Red Scene

2020. Oil on canvas, 96 × 72 in. (243.8 × 182.4 cm)

2021-2022. Oil on canvas, 72 × 48 inch (182.8 × 122 cm)

2021-2022. Oil on canvas, 48 × 36 inch (122 × 91.2 cm)

Red Scene_Heads is part of the Red Scene painting series, inspired by the artist’s mother’s kitchen and its red cabinet doors. Upon the reflection of everyday life captured on the glossy red surface, the artist overlays another layer—a workspace where dolls are being made. This workspace is not an actual reflection but a scene reconstructed from memory. As the artist crafted dolls, each carrying its own unique story, memories of the mother’s kitchen—once a mirror to daily life—naturally resurfaced. This process of recollection led to the merging of two unrelated moments into a single frame. The canvas features the distinct outlines and handles of the red cabinet doors, making it appear as though these layered images are reflections on their surface. Yet, at the same time, the painting evokes a liminal space where reality and dream intersect, capturing the fleeting moment where two times and places converge.

For the artist, who grew up surrounded by the red walls of their mother’s kitchen, red has become an unconscious, evocative color of nostalgia. Now living far from home, this color serves as a vessel for memory, a thread weaving together past and present, time and emotion within the work.

레드씬_두상들 / Red Scene_Heads 은 엄마의 부엌, 붉은 찬장 문에서 착안한 레드씬 회화 연작 중 하나이다. 붉은색 찬장 문에 반사된 일상의 모습 위에 인형을 제작하는 작업대를 또 다른 레이어로 겹쳐 표현하였다. 작업대는 실제로 찬장 문에 반사된 풍경이 아니라 작가가 과거를 떠올리며 그려낸 장면이다. 각기 다른 이야기를 지닌 인형들을 제작하는 과정 속에서 작가는 과거에 일상의 모습들을 비추던 엄마의 부엌을 떠올렸고, 그 연상 작용을 통해 전혀 다른 두 장면을 한 화면 속에 섞어 놓았다. 캔버스에는 붉은 찬장 문의 경계선과 손잡이가 선명하게 그려져 있어, 마치 이 겹쳐진 장면들이 찬장 문 표면에 비친 듯한 느낌을 준다. 하지만 동시에, 현실과 몽상이 교차하는 듯한 분위기를 자아내며, 두 개의 시간과 공간이 맞닿아 있는 순간을 담아낸다.

또한, 엄마의 붉은 벽 부엌을 보며 자란 작가에게 붉은색은 무의식적으로 자리 잡은 ‘향수를 불러일으키는 색’이기도 하다. 고향을 떠나 살아가는 작가에게 이 색은 기억 속 풍경을 환기시키는 매개체로 작용하며, 작품 속에서 시간과 감정을 연결하는 중요한 요소로 자리한다.

2020. Oil on canvas, 36 × 96 in. (91.4 × 243.8 cm)

2015. Oil on canvas, 72 × 60 in. (183 × 152.4 cm)

This is a series from Red Scene in 2013, which represents a view of my mother’s kitchen in Seoul, KR reflected within a polished surface of a red cabinet. I juxtaposed my memory of my own kitchen onto the Red Scene canvas. This painting seems to have a wall that divides the viewer from the space within the painting. Interestingly, as I added to the canvas, the emptier the canvas appeared. The painting juxtaposed the comfort of the familiar with the sadness of the unfamiliar.

2015. Oil on canvas, 72 × 48 in. (183 × 122 cm)

This canvas depicts a party hosted at my home by images reflected by a two way mirror. The mirror images were unable to communicate. Arriving in the Unites States from South Korea, I initially felt a fundamental loneliness. This work tries to evoke the feeling alienation.

2012. Oil on canvas, 72 × 47¾ in. (183 × 122 cm)

This is the first piece of my Red SceneSeries. This canvas is an image of my mother’s kitchen in South Korea as reflected on a polished surface of a red cabinet. It is a lingering memory. This is different from my other works that intertwine different scenes, yet it captures the two key ideas of “threshold” (hidden in-between spaces) and “reflection” (memory) in my work. The intact image of a reflected unpopulated kitchen space evokes my memories of our family. It is a mirage. It is a space for the viewers to fill in their own memories. The window in the kitchen is also found in the previous Threshold_ Bird Mobile.

2017-2021

2017-2021. Watercolor painted stuffed cotton objects in various sizes, found objects, yarn, felt, plaster stone, sewing pins, clay stands, glass bottles, painted porcelain, wooden shelf, red-tinted plexiglass, 19 ¼ × 37 ½ × 7 ½ inch (49 × 95.2 × 19 cm)

2017-2021. Watercolor painted stuffed cotton objects in various sizes, found objects, yarn, felt, plaster stone, sewing pins, clay stands, glass bottles, painted porcelain, wooden shelf, red-tinted plexiglass, 19 ¼ × 37 ½ × 7 ½ inch (49 × 95.2 × 19 cm)

2021. Watercolor painted stuffed cotton objects, glass button jar, yarn, felt, acrylic on canvas, plaster stone, sewing pins, clay stands, glass bottles, vintage glass flower frog, wooden shelf, red-tinted plexiglass, 19 ¼ × 37 ½ × 7 ½ inch (49 × 95.2 × 19 cm)