The New Noise

1 So, How long have you been in the states? Where did you go to school and such?

I have been in New York for three years. I received B.F.A in Korean painting at the Seoul National University in Korea, and worked as a costume designer for a while after graduate. But I remember I suddenly woke up at midnight and decided to restart making art in the totally new place. After several months, I was accepted in Pratt Institute. That’s how I came here. I graduated there with a M.F.A in February 2009.

2. Aside from art what do you like to do?

When I was in Seoul, I liked doing cos-play, a kind of performance art in which participants dress up as characters from animation and games. I often hung out with my friends at the animation festivals and events, to do cos-play. But after coming here, I was too busy adapting to new living. Though now I got used to New York much more than before, I don’t do them any more. But I still like to see movies and animation.

3. Music?

I just listen whatever I feel it’s good, as a back ground music while I am working. They are various, such as Kawai Kenji’(Japanese music composer for anime movies)  soundtracks, Bjork songs, Lady Gaga, Korean pop music, and even Bach’s classic music.

4. You seem to use some of the same characters (not sure if that isthe right word) in your paintings and installations is there a symbolism that they are supposed to carry to each or mean something different in each.

I use similar characters in both installations and drawings. Most animals and plants that I draw come from the myths, stories and fables in the Asia, and most of them were believed as symbols of life and mystical powers in the folk beliefs. I chose them according to my mental needs at the moments.

For example, I often draw and make fish and birds. I was inspired from the famous ancient Chinese Taoist, Zhaungzi’s essay. -I studied about Taoism in my university, because they affected traditional East Asian aesthetics very much- In his essay, Kun are imaginary fish which transform themselves into birds while they are moving. I think the story of Kun typically reflect Taoists’ idea that segregation and distinction between things are foolish and meaningless. I was forgetting about the story of Kun’s transformation for long time, but it flashed in my mind and overlapped myself, who have experienced changes in the identity while transporting and adjusting to new places, and my desire to change beyond myself. In a social and narrow context, my fish and birds can be interpreted as symbols of immigration. But in a more psychological and broaden context, they reflect a longing for being something beyond a self and distinction between things. I also use them as effective tools, which transit spaces from mundane to the surreal.

5. Do you care to talk about the piece Castle in the Sky it’s one of my personal favorites.

Of course. The time the idea came to me, I often dreamed of flying between two floating islands or continents by dangerously hanging from a strange bird or a balloon. I think the dreams reflected my mental states at that time. In the piece, I combined what I saw in my dream and what I observed and felt in the reality.

Have you ever felt as an artist that art museums in NYC are too unreachable castles or palaces, which are far away from your everyday life filled with chores, though you are an artist and came here to make art? I honestly felt that way. Also, in Korea, the biggest national museum is in the palace, so my impression about the museum was always overwhelmed by the images of the ancient East Asian style castle. That’s why I visualized all the museums in New York City as a floating castle, which are organically connected to East Asian style buildings.

6. Any artist you really look up to?

Nam Jun Paik and Louise Bourgeois. I like that Louise Bourgeois continued to dig into her deepest emotion in her personal life without hesitation. Nam Jun Paik was a genius, who had a free mind and soul.

7. And the follow-up who has influenced you the most (this doesn’t have to be an artist)

When I was a small kid, I really loved seeing Rene Magritte’s paintings in the books. I feel I had a consistent preference for something surreal and imaginary even when I was pretty young. But the most recent person who affected me was my thesis professor in Pratt, because her approach to art was different from my innate tendency. After I met her, I began to more consider and experiment forms, colors, and composition in my work.

8. What’s next up your sleeve?

I have to move out the studio and find out a new space. I guess I’ll be busy doing personal affairs like a visa application by March.

9.When did you begin your art practice?

I remember I was drawing and writing the story in my notebook all the time when I was a little kid. But the moment I began art practice seriously was when I went to the Seoul Arts High School in Korea, a special-education school for students who have talents in fine art, music, and dance. I was accepted in the fine art major. I learned basic drawing, painting, Korean painting, sculpture and overall art history there.

10.Why do you work this way and what symbolism and basic concepts run through your work as a whole?

As a whole including all my work in Korea, I think my basic concept is a connection and an integration between different things- reality and fantasy world, Asian art and Western art, my past in the homeland and new life here and art and life. Some artists are interested in the idea of pure beauty, independent from the world. But I think nothing is perfectly separated to others, like a man can’t live alone.

I found out some similarities in Taoists’ ideas that there is no difference between things and my desire to connect separated world. It’s funny, because I was most skeptical about studying and discussing Taoism and East Asian aesthetics among the seminar members. I complained they were too ambiguous, seemed illogical, and we were trying to catch clouds. But now I admit I was unconsciously fascinated and deeply affected by their ideas to the infinite and beauty.

11.What do you strive for and are some specific goals for the future?

I want to be more productive this year, and try to get support for the studio space and my project.

What I ultimately want is very simple, but hard. I hope to be able to make whatever I want someday, without worrying about money.

12. What is your opinion on the art community in NYC and what part would you like to play in it?

Though I don’t know many artists here, I can say that people in the art community were the most open minded and unprejudiced among people who I met here. Also I had much help from them in the process of visa application, so I hope to be able to help to other artists, too.