I think about making art as meditation and a way of finding my Identity. I struggle to find my Identity because all living organisms, including humans, are born without their consent. Existing in this world was not our decision, but here we are, breathing. For me, Identity is something that is not granted, but something that needs to be established. That is why it is extremely important to ask ourselves who we are. Therefore, I choose to walk backwards—it is better to live my life looking back than to feel anxious about my unknown future. In this way I can establish my Identity so I do not feel empty. I look at life as a linear path towards death. As we walk along the path, we encounter the Future. I walk this linear path with my eyes looking back at my trails, to find a piece of my Identity. To me, the Past is something more rigid and solid than the Future because the Past is known to me already, but the Future remains unknown all the time. My artworks are reflections of my past. The Past makes us who we are today.
It is commonly known that we learn from everyday experience, train ourselves to adapt to the environment that surrounds us, and sometimes gain knowledge from the process of adaptation. Past experience plays a major role in forming an individual’s identity. Furthermore, if the individual is an artist, past experience is more likely to be reflected on pieces of art that are produced by the individual. That is basically the reason why having as various types of experiences as an individual can, making observations and analyzing the surroundings, and putting oneself in the suitable environment for learning are crucial. Today, for visual artists, learning from the surroundings has become more important, because art is everywhere, and it is changing rapidly. Visual art alone can take many different forms. It is in books, magazines, motion pictures, music, and it is on TV and the internet.
In a person’s life, complex emotions are present at all times. I state that due to my exceedingly emotional nature, and also my experience in South Korea, Canada, and the United States, my life is filled with emotions and different types of experiences. I had to live and survive alone in foreign countries since the age of 16, served in the Korean army as a member of Special Guard Team, as a military prison guard, and as a squad leader. I had at least one family member hospitalized for 15 long years of my life, and lost my mother in 2004. As an art student, I also have experience in producing various types of visual art such as painting, drawing, sculpture, hologram, robotics, photography, and 3D animation. Past years have turned my life into a library of various emotions and experiences, which is good for an artist.
In composition, I believe in diversity, unity, and balance. I start by deciding what colors to use, and then decide what type of emotion that the piece is going to evoke. After that, I look back at my personal experiences to remind myself of the time when I had that emotion. My personal emotions are expressed in order to visually establish my identity in the pieces. Color is one of the primary factors that I am greatly concerned about, regardless of the medium.
As a humanist, I am greatly fascinated by the fact that in many religious texts such as the Bible and Greek mythologies, humans are created to resemble gods. What do gods do? They create. We are not all sure if our ‘creator’ exists or not in reality, but we all know that religions are made by humans. Then, why would humans in those days come up with such religious texts telling us that humans resemble gods? I personally believe that it is because of the fact that we have an ability to create. We call ourselves the lord of all creation. Therefore, for me, creation is the most beautiful and humanistic thing to do. It is a way to be who we are.
I chose animation as my primary medium because of its expressive possibilities and inherent characteristics. Animation is an art form with infinite possibilities. It allows me to create an alternative world in a virtual space involving time. Through expression of emotions derived from my personal experience, and through use of editing, coloring and compositing, I seek to establish a unique and solid identity as an artist, and also, as an individual. In dictionaries, “to animate” means to give life. Through production of animation, we give life to something, just like gods in many religious texts do. Creating and giving life is the greatest thing a human can ever do.