Kwangik Song

Biography

Artist Kwangik Song uses paper to create artworks. Applying or scattering paint on paper is nothing but the departure point of his work. In Song’s art such a property of things derives from naturalness and historicity. Hanji, or Korean paper made from the inner bark of paper mulberry trees, contains the time in which life is engendered through wind under the sun and the breath of the land. He does not cut the paper precisely. He applies paint to the back of a piece in order to revive the serenity and plainness of hanji. He does not fill empty spaces with colors, even though there are some sections that have been less saturated with colors due to how the paper’s fibers are entangled. He simply feels about for spots where art stays according to hanji’s intrinsic grains. To Song, materials are more than objects. The artist mentions that his consciousness becomes one with his body and he begins to occupy himself with his work once its direction and plan have been determined. When he is amid such acts, his existence is revealed not only through his own life but also through the world surrounding him. His narratives are formed and imbued in his scenes one by one. They pertain to spaces and times in which his work encounters his body. His scene suspended from thread-like time vibrates in the gaps between pieces of hanji. The depth stemming from the height of the erected hanji pieces arouses a variety of resonances. They become lines or planes depending on the visual angle or space where they are erected.