Writer’s Note

In the global era, contemporary art expression methods are diverse, and contemporary art genres have become more diversified as well. We live in the age of ambiguous art and culture, which makes us even ask ‘Is this really art?’ In other words, the times when painting belongs to a certain genre only are already gone, and we can’t deny that we are in the era of rapid change. Creative activities are not just artists’ turf anymore. Instead, they have become more popular. In terms of this kind of contemporary meaning, regional art or culture would draw more attention under formative art languages which transcend the time and space, beyond a gap between the East and the West. That’s why it is time to contemplate how regional specialties or cultural values should be preserved in the trends of these changes. In these diverse cultural flows, the continued focus on Jeju fascinated by its natural beauty developed into ‘Space beyond Just Space – Fairyland of Tamna,’ which looks like ‘me’ doing creative work here in Jeju, away from my hometown. My artworks stem from unique and eccentric experiences which cover both reality and unrealistic virtual space even based on nature. In my art world, the common nature of Jeju is recreated in my spiritual world through unreal and surreal worlds and personal expressions. In other words, I am trying to describe another aspect of Jeju so-called ‘Space beyond Just Space.’ The stories of these artworks tell us that Utopia is here, and my creative activities here in Jeju where I live with the stones, wind and sea around are the answer. A human life is always common and realistic, but creation exists in search for an organic relationship between reality and surrealistic world, beyond common sense. In a new space, therefore, I am always looking for a harmony with my own formative language, freely crossing the past and present. If these energy sources are the value criteria which exist as ‘art,’ they might be the most intrinsic element in my art world. My artworks based on these energy sources are a process of expressing the images which are intuitively obtained from the beautiful and unique scenes of Jeju in a personal manner. In addition, it is a way to reach another world expressed from liberal emotion, ‘Space beyond Just Space – Fairyland of Tamna.’ Then, I am about to freely swim in this private world where I set the time and space. I approached Jeju like this. Even though I have to use new materials and adopt a modern expression technique, I am still engage in creative activities with the traditional emotions of Korean painting. In the past, I stuck to brush and ink only because I really loved the effects of ink when these elements were expressed through painting. In contrast, my present works created using diverse experimental materials and modern expression techniques are born in a new world with visual features. My paintings which mix the features of Jeju and fairyland try to tell that we need to purify and heal our mind and spiritual world with cultural emotions by taking off the heavy burden that emotionally barren modern people carry on their shoulders for a moment. To be honest, I am not sure how much these thoughts and art activities would be accepted through art language. Even so, evolution would continue for new possibility and another space of Jeju, and I would still be here as an indigenous writer completely assimilated to Jeju culture, not just a stranger. 

                                                                       

March 12, 2014

Seodam Choi Hyeong-yang