Viewing the Front Page Artwork of the Newsletter (21) 'Air and Dream-05' by artist Un Kang
2017-08-28 l Hit 1137
Viewing the Front Page Artwork of the Newsletter
(21) 'Air and Dream-05' by artist Un Kang
 Un Kang, Air and Dream-05, 2016, Korean paper, Dyed paper on canvas, 112 x 162cm |
It is getting cooler day by day. Therefore, I picked 'Air and Dream-05', by artist Un Kang, which resembles a clear autumn sky, as the front page artwork for this month's newsletter.
'Air and Dream -05' is a work that contains the autumn sky. The artist explained that he was very excited when making the piece, and was glad to be able to introduce it in September. He began by saying, "Everyone has feelings of ups and downs, and when I made this work, I felt very good for some reason. The sky I saw at the end of September was very brilliant, so I wrote down my feelings at the time."
Artist Un Kang started to deal with clouds when he was in his early 30s; he had left his home and was staying in Haenam in order to concentrate on creating work. "For the first six months, I felt like I became Van Gogh and painted my surroundings intently. However, after those six months, there wasn't a lot left to paint and I felt a sense of shame. I happened to see clouds flowing in the sky, showing me time, space, and light. I came up with the idea that I could communicate abstract artistic concepts by painting 'clouds', like the ancestors, who expressed themselves by painting the Four Gracious Plants. I speculated that maybe 'Un (雲: a Chinese character meaning 'a cloud')' from my name could indicate my destiny," he continued.
This work is made by attaching naturally-dyed traditional Korean paper to an uncoated hemp cloth, layering small pieces of the paper onto it to make layers of air, then creating clouds and wind. When he first started the series, he expressed them with oil paints, and then, in his 40s, began to use traditional Korean paper.
He explained, "After I turned 40, I started looking for media and techniques that could express the universal emotions of agricultural tribes. I happened to watch a person who was mounting paper on boards at a mounting shop. The person was carefully attaching and detaching the paper to and from the boards and I thought the process shared a connection to air and time. After that, I began to overlap layers of traditional Korean paper to create blank spaces in my work, filled with infinite whiteness.“
 Drawing a stroke on the water-01, 2016, Light -colored ink on paper, 34 x 26cm |
The artist is working on the 'Air and Dream' series, and the 'Drawing a stroke on the water' series at the same time. The latter series is created by drawing short lines with a brush on traditional Korean paper that is wet from sprayed water and has been placed on an acrylic panel.
The 'Air and Dream' series is created as a result of a labor intensive artistic practice. On the other hand, the 'Drawing a stroke on the water' series is influenced by the temperature, humidity, condition of the paper attachment, and state of the artist at the moment of its creation. The 'Air and Dream' series expresses water in the air through clouds, and the 'Drawing a stroke on the water' series expresses air through water. Through the two different acts of painting and drawing, he is suggesting the meaning of painting.
The artist, who is now in his 50s, will have time to check his work for the time being. He stated, "I have been working as an artist since my 20s, and learned that painting is not something that you can make only with your brain or ideas, but something you need to experience and feel in real life and reconcile your body and mind to create it. I want to concentrate on the act of painting itself in the future, and deal with the core of painting. I will have to ask myself how the acts of painting and drawing will be developed in the future."
Korean Artist Project Team
2017. 9. 13. ⓒKorean Artist Project
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