In the Midst of Life

 Chae is unveiling a new edition in her <In the Midst of Life> series, through which she has focused on different spectra of blue and harmoniously incorporated landscapes from reality and landscapes of our inner minds.

By adding ottchil layers to a simple composition, she highlights the traditional aesthetic elements of Korea such as line, color, and margin, as well as reflecting a sense of lyricism to the matière of the work with sfumato and impasto techniques used in Western painting. The variation of color that demonstrates both the convergence and independence of blue tones, the unique matière and sensuous margins, and the repeated brushstrokes that build layers on the surface of the image all spring from the aesthetic materialization of natural principles.

 

This work, where the figurative and abstract elements of nature coexist, is based on an artistic perspective rooted in Western technique and East Asian philosophy of nature. The work’s composition shows a single point perspective centered around a line, but overlapping shades of blue with different levels of saturation and brightness move as though they are static or remain still as though they are in motion. The depth and weight created by the blue matière offer the experience of “silence in movement (dongjungjeong)” and “movement in silence (jeongjungdong).”

The island-sea and island-sky composition, or in other words, the composition of the tension and relaxation of the foreground and background as well as the blurry line between the abstract and figurative, leaves room for our gaze. It is in that very room where viewers face uchronia. The wind there lacks substance, but it will continue to blow so the viewers themselves find the connecting link. The wind must be blowing in the midst of life, with a blue scent.