Artist statement-Eng

A Phenomenological and Animistic Universe Rendered Through Contemporary Painting

The landscapes presented in these works do not merely depict external reality; they reveal the layers of the world as it is experienced. Trees, light, darkness, passing trains, and small recurring figures gain significance not through their objective forms but through the viewer’s perception. Reality emerges here as a phenomenological field—a lived world shaped by sensation, memory, and affect, rather than by mere visual representation.

This orientation aligns seamlessly with a contemporary animistic sensibility, in which nature and objects inhabit the canvas as sentient presences rather than inert entities. Each element carries its own internal vitality, forming a network of subtle relations that dissolves the conventional boundaries between living and nonliving. This resonates with the East Asian aesthetic concept of qi yun sheng dong, where the world breathes through an ever-shifting rhythm of energy and motion.

Within this framework, the scenes unfold in dialogue with Symbolist and Surrealist traditions. Objects and spaces detach from literal meaning and become symbolic terrains of emotion, memory, and inner imagination. Through the interplay of darkness and illumination and through narratives in which small characters interact with natural elements, the paintings articulate a world where reality and dream intermingle, expanding perception beyond ordinary logic.

The “hidden world” encountered in these works is not an external location but a phenomenological revelation—a dimension that appears when the viewer’s mode of perceiving the world subtly shifts. The quiet life embedded in objects, the flicker of small lights within darkness, and the rhythmic pulse of nature guide the viewer into a parallel, experiential reality. This world arises not from external mystery but from the depths of perception itself, forming a contemporary painterly universe where animistic thought and phenomenological experience converge.