먹의 시간, Zeit der Muk, is a series of ink drawings of birds that came out of spending time with and observing birds during the time of transition after moving to Berlin.

Zeit der Muk

1.

Zeit der Muk is simultaneously instantaneous and permanent.

Instantaneous

like a songbird taking off a tree branch at my footstep at Debs Park

like a glance of a robin from a shadowy part of Lietzenseepark

like a Black Kite swooping down to break the surface of Lac Leman

But It is permeant because it is the same force of life that moved an artist to chisel out a passerine form from a slowly heated bone 13,500 years ago in Henan, China, that attracts me to hooded vultures in Berlin zoo in 2023. And it will be the same force of life that will call out to another artist living at a corner of the earth ten thousands years from now.

-an exerpt from a poem by the artist under the same title. The rest of the poem can be found here.

I am interested in understanding the emotive experience of people who are giving care, and how care work affects their emotional lives.

In 2020, I had an urge to create representational and specific images and felt un urgency to record my own experience of mothering. Below is an excerpt from the project description that I submitted for grant application.*

This is not only because the self is the subject that every artist has at her or his disposition, but also because for me, recounting the story of my own motherhood is a process towards empowerment. As a person ascribed a minority-status due to my ethnic background, as an étranger (stranger) living in Genève, it is also important that I tell my story in the first person point of view. It is a way to resist dismissive and patronising voices that are trying to define who I am. Therefore, drawing and painting my day-to-day experience of mothering is a way of affirming my own choices that led to practice mothering in this country.

I believe my paintings delivered in book-format will provide to the people of Geneva an opportunity to glimpse the everyday reality of mothering in a family that is considered as “Others” in Switzerland. Hopefully, my images would be liberating to some, giving them a chance to break free from her or his assumptions about Asian women with children.

At the same time, my desire is that people, including myself, would be more curious about different and sometimes difficult situations that people have to live through as they are struggling to bring up a healthy human being in this broken world.

*I wasn’t successful at receiving the grant. Instead I was given an opportunity to show “Painting Mothering” series at Ruine Gallery.

« Kitchen Math » is my reflection on the time and effort spent working in the kitchen on daily basis. I wanted to translate into art objects that reflect the quality and quantity of work conducted in the kitchen.

“Blessings” is the title of a  project I conducted between the year 2010 and 2017.  It is composed of three parts, and each part employs a different medium; the first being a series of etching, the second an installation of silk-screened patterns on paper, and an the third an artist book.

The abstract-scapes are visual metaphors that reflects my inner landscape as I was going through pregnancy, giving birth to, and raising an infant.

The key word is a tension—both lived and visually represented—that is best explained in a form of a question: :

Is it the same or different creative energy that enables me to do “mothering” and “art making?” How much does a woman have to lose to be a mother? Can I be a successful artist and a mother?

The tensions-questions then were translated into a visual tension animated by colors and movement of shapes.

Blessings III is a collection of artworks and poems. The six titles of poems represent the phases or stages of  an emotional transformation. The images corresponding to twelve months of the year are rendered in an elemental language of repeating motifs and colour.

7 Copies were created by hands of KimyiBo in 2017.

12 images were made with copper plates using etching and aquatint, and printed on Hahnemühle 300g. The original plate measures 101⁄2 inches by 12 inches.

6 poems were handwritten and printed by silkscreen on antique paper found in wooden drawers at l’Atelier GE Gravure.

“Blessings” is the title of a  project I conducted between the year 2010 and 2017.  It is composed of three parts, and each part employs a different medium; the first being a series of etching, the second an installation of silk-screened patterns on paper, and an the third an artist book.

The abstract-scapes are visual metaphors that reflects my inner landscape as I was going through pregnancy, giving birth to, and raising an infant.

The key word is a tension—both lived and visually represented—that is best explained in a form of a question: :

Is it the same or different creative energy that enables me to do “mothering” and “art making?” How much does a woman have to lose to be a mother? Can I be a successful artist and a mother?

The tensions-questions then were translated into a visual tension animated by colors and movement of shapes.

Blessings II is a study of applying colors to tessellation. The installation consists of sheets of double-sided paper tiles tessellated in a three dimensional space. Each tile has crosshatched-line-patterns on one side and color wash on the opposite side. Line patterns are printed in three layers of different colors using screen printing. A total of 144 tiles display 144 different combinations of color. Each tile is made of four octagonal shapes, which can also be viewed as the projection of a hyper cube (a four dimensional cube.)

On the other side of the paper I coat the surface with color wash. Many layers of thin washes were applied to achieve a desired color. I used soy emulsion as a binding medium for dry pigments, as it gives a subtle warmth to the colors. By suspending pigments in multiple transparent layers I can make rich and deep colors. This technique allows me to create a range of colors gradually shifting in chromatic and achromatic values with only four pigments, which are black, yellow, magenta, and cyan.

“Blessings” is the title of a  project I conducted between the year 2010 and 2017.  It is composed of three parts, and each part employs a different medium; the first being a series of etching, the second an installation of silk-screened patterns on paper, and an the third an artist book.

The abstract-scapes are visual metaphors that reflects my inner landscape as I was going through pregnancy, giving birth to, and raising an infant.

The key word is a tension—both lived and visually represented—that is best explained in a form of a question: :

Is it the same or different creative energy that enables me to do “mothering” and “art making?” How much does a woman have to lose to be a mother? Can I be a successful artist and a mother?

The tensions-questions then were translated into a visual tension animated by colors and movement of shapes.

Blessings I is one of three-part project which explores my personal experience of pregnancy and birth. The abstract images record my shifting emotions through flows of energy.

Blessings I is made of twelve monochromatic prints made with etching and aquatint. The series explores the space as a structure of forces. Tessellation, which simply means tiling of repeating shapes, constructs space in movement. I choose patterns intuitively in consideration of the gestalt, or the overall impression of the image that I try to achieve. Through repetition and change of patterns, I try to create a sense of dynamic equlibrium.

January ~ December, Etching, aquatint, 40 cm x 50 cm  

From Artist Statement written in Geneva, 2010

Seven Ways of Looking at My Art

1.     Perpetual tension: From MFA onwards, my research and work focus on the nature’s way of holding the opposites together, creating paradox; the “perpetual tension.” Yes, perhaps this preoccupation is a bit typical, especially coming from an Asian. Typical themes are typical because they have elements of the classical, however, and my works are the classical inquiry into the meaning of human volition relative to so-called “life,” the uncontrollable.

2.     Perpetual tension in my life: Living local in the globalized society. Reflecting on my transnational lifestyle, I devised the concept of “contactism.” Based on the assumptions of humanistic psychology (Carl Rogers) that views the human organism to be ever seeking self-actualization using the most of her given environment, the concept explains how a person’s psychological architecture is strongly influenced by the number and degree of significant “contacts” she has with various cultures (including societal incentive structures and individuals) throughout her life. The resulting attitude towards life validates two conflicting desires: the youthful aspiration to self-actualize in multiple places, and the strong motivation to stay in one place and invest in a local community, like a tree taking root. My art is a medium through which I live out contactism. I decided that wherever I move I will fully engage in the local community and serve as an artist. Holding exhibitions, painting murals, teaching, organizing art related activities at my current location allow me to connect with people and environments that become part of who in the long run.

3.     Living energy in my work: An understanding of Ki permeates all of my artistic expressions. Parallel to my painting and printmaking works, I have been practicing calligraphy for the past ten years. The essence of calligraphy is capturing one’s Ki; energy, life. In this tradition, the stroke is in itself simultaneously the form and the concept of the art. This philosophy influenced my understanding of how art is connected to nature, and is carried through my painting and print works. I create artworks that are alive.[1]

4.     Contentious homeostasis: Visually, my images are metaphors of contentious homeostasis. The balance oscillates between geometric and organic forms; flat surface and pictorial space; two opposing forces. The picture plane is imbued with tension.

5.     Symbols: I draw mundane objects repeatedly; fruits and vegetables, trees, clouds, and kitchenware. In each consecutive piece, I change a few elements from the previous drawing until the object becomes a playful shape. These shapes have an emotional quality I identify with. They are the symbol of living energy.

6.     Patterns: I make patterns with symbols. I morph uniform patterns, which appear flat on the surface, so that they would seem to be extending in pictorial space. In other words I apply perspective to patterns. The resulting ambiguous space is neither completely flat nor deep, but it is either/or both. In my most recent solo exhibition Perpetual Tension (2010), I created large-scale wall hanging pieces using silkscreen and drawing on linen. By exhibiting a sheet of cloth a few inches off the wall, the physical flatness of the picture plane was accentuated.

7.     Process: I value the process of art making. My art goes against ever increasing entropy, restoring balance to areas that are difficult to do so: personal lives that are characterized more by distractions than peace, western society’s attitude that puts people above nature than within it.

Geneva, 2010

[1] In the western world, “living artwork” is not easily understood. The closest concept is Elan Vital, which was a term coined by Henri Bergson(1859-1941.) The term was used in a title of a book that presented works of Kandinsky, Klee, Arp, Miro, Calder [Hubertus Gaßner, Elan vital, or the Eye of Eros: Kandinsky, Klee, Arp, Miro, Calder, (Munich: Haus der Kunst: 1994.]

Almost two decades ago when I decided to pursue the life of an artist, I was given the task to create a body of work that is about me. I was free to choose any method, any issue. It seemed natural for me to start with the most basic question: What does it mean to be alive?

In those early days my questions were existential, my images sentimental and biological. My thesis exhibition for my first MFA in Korea, entitled “Relationship that changes me,” was a reflection on relationships as a basic requirement for life to exist.  

My interest in living things shifted from the ontological to the phenomenological. I became fascinated by how movement can be portrayed in two dimensional media. I looked at Robert Delaunay, Futurism, and Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude descending a staircase No.2.” These works have a common feature, in that they use repetition as a visual code to create an illusion of movement. Inspired, I started experimenting with repetitive motifs and gradation of colour.