Medium

The technique of my paintings is based on Jangji gibeop (method of long-pulp paper), one of the traditional methods of Korean paintings. Most of my paintings are done with Chinese ink, water-colors, powder-colors and white stone-color on the traditional Korean long-pulp paper (Jangji), which is thick and multi-layered. I try to go consciously with the flow of lines and colors on the paper in conform with the indescribable impuls in the mind. While thin layers of lines and colors are applied repetitively, multi-layered compositions are built up. Out of accumulated layers of lines and colors, or sometimes only after their destruction, the painting space acquires the solid basis for forms to be born. I observe forms that are naturally produced by accidental effects of painting materials, and spontaneously cope with them. While I repeat acts of ‘making and destroying’, certain concrete forms are constructed in a natural way. Earlier I try to come out of any intentions and plans while painting in order to create a lively space, because concepts and ideas were thought to hamper the autonomous growth of a picture. After some years of struggling in my attempt to create forms purely free from conventional imprints of visuals and ideas, I am now more thrilled in experiencing the active interaction between my conceptual visions and the organic life of painting medium, its dialogue.