Space and Communication
Written by Hwasaan Kang
(Artist, the Editor in Chief of Vergil America)
The foundation of Jeon So-bin’s painting begins from folk painting. The interpretation of folk painting in Kim Ho-yeon’s <Korean Folk Painting> states folk painting as “Old paintings tat express visually the aesthetic consciousness and warmth of our nation. The aesthetic consciousness and warmth of our nation are the aesthetic aspects of the philosophy and the emotion of life acquired by the nation through the body while living in this land throughout a long history, which is materialized in the painting form of folk painting.” In other words, it is the type of desire that is permeated with the philosophy and the emotion of life of the people. Such a desire of the people is not only the communication and greatest wish between us but also can be understood as the space containing the universal human principle of earnest invoking. Also, this space is a single fence, and furthermore sufficient to be understood as the framework of ‘us’ with the meaning that comes from the ethnic and national common denominator.
So-bin Jeon devotes the constant effort to draw out various material based experiments, the sharing of genres, and tradition into the contemporary, with the purpose possessing her own message on top of such a framework. On of the efforts is the use of the lacquer varnishing on the screen, which maximizes the tension of the canvas and utilizes the soaking of color and its preservation as well as the traditional craft elements in the use of objet. Hieroglyphics are drawn with the lines from the Korean ink for the coloring and glue is applied on top of that to make a layer. When a layer is formed, coloring begins, which reveals itself with an elegance and simplicity of a very contemporary aesthetic sense. Coloring seems to be of primary colors but they appear very comfortable, stable and smooth. This point secures the intermediacy of the color scheme and may be regarded as the effect of light coming from the reduction of the gap between primary colors.
Therefore the colors expressed are survey as a smooth tone of pastel, which surrounds the viewer with comfort. This is key point which obtains universality for Jeon So-bin’s work, which she states by saying, “I want to paint something that everyone can sympathize with. I don’t want to agonize myself over it but comfortably unravel it. Because paintings are linked to live and living, I want to express something that was easily communicable.”
In her works “Contain time I, Contain Time Ⅱ, OriginⅢ, Moonlight Garden, BloomII, and Contain Everyday Life I”, images of produced with flower pots, flowers, bowls, plum blossoms, peonies and traditional cloth forms composed by joining geometrical sides of color. Each connotes their own symbolism to encompass the whole. It is as if reproducing the symbols of our folk painting through a contemporary painting technique, while also harmonizing with the cultural space of the current era. The bowl is interpreted as something that contains, while the flower, Jeon So-bin hopes, as a flower blooming in the heart. Maybe a heart that guarantees eternity. The use of the gild means the material guarantee of human desire and implies wealth. The methodology of such expressions borrows from traditional folk pointing expressions, but the completed work is transformed into a very contemporary form. The parts, when magnified, are associated with abstraction, which expand the breadth of the thought and furthermore delivers a charm that implies a single meaning.
So-bin Jeon is already well refined from a material or technical aspect through the methodological search of various genres. This functions as a great advantage for manifesting an abundant imagination when working on her work in the future. Also because her work embraces design elements and the techniques and methods of Western painting, it is more simple and sensuous and suitable for expressing a connotative story. However you must remember that the advantage of diversity may cause the dispersion of the concentrated strength. Furthermore, if you fall too deep into the methodological search for material, it may cause an absence in the content you try to communicate. We look forward to her works being told in the exhibition space.
