라온, 너는 어디에.

One can travel the world and see nothing. To achieve understanding it is necessary not to see many things, but to look hard at what you do see.

                 - Giorgio Morandi, quoted by Michael Kimmelman in Looking Long and Hard

I begin my work by watching reality and the present. This act of watching does not only consist of visual cognizance but also exploration and observation through the use of my body. As an intimate part of the art creation process, I collect the sensations that result from the instantaneous reactions of my body to a given space and time that I am abruptly confronted with. My collecting goes beyond recognizing what exists before my eyes to contemplating things that no longer exist, such as old social customs, extinct organisms, and songs that are known but no longer sung – things that have disappeared or gone into hiding. The “un”-real or “sur”-real elements that often appear in my works are not merely products of fiction and imagination, but, as literally suggested by the word prefixes, are small devices that are based on reality but dismantle conventional yardsticks of time and space to show fleeting reflections of reality in a world governed by alternate rules and logic.

The information and material collected throughout the process are collectively and simultaneously visualized through means such as object-making, collage, video installation, and performance. Especially since 2006, throughout a number of works in which I tried to relate personally and discreetly with residents of various neighborhoods, I have become interested in where art encounters spectators and work encounters space, and the manner in which the encounters occur. Most recently, I participated in an outdoor exhibition that allowed visitors to more easily approach works of art, and built a small house using the principles of camera obscura. The commonplace outdoor scenery surrounding the house, once projected onto the walls inside the house via the 120 holes bored around its exterior, became something that only then would one carefully observe. Constantly reaching out to new methods and media, I continue to dance, hop, and run on the stage of reality and hope that the spectators will merrily join in.