Handmade books:
I have been producing handmade books since 1993. The book-format works don't reveal everything at once. Once the viewer gets closer to the works, and reaches out his/her hands to turn the pages, he/she will experience the intimate stories they contain. This is the way people understand the world. Everything seems ambiguous in the beginning, but the whole picture eventually becomes clear through its progression. It is my way to reach out to the world and to communicate with people though my works of art. |
Will
2002
27x40x5ˇ±
handmade book, pin, ink, gauze, plastic dolls, acrylic paint, thread, cloth.
 ˇ°If this is gone, then that is gone, if this exists, then that existsˇ± (the first sentence of Jab-A-Ham (Korean translation) Sutra). I produced this work from Buddhist knowledge. According to Buddhism, characteristics of the world changes through the passing of eons. At this time, we are in the period of iron. From the cover of the artwork, you experience the world of white, meaning Ether that is similar to the energy of the Universe, a state in which nothing visible exists. The first page represents ˇ°will,ˇ± the desire of human beings to exist in the world. Pointy pins describe it. The second page presents the stage of chaos, which is described by nails, pins, and dolls wrapped with gauze on stained cloth. The final page presents the appearance of metal human beings that are depicted by graphite and silver-colored plastic baby dolls. The book suggests that things appear and exist according to our will and desire. In terms of form, I minimized the images on each page to reinforce a stronger impact.
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Graveyard Offering I
2002
52x30x11ˇ±
wood branches, nail(1 1/2inch), cloth
Graveyard Offering II
2002
50x29x12ˇ±
plastic eggs, wood branches, cloth
The Graveyard Offering series stems from the idea of the Mandala, specifically the mandala paintings of Tibet . Mandala means the ˇ°map of Universe.ˇ± It includes the palaces where Buddhas and bodhisattvas (enlightened beings) reside and the graveyard. Taking an important role in the systematic diagram of mandala painting, the graveyard symbolizes the mundane world in which we live. The images found in the graveyard are emblems of sacrifice, such as heaps of chopped-off human heads and limbs, which refer not to an actual but to an imaginative act of self-butchery. The other images include bodhisattvas, wandering monks and kings flanked by their retinues, rivers, animals, trees, and stupas, etc.
The world and life I recognize is not different from the images found in the Mandala paintings. I believe that things in my life happen according to my karma. I modified the traditional idea of the graveyard into my own way of thinking. The wood branches symbolize the chopped body parts. I wrapped them to present the state of contradictory comprehension about this world. Traditionally the graveyards, divided into eight sections, symbolize the purification of the eight aspects of consciousness: the basic consciousness, the consciousnesses of the five senses, the consciousness associated with obscuring emotions, and the intellect. The entire form of the works symbolizes the trunk of our body symbolizing the mundane world in the system of mandala.
In Graveyard Offering I , the 16 branches, with groups of two tied together, symbolize the eight aspects of consciousness. Again wrapped in nailed fabric, they describe the painful process of being knowledgeable about the dark side of humanity. In Graveyard Offering II , the wood branches are wrapped with eggs, the stitches symbolizing scars. There are one hundred and eight eggs, symbolizing the number of suffering and desire that human beings are attached to. The Graveyard Offering series are my offerings to people, to God, and to myself. They involve my efforts to search for the Truth. They may bear contradictions, but if you remove the idea of duality that is inherent in the Christian tradition, you will find beauty in this seemingly cruel scene.
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