jieunlee
23/24 In the midst of life
part 1 : In the midst of life
part 2 : Bloom in Night20/22 Breath of the city
17/20 Police Place Presence
11/16 Land & Landscape
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In the midst of life
2023-2024
part 1
In the midst of life
I linger my gaze on individuals standing at the center of life within everyday landscapes. While landscapes and people are inevitably interconnected, interpreting this relationship relies entirely on my own perspective and sensitivity. This subjective interpretation, stemming from within me, permeates the world through the medium of painting.
What I depict are 'familiar strangers.' These are beings who are different yet somehow similar to me—mothers, grandfathers, delivery workers, people walking their dogs, or those in prayer—ordinary individuals I pass by in daily life. Their images become mirrors reflecting the latent memories and emotions within the audience, giving rise to diverse interpretations through various perspectives.
I cannot know the entirety of their lives, but I capture fleeting moments and infuse them with universal emotions, completing my own narrative. In the swift rhythm of urban life, we often lose the capacity to truly notice others, but when this attention is transformed into affection, the scenery changes. Soft colors and delicate textures trace this affection and embody the sensibility I aim to express through painting.
By condensing the vast stage of the city into the focal point of 'myself,' these landscapes transcend mere observation to reveal universal values. All existence ultimately begins with my experiences, uncovering the abstract truths hidden beneath the surface of reality.
Time flows relentlessly, and everything eventually becomes the past. Yet, to gaze affectionately at the ephemeral moments surrounding life’s center is a vital act of reflecting on the meaning of existence. In granting narratives to distant strangers and rediscovering myself within them, this process transcends simple depiction, forging a renewed connection between myself and the world.
In the midst of life
I linger my gaze on individuals standing at the center of life within everyday landscapes. While landscapes and people are inevitably interconnected, interpreting this relationship relies entirely on my own perspective and sensitivity. This subjective interpretation, stemming from within me, permeates the world through the medium of painting.
What I depict are 'familiar strangers.' These are beings who are different yet somehow similar to me—mothers, grandfathers, delivery workers, people walking their dogs, or those in prayer—ordinary individuals I pass by in daily life. Their images become mirrors reflecting the latent memories and emotions within the audience, giving rise to diverse interpretations through various perspectives.
I cannot know the entirety of their lives, but I capture fleeting moments and infuse them with universal emotions, completing my own narrative. In the swift rhythm of urban life, we often lose the capacity to truly notice others, but when this attention is transformed into affection, the scenery changes. Soft colors and delicate textures trace this affection and embody the sensibility I aim to express through painting.
By condensing the vast stage of the city into the focal point of 'myself,' these landscapes transcend mere observation to reveal universal values. All existence ultimately begins with my experiences, uncovering the abstract truths hidden beneath the surface of reality.
Time flows relentlessly, and everything eventually becomes the past. Yet, to gaze affectionately at the ephemeral moments surrounding life’s center is a vital act of reflecting on the meaning of existence. In granting narratives to distant strangers and rediscovering myself within them, this process transcends simple depiction, forging a renewed connection between myself and the world.
part2
Bloom in Night
Night is a time when abstraction deepens. The names and boundaries that were sharply defined during the day begin to blur, and all beings quietly reveal their own vitality. Things we couldn’t distinguish as flowers or plants transcend their names and simply bloom. What matters at night is the simple fact that we are all blooming together. In that blooming, we are equal, and we are all beautiful. In the quiet that softly emits its own light, we find the strength to live again.
Bloom in Night
Night is a time when abstraction deepens. The names and boundaries that were sharply defined during the day begin to blur, and all beings quietly reveal their own vitality. Things we couldn’t distinguish as flowers or plants transcend their names and simply bloom. What matters at night is the simple fact that we are all blooming together. In that blooming, we are equal, and we are all beautiful. In the quiet that softly emits its own light, we find the strength to live again.
