#Marching Signs

Early 1950s animation was full of exaggerated gestures and jerky movements. Disconnected from reality, their disjointed expressions and thick outlines struck me as strong, visual symbols. The actions of characters in “Steam Boat Willie,” “The Mickey Mouse Club March,” and “Looney Tunes” were more like vivid images of direction and speed than natural movement.

The TV shows, educational materials, and pop culture of my youth seep into my work. The precise and synchronized movements of K-pop idols, the understated beauty of ballet dancers, and the clear simplicity of pictograms that can be understood anywhere, anytime are satisfying yet somehow awkward. They are clearly human, but a sense of unfamiliarity pervades as if they were anthropomorphized to be human. The signs adjust themselves and delete the unnecessary for clarity. As I continue to stare at the distinct spots, they seem to reveal traces of dissipation and cracks. What did the original context look like? I wonder.

However, this unfamiliarity is a crucial component of my work. If an essence is obscure, it is rather more interesting to capture this ambiguity than to actually determine its quality. The genuine fun in this act becomes a device for escape from the loneliness of the work. I utilize the spectacle of eccentricity that exists between the fissures of signs and amplify the unfamiliarity by inserting trivial stories–constantly disrupting them. I capture the moment of slippage as the meaning of a sign slips and slides without settling, and I shake it so that it does concretize completely. The entanglement in my narrative is an attempt to connect “me, things, materials, and the world” through a different reading of the subtle emotions that emerge from the collision. In the cracks that appear amidst the perfect seven rainbow bands, I fear the results of revelation but aim to discover a new balance amongst the endless cracks and unfamiliar sensations.

#Because Drawing It Round Just Makes It Flat

In the “Mickey Mouse Club March”, there's a scene where they march around the globe. That's right. The earth is round, but it's funny to see a flat projection and comprehend a round earth. Projections come in many shapes to create a more complete representation of a sphere. Although projections are not intended to be aesthetically pleasing, they are as aesthetic as paintings in that they stimulate the imagination far more than they do the eye– leading to a certain romanticization of the imagination. If the earth were flat and you walked in a straight line, no matter how far you traversed you would never meet someone as the ends of the earth would not meet. However, seeing something flat and imagining it as a sphere gives us a sense of fulfillment, as if satisfying a deficiency, and gives us the visual richness of a flat surface becoming three-dimensional. However, the sense of fulfillment will vary depending on the individual. And the nature of the figure is flat, hence the title. Because no matter how round I draw it, it's only flat...