Korean Works
As I am at present living in South Korea I am exploring aspects of Korean history and culture, especially landscape painting, evoking a lost world that seems very exotic to me.
In this on-going series started on my Residency at the Gyeonggi Creration Center I name the Halls that once existed in the Buddhist temple of Haiensa in central South Korea. I write words in watercolour, copying pieces of dead flora I gathered around the Gyeonggi Creation Center. On one level this was a response to suddenly being in a new country with nothing but a set of watercolour paints and being set the task of making some art! On another level, it continues my interest in the visual dimension of writing and in the strange dislocations in meaning that occur during different kinds of translation.
In 2103 I participated in two collaborative projects in South Korea with Korean themes.
In ‘Chang Eung-Bok’s Boutique Hotel “Peach Blossom Dream’, at SEMA’s Living Arts Museum in Seoul, I worked with my partner, the designer Chang Eung-Bok, on transforming a museum which was the former Belgium Embassy into a temporary ‘boutique hotel.’ I contributed paintings and videos, as well as working on the general concept. The round gold painting samples the title calligraphy from Ahn Gyeon’s painting ‘Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Paradise’ (1447).
At the Gwangju Design Biennial I worked with a team including Chang, exhibiting my video ‘Moon Palace.’
In another series, gold acrylic paint on canvas, I name in stencil letters places that were painted by the Joseon period artist Jeong Seon as they appear in the English of the translation of Choe Wan-su’s study of the artist.
This theme was also developed in a large-scale wall-painting made for the Gyeonggi Creation Center based on Cheong Seon’s signature.
