My art shows me how to uncover the truth. Even when I think I’m taking a break from it, I’m creating. Usually, that means I’m doodling in my notebook. With my 0.5mm mechanical pencil I pour the jumble of my complicated thoughts onto the page. My wavy, zig zagged, and straight lines create startling shapes — the symbols of my private language. Whether I twist the line left or right depends on my impulses. I don’t think deeply about the lines; I feel them.
Looking at the world as an artist is an unconscious flex; everything I do, I do with the intent to change our static perception of the roles that objects and bodies play in our lives. The pieces in my portfolio play with and against the theme of the Korean proverb 燈下不明, which translates roughly into: “The beacon does not shine on its own base.” In other words, the solution might be right under your nose but you’re too close to see it. “Speed of Adaptation” wants you to consider the ways in which you’re blind to your surroundings. Do you see the wildness and beauty of the pigeons on your city street? Or do you see rats with wings? “Uncomfortable” examines the modern-day Korean stigma around eating alone in public. Who is responsible for creating the discomfort, the diner or the viewer? As I explore this theme in my work, I scrutinize my own (mis)behavior and simultaneously ask my viewer to carefully reconsider their surroundings.
Before I create anything, I first draw a mindmap of possible topics. My “Erasing Memories” media and performance art/video art piece was inspired by my habit of (physically) dragging my feet and my questions about human psychology. I question my body and my emotions in much of my art. I believe people’s inner psychological states are both unconsciously and consciously expressed by the body. Explicit behavior isn’t the answer however; it must be reinterpreted through artistic expression. At the heart of my questions is what I want to continue to explore at NYU: does the body create the feeling or do our feelings shape the body? Through my interdisciplinary studies of psychology, biology, and art, I’ll apply my discoveries to my art. Through it I hope to find the answers to my questions about human nature and the nature of human expression.