14–11–2023
Breath of the city
2020-2022
In Korea, the relationship between space and human is an organic one, where neither holds dominance, and this relational characteristic naturally blends with the emotional essence of Korean life accumulated in history, creating a distinct essence. This essence, I believe, permeates every aspect of the process of Seoul's formation as a city and the life within it.
Based on these thoughts, 'Breath of the City' is a socially subjective landscape painting series that seeks to discover the 'emotional essence of Korean life' and the 'organic relationship between space and human' that permeates Seoul and embody it through the texture of painting. This work involves applying layers of paint to the canvas slowly and deliberately over time. It's a method devised to artistically manifest intangible elements into physical space through the concept of 'permeation.'
The thinly layered paint seeps into the previous layer, forming a solid stratum while ensuring that all textures are evenly distributed and uniformly absorbed. Through this process, the space within the canvas frame and the human become a single organism, breathing gently, and the holistic breath one feels when viewing the landscape is reinterpreted into the painterly texture and encapsulated on the canvas.
Police Place Presence
2017-2020
“The police officers in fluorescent uniforms are always in the square. Sometimes scattered, sometimes densely packed, they shimmer above the gray city. They patrol, encircle, and create space in the square. The fluorescent dots constantly alter the shape, texture, and feel of the space, as well as the sensation of the air. Depending on their mode of existence, the atmosphere in the square can become tense, loose, thick, or light. They are both subjects exercising power and objects subject to the dominance of power. They serve as observers and, at the same time, are observed subjects. They are human yet also part of the landscape.” from the artist's note
The area around Gwanghwamun Square is not only an important place that preserves the historical pulse of South Korea but also an intriguing space that gives the impression of having no specific owner. After gazing at the space for a long time, the police officers, who stay there the longest, emerged as significant subjects of observation on the screen.
The fluorescent uniforms of the police shine even more vividly in the grayish Seoul, and their distinct visibility, paradoxically, provides a fresh visual perspective that can freely transform the nature of the space. Depending on the intentions of the police, as well as the nuances with which they control and configure the space, the character of the space unfolds as a stage with countless possibilities for change.
Despite the vivid visual presence implying law enforcement authority, the police are lightweight and replaceable anonymous figures when viewed as individuals. Their existential attitude, dominating the space for a long time but not actively engaging in everyday life, is a characteristic unique to the figure of the police in urban space. Therefore, the color of the police uniforms in my paintings manifests with a level of intensity that blends into the space, absorbing and expressing a subtler atmosphere, allowing for a more profound function.
In my paintings, the fluorescent color of the police is subdued and absorbed, taking on a hue that permeates the space and transforms into a more nuanced function, acting as a mediator that brings poetic, metaphorical, and sometimes external situations into my artwork.
14–11–2023
Land & Landscape
2011-2016
A square is a place that cannot exist independently. It draws people in by its emptiness and, through its void, holds the potential for endless connections and new possibilities. In a city, a square, depending on its location, size, and shape, as well as the actions of those who engage with it, can freely transform its inherent nature. Observing the spaces around the square that I encountered daily on my way to school led me to contemplate the essential qualities of a square, and I began visualizing it through my paintings.
A square gains its worth when it allows both the pre-existing 'Land,' which is there to attract something, and the ever-flowing 'Landscape' to coexist harmoniously without one dominating the other. If Land represents the historical layers of accumulated weight, then Landscape is the present lightness that temporarily drifts over the heavy Land. In my paintings, the heaviness symbolized by Land and the lightness represented by Landscape maintain a delicate balance, coexisting evenly with the same force. A square is a place where the ongoing historical weight striving to become heavier and the transient forces of people passing lightly over it coexist harmoniously, with none of them holding dominance.
On the canvas, all the elements that encompass Land and Landscape pile up with the same force, ultimately coexisting tightly as one solid entity. As the same breath evenly spreads the same force across the entire frame, a new place is constructed on the canvas.
14–11–2023