Lucid Mystery / Dark Clarity is a visual language and a pictorial world. It is about the parts of our lives that appear defined yet remain mysterious and the truths shrouded in darkness. The former refers to the world of space revealed in Seeun Kim’s painting, and the latter to the world of language seen through Yoori’s painting. We all seek to interpret the secrets of our reality. However, these have never been deciphered. Only attempts to know and understand have been repeated endlessly through time.
Seeun Kim’s paintings deal with the process of eternal change, creation, and extinction, and the eternal repetition thereof. The Buddhist concept of pratityasamutpada in Sanskrit is translated as “arising,” meaning that things happen in relation to the cause of other things, events, or time and is bound to disappear again in conjunction with them. Everything is, therefore, real and simultaneously empty. The art world Kim devotes herself to lies within this philosophy. Yoori expresses that which cannot be expressed through language. Language is the manifestation of our thoughts; and, at the same time, language has its root in these thoughts. However, there is a myriad of events and emotions that cannot be expressed verbally (and, therefore, cannot be thought). Yoori captures them on her canvas and tries to discover these secrets of life, relying on the wisdom of painting built by humankind over thousands of years.
Excerpt from “Lucid Mystery / Dark Clarity” | Jin-myung Lee (Art Critic)
