Artist Statement: Woks 2007-08

My art is about the emotional connection and disconnection between myself in the past and the present, and between myself in the different cultures.

I have been in America about 6 years. In that time, I have learned to communicate with people who have different cultures. In order to fully understand my conversations with them, I need to pay attention to their facial expressions, body gestures, and voice tones. Even though my observation of the situation with people is good enough to overcome the language barrier, it is not enough to overcome the culture barrier. I have experienced isolation and loneliness being a foreigner in a different country and being a stranger in the different culture. Ironically, I get the same experiences whenever I go back to my own country, South Korea. The reason is the disconnection with my own culture by the gap of my existence in that particular place. Psychologically, I become only a fragment in each place.

I believe that the human body is a container that carries the history of life, and also is the witness of life. Our bodies absorb every step we take from time to time. It contains the authenticity of emotion that we have gained through life experiences. Also, our bodies are the initial mediation between our spirit and the physical world. In order to express my inner most feelings and the sense of my own significant individuality, I show the human form as a material entity using my own body as subject matter reflecting my experiences in society’s eyes.

Written by Minjung Kang

Artist Statement Abstract Painting 2006-07

I am naked in front of nature.
I don’t try to understand what is around me.
I absorb what it is and I observe the metropolitan atmosphere to feel emotions of the air.
My physical body is invisible in front of a blank canvas.
My energy flows onto the canvas with full of intuition.

The layers of transparent colors are symbolic of the layers of emotion that is caused by the momentary impulse. These layers are followed by layers of meaning derived from the dialogue between myself and my painting, which takes place during the physical process.
I start to paint with the emotion that I absorb outside of studio. However, the more I paint, the more I react from the painting. I find surprises and pleasures in intimate relationship between me and my painting.

Written by Minjung Kang