ourselves. I introduce the concept of 'role-playing' to reconstruct experiences and present a methodology that transcends existing life patterns and frameworks. This approach, which assigns hypothetical situations to view given circumstances differently and discovers surprising possibilities in the process, reminds one of the collective drama therapy 'Psychodrama.' Each narrative is structured in theatrical 'Acts,' connecting overall into a trilogy.
In "The Funeral of the Deceased" (2018, Art Space TTANGSOK) and "The 49 Days Memorial Rite of the Deceased" (2018, space xx), I followed Korean traditional funeral formats, while "Dixit Dominus Domino Meo – Domino, A Game of Worshippers" (2020, 0 Gallery) drew inspiration from old Catholic hymns and the origins of the domino game. Although I worked with oil paintings throughout my undergraduate years, during this period I didn't limit myself to specific media or forms as I wanted rather direct and dramatic expressions focusing on personal experiences. I created pencil drawings, embroidered on fabric, produced works in the form of folding screens, and made small three-dimensional sculptures using resin.
Another prominent feature of my previous work was attempting active relationship-building with the audience. For instance, I would burn incense directly in the artwork or allow viewers to illuminate pieces one by one using flashlights. Just as in psychodrama where not only the protagonist but also the director, auxiliary egos, stage, and audience interact together, I wanted the viewers to become part of the exhibition. Through these multilayered experiences, I aimed to create opportunities to actively question and answer about the superstitions of 'victim-like behavior' and secondary victimization existing in our society. The healing, solidarity, and sense of efficacy as an artist that I experienced then continue to serve as the greatest purpose and driving force in my work.
'The Birth of a Hyperdense Neutron Star,' which originated from a chance encounter with a star sharing a similar history to mine, holds great significance in that it moves beyond autobiographical narrative into another narrative. The virtual death experienced through art became rather an opportunity to move toward a new life. To deny the universal order that proceeds in a single direction, I constructed screens with ambiguous directions or divided compositions. The image of Ouroboros, a snake that continues to be born by consuming its own body, signifies reincarnation itself. Using oil paint along with graphite rubbed with brushes, I aimed to create a primitive atmosphere reminiscent of ancient illustrations or cave paintings. By layering bright colors in between brush strokes to create a surface that looks as if painted on soil, the characteristic grayish-brown background further emphasizes this effect.
As Walter Benjamin (1892) pointed out in his essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1936), although modern art has lost its cult value by being liberated from religion, I wanted to reclaim the classical and powerful force of 'images.' I recalled past images that protected us from unpredictable situations or fearsome subjects. Only when we become free from negative events or failures encountered in life can we create our own myths. By inheriting the function of mythology that has driven humanity's teachings and behavioral changes throughout its long history, I explore our uniqueness.