ARENA_interview

Q. How have you been since your solo exhibition, ≪Vexations≫? Tell us your some updates.
A. I've been climbing mountains. Though field surveys aren’t going on smoothly with the pandemic and all, I've been materializing my thoughts for my next work as I visited mountains in my neighborhood. I’m in the middle of research, field surveys, and production since I came up with a theme and subject I want to delve into during my solo exhibition last year.

Q. Vexations deals with the sentiments of recollection. Artworks dynamically embody emotions within memories. Why are you interested in memory, and why did you focus on emotions within memories?
A. Memories go with emotions, so they work together. Because I took time to observe a subject over and over for a long time, ephemeral and passing subjects and emotions are intensely drawn to memory. As you can notice from the name of the exhibition, Vexations, the 18-hour, 840-time reiteration of the performance is similar to the way I produce my work.
Though momentary absences and changes are subjects and senses soon to disappear at an unanticipated moment, they become critical hints that modify memory. These elements are what let me predict the time I take part in.

Q. What is a theme, narrative, or issue that you constantly return to in your works (such as memory, emotion, and music); and why do you get to address them?
A. I’m interested in visualizing ephemeral subjects and senses that exist but are doomed to vanish, abruptly—like the silent syllable that is spelled but not pronounced. This interest rooted from my belief that they proceed onto another movement than become extinct or absent forever. As you can see from the previous exhibition titles such as ≪Black Ice≫, ≪White Noise≫, and ≪Sound from a Distant Space≫, I constantly discuss movements that cannot be discerned through one's eyes: the fleeting and changeable.

Q. Emotional changes can be analogous to music. We can feel a sort of rhythm, beat, and melody from your works. To you, what are the relations between emotion and music?
A. I believe that every individual has a language structure formed through their scope of experiences. I get to think of musical symbols and indicators in my workflow, and there are two specific musical indicators that I prioritize: “Andante espressivo” and “assai e con delicatezza.”
Particularly, I spotted “assai e con delicatezza” from the conductor's document of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1—and recall how I traced the facial expressions and knuckles of different conductors. Acoustic memory critically functions on the emotion we feel at a certain site or subject since it is not the sole product of the visual. This owes to the existence of an aural texture like visual textures, and further affects the title of the work to a degree. Though I usually mark the titles in two languages—Korean and English—at times, I choose a certain language when I want to tune the two varying aural textures. For instance, I decided to go with <Una Notte Concava> as a title after contemplating on an apt title to stress the shape of lips pronouncing Korean vowels as well as the touch of a staccato which came to my mind during my workflow.

Q. Colors and techniques are layered in your work like multilayers of memory and emotions. Why did you layer them?
Q. What do you struggle with when you’re working on your method of expression or color selection—such as pointy lines and fluid or kinetic organic matters?
Q. Tell us about your workflow. Do you first organize your ideas and systematically construct your work or do you let your ideas to brew up impulsively?
Q. What’s your standard or intention in selecting the title of your work?
A. I try to find structure within flexibility. I sometimes ponder if spontaneous expressions could form harmony at a certain point of a work's entire frame and then either reveal or erase it. During this course, concepts and principles of other fields such as music and literature or science and math assist my decision-making process. For instance, a work composed of numerous intersecting lines may evoke the melody of a specific music superimposed with the Delaunay triangulation or the Voronoi diagram. Then, I draw lines that correspond to the melody in my head or a certain mathematical theory. But that trace repeatedly reveals itself and soon fades away since my prime objective is not to articulate a mathematical or scientific principle through my painting. This process creates layers in my painting. It takes a substantial amount of time to finish a work due to the persisting nature of this process. Countless hours must be endured. Interestingly, those in natural sciences sometimes tell me that they spot mathematical and scientific principles in my works. They point out how the many overlapping lines may seem free; but actually, their starting and ending point are positioned within a calculated area.
My paintings have marks of wears and scrapes as I utilize tools other than pencils and brushes to express the visual and aural texture of a scene recalled. I also use tools for metalwork such as sharp chisels or kitchen tools such as chestnut knives. That's why I go to art supply stores as well as Euljiro or kitchen supply stores to purchase materials.
I go through a similar process when choosing the title of my work—The title of a song or a literary phrase come up when I look into a subject for a long time. For instance, I was inspired by Charles Edward Ives' song for series <Tone Roads>(2016~2019); and I recalled the last lines of Durante degli Alighieri as I gazed upon the stars from a fortress during a field trip for <Underneath the Stars>(2018, 2019).
“The sun and the many stars were a moving love.” ("L'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle.")

Q. As an artist, what do you expect from the audience? Is there a specific trait of Korean audiences? If so, what is it?
A. As an artist and audience myself, I believe everyone needs to reflect on their sentiments. This activity requires an active kind of energy.

Q. Whether it be domestic or global, which issue are you currently interested in? And how does this interest contribute to your work?
A. I'm looking into the keywords, “critical point” and “paradigm,” out of the high frequency words from domestic and international sources of geology and physics I looked into while preparing for my solo exhibition next year. It was about how the Earth’s environmental condition is going through an unprecedented time of change as it passed its critical point. This was touching on the research and work I did as I walked the lagoon terrain and coastal cliff in the East Sea and the South Sea starting 2016. Through the repetition of long-time erosion, lagoon‘s sea level rose and seawater came into the valley to form a gulf, eventually creating a lake and marsh through the sea’s division. I constantly observed the change and movement of these sites—"boundary points." The work I'll display for this year’s Frieze Seoul, <Shoreline #2>(2017-2018), also applies. Along with that work, I'll present the series <Was in Sorrow in a Soft Air>(2017-2018) which embodies the movement of the sky corresponding to the weather forecast signals during my field survey.
Though attention is focused on Industry 4.0 and virtual reality, we should not forget the ground we are stepping on.

Q. Frieze Seoul will soon open. Do you believe there is a global interest in Korean artists and works?
A. I heard of the interest through my friends abroad. Some of them even decided to visit Korea by matching their vacation to Frieze Seoul.

Q. Human beings live in an uncertain world. What do you perceive in this world of uncertainty?
A. I sense both a “maze” and “labyrinth.” If a maze is mapped to lead one to lose their ways, a labyrinth is a well-ordered chaos. My workflow also comes and goes between the two points. When I abruptly capture an order within my painting, I wrap up my work. But I sometimes spot parts in my painting that I wish to add or erase from a finished work. I recommend people to read Jorge Luis Borges's "Labyrinths".

Q. What beauty have you recently discovered?
A. The shadow of a flying bird.

Q. What's your next objective? What have you been observing lately?
A. In the short term, I'm in the middle of a research about 'geological time' and 'topology' to get prepared for my solo exhibition next year. Though I'm struggling due to its level of expertise, I’m slowly digesting it in depth.

 
 

 
《ARENA HOMME+》
September 2022 Focus
Editor. Cho Jin Hyuk