Gyeomjae Hommage

The first time I began to work on Gyeomjae's “Woo ha deung sun” with my language cardboard was when I was invited to "Today's Jinkyung Exhibition Recommended by Critics,” an exhibition organized by the Gyeomjae Museum of Art in 2011 Submitting the paintings of Gamcheon-dong of Busan,my long-time theme, to the exhibition, I dared to work on Gyeomjae's paintings.

As I majored in Oriental painting, the process of expressing lines three-dimensionally using corrugated cardboard has thrilled me. In Oriental painting, freshly drawn lines gleam under the light, but this glimmer disappears soon as the ink dries. The lines shaped by cutting corrugated cardboard with a knife and gluing the pieces onto a canvas are, though unrefined, refreshing. Together, they create a sense of three-dimensionality like that of a relief and present visual intensity.

After the exhibition, I made artworks inspired by Gyeomjae’s landscape series of the banks of the Han River. Yet, I hesitated to work on Mount Geumgang, which seemed particularly difficult. During the Pandemic, however,I had plenty of time and the dream for a trip was growing, particularly to this forbidden place. I finally challenged myself to work on the Mt. Geumgang series.

I learned that Mount Geumgang, which seemed so complex at first glance, was in fact like a map of the mountain’s peaks, each of which was depicted in a way that captures its distinct features. The screen is composed harmoniously of rock and soil mountains.

When compared with photos found on the Internet, the mountains looked exactly like the photos, drawn without exaggeration. While working, I felt as though I was walking in that valley winding along the stream of Mt.Geumgang.