I create grotesque underground imagery to explore the complicated mind of mine.
For me, art is calling. If idea calls me, I make it, and I believe there should be no hierarchy in the act of creation. It is like eating, sleeping and going to bathroom. We don’t rate importance in those actions.
I make art about masturbating, taking a shit and my degenerate desires. Because It is my calling.
Art is how I manage my troubling life. As an obsessive-compulsive disorder patient, I easily get stressed by everyday life. Whenever I got anxious or stressed out, I drew anything that came out of my mind. I drew when I could not sleep due to inter-floor noise. I drew when I got anxious about the class the very next day, I drew when I felt lonely, and I drew when my grandmother was in the hospital. I drew on the day she passed away and I drew after we came back home after her cremation.
In 2016, my mental status was the worst. I developed mental illness while preparing for Korean S.A.T and couldn’t find a way to escape from it. It was a Saturday, and I had to go to a Frida Kahlo Exhibition to write a report assignment for GE class. Waiting for the bus, I started crying so hard and thought I might not overcome my mental illness. But then I saw how Frida Kahlo sublimated her pain into paintings.
I started to illustrate twisted and wounded creatures like to visualize my mental status. I wanted to let the people who going through harsh time identify with my art and make them revitalize like how Frida Kahlo’s art helped me at my dark times.
Art makes me feel like I can set myself free. Even though I cannot set myself free from repression in real life, inside canvas or paper I can set my desire, wish and impulse free