Change from a dot

Looking deeper into nature 

For the past 10 years, I have concentrated of the expression of reality by the older generation from the perspective of innocent child. The amusement of children satire the universal desire of human to become richer. And the automobile series symbolizing the modern civilization was set against the super-natural background. In the children at driver’s seat, I tried to talk about the break-away from routine days of modern people through travel. 

The prototype of innocence reflects nature. So the innocence of children and nature were equated in my point of view. My curiosity towards an ideal paradise and primeval forest was satisfied by my trip to the South East Asian region. I painted many tropical plants such as alocasia, bird of paradise, and pakira on my canvas. 

I started a new project recently. 

Starting from my fantasy about flowers which stand at the peak of nature, I experienced significant technical changes in this work. My greatest concern in doing works by borrowing the pop-art style has been the lack of texture expression. As I have done both oil painting and acrylic work in parallel, I have mixed many different materials together to overcome the cool and dull texture and feel of the acrylic materials. Instead of much familiar horizontal brush strokes, I kept spraying and dotting colors. Then finally my efforts resulted in my own unique dot painting style. 

Due to this change in painting style, my canvases were put down onto the floor from easel. And my hands and body became busier. Still, the work required more time. As the texture issue that had been uncared for in my works began to be improved gradually. 

Just as individual dots gather together to form a whole form, computers also gather several tens of thousands of dots to form an image. Geroges-Pierre Seurat, a major new-impressionism painter, left only 7 works of pointillism throughout his life. Pointillism is said to require that much concentration and time. Neo-impressionist painters agreed with the argument that, if we separate similar colors or complementary colors from each other and juxtapose them together, the colors look integrated visually for viewers to recognize clear colors. And they applied the scientific theory to their paintings. 

From the viewpoint of today, this traditional technique based on scientific theory in the latter part of the 1800s is a modern technique and expression method. It doesn’t mean that the past and present are not mutually different entities but connected together within a single framework to exist as the same entity. 

Many artists have long preferred the theme of flower. 

The reason may be that flowers are the symbol of natural beauty. For normal people, flowers are the messenger of love and object of praise. Iris means ‘rainbow woman’ and rainbow shapes our yearning and fantasy but fickleness sometimes that disappears so soon. Maybe that’s why it also had the language of moodiness. They’re so similar to our lives. 

Iris in June was also painted by the immortal painter, Vincent Van Gogh and Okeeffe who expressed the femininity under the abstract illusionism. 

I chose this iris as the theme of my work because it combines the formative shape and aesthetic factor. And I noted that the flower was an object of mystery associating the source of life. 

If you zoom in the central part of the flower in a laurel wreath shape, there exists an unknown world. Inside the layered petals, viewers would be deluded as of the energy of life is erupted. The multiple colors and graceful forms of many flowers with different names fully captivated me. They were in consistency with the fundamental interests of my work such as humanity and sexuality. 

Just as the language of iris, I hope that ‘good news’ is to be delivered to all. (Atist’s Note)

JOURNEY to NATURE

Having wish to travel freely the world or space far away might be human's dream for a long time. The imagination about flying back and forth between the past and the future with time machine can come true some day. While ironware occupied for thousands years long time ago, now it is known as the speed and global era. As scientific technology is developed, the advanced countries are launching manned spaceships competitively, and it is also expected that human will set foot on the Mars for the first time around 2020. 

The civilization and nature have destiny to coexist as they are the branches came out from one root that cannot be separated. In the primeval forest across the civilization, the ancient organism which has not been extinct yet is still breathing. As various plants are tangled enough to cover the sky, the sunset presents grandeur and beautiful mystery of the ancient times. Rather than the gorgeousness of green color, I imagine the journey to the deep nature which is the repository of vitality. 

The classic car as a symbol of civilization cannot move forward anymore as being blocked by forest. Regardless of this, however, children in driver's seat are showing various facial expressions like laughing, chatting or drowsing. 

They have such free spirits that are not interested in the current emergent situation. They are the ones who drove in the opposite direction and blocked a fire truck in the center of downtown. 

Through main characters of children, I aimed to humorously express the deviation and suppressed desires of the modern people who were accustomed to order and rules in cities. 

As a source of new thrilling energy, ‘journey’ is to look for another myself hidden inside of me. The recent works of automobile series are my story reflected through the symbolic subject of 'journey'. Our lives are also the moment of journey for that every life is disappeared at the end.(Artist's Note)